“Meat duck” usually means one of three: Pekin, Muscovy, or Moulard — a hybrid of the first two. They differ so much that the same farm runs quite differently depending on which one it keeps.
Comparison
| Pekin | Muscovy | Moulard | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Slaughter | 7–8 weeks | drakes 11–12, ducks 10 weeks | 8–10 weeks |
| Live weight at slaughter | 3–3.5 kg | drakes 4–5 kg, ducks 2.5–3 kg | 3.5–4 kg |
| Meat | Tender, fatty | Lean, firm, dark | Less fatty than Pekin |
| Noise | Loud | Nearly silent | Quiet |
| Water | Needs a lot | Gets by on little | Moderate |
| Breeds true | Yes, but poor sitters | Yes, excellent mothers | No, the hybrid is sterile |
Pekin
The fastest. A good fit if you need many carcasses in a short season and have buyers used to a fatty duck. Downsides: noisy, soaks the litter, and needs a strict slaughter date because of the juvenile molt.
Muscovy
A different species altogether, closer to wood ducks. Grows slower, but the meat is lean and valued by restaurants. Muscovies are calm, barely quack, fly well (clip the wings), and sit and hatch their own ducklings. Drakes are twice the size of ducks, so it’s convenient to rear them separately by sex and slaughter at different ages.
Moulard
A cross of a Muscovy drake and a Pekin duck. Grows nearly as fast as a Pekin, meat is less fatty, and the birds are quieter and calmer. They don’t reproduce: each season you buy ducklings again or produce them from a parent flock. Moulards are also used for foie gras, but that’s a separate technology with separate rules, restricted in many countries.
How to choose
- Fast turnover and a simple market — Pekin or Moulard.
- Meat for restaurants and a quiet yard — Muscovy.
- Your own replacements without an incubator — Muscovy: the ducks are good broodies.
- Little water and no pond — Muscovy is easier (water for ducks).
If you want eggs rather than meat, you need different breeds entirely — see egg-laying ducks.
Track each flock separately
Three kinds of duck with different timelines mean three different calculations. In EggPulse each flock has its own age, feed, weights and costs. At the end of the season you can see which duck earned more on your farm.
