Learn how to harvest ducks from start to finish!
Perhaps harvesting ducks may seem a bit intimidating, but trust me, this step by step post on how to harvest ducks, will put your mind at ease!
If you have never had duck meat, it is definitely worth a try! We typically harvest our ducks after they have reached their laying peak, between 1 1/2 to 2 years. Now, these ducks aren’t for roasting. Typically with an older laying duck/laying hen, the meat tends to be tougher. We call these stew ducks/chickens, meaning, you will want to cook them low and slow and submerged in water. Cooked correctly, these ducks offer a delicious meat and broth!
If you are new to ducks and want to know how to raise them, check our post on How to Raise Ducks. It gives all the information you need on how to raise ducks!
Equipment for Harvesting Ducks
Here is the deal, you can be very minimal about this. When we harvested our first set of ducks, we didn’t have the budget for a plucker, but we had a knife! We harvested the ducks and ended up skinning them.
Now, this is absolutely doable, but the disadvantage to skinning them is that you will miss out on the delicious duck fat underneath.
If you’re budget allows, I recommend investing in something to scald the duck (we used a turkey boiler) and plucker. This will allow you to keep the skin on and take advantage of that wonderful duck fat!
Other than that, just make sure you have a sharp knife for cutting!
How to harvest ducks
Check out this step by step video on how we harvest our ducks, from the duck pen to the freezer!
