Pekin Ducks

Pekin Ducklings

The Pekin duck has a long history with records in China going as far back as the 1300s. It was introduced to Great Britain in 1872 and then the United State in 1873. It has since taken over the US market as the go-to commercial meat duck.

The Pekin was bred for its meat, but can be considered a very good egg layer, too. Averaging 8 to 12 pounds in weight, it can lay 150 to 200 eggs per year, making it a great multi-purpose duck.

They are typically processed at six to seven weeks of age with its breast filet being about 21% of the carcass. As such, it has become a very popular commercial duck with a fast growth time and excellent feed conversion (only 2.4 pounds of feed per pound of live body weight gain). In culinary circles, it is the main ingredient for roasted Peking duck.

Female and male Pekin

The dinner table is not the only place the Pekin has become famous. The Aflac duck is a Pekin which originally came from our farm and the
was also the inspiration behind Donald Duck.

We have two names for our Pekin: the Pekin and Grimaud Hybrid Pekin. The Pekin and the Grimaud Hybrid Pekin are the exact same bird, exact same price, just under different names. We did this because some people know what a Pekin is, but not a Grimaud Hybrid, while others may want the Grimaud Hybrid specifically.

The Grimaud Hybrid is named as such because we purchase day-old breeders from Frimaud Freres in France every four months. It is called a hybrid since the Grimaud Hybrid is produced by crossing two strains of Pekin, one strain bred for high meat production and one strain bred for high egg production. By crossing females from the egg laying strain with the males from the meat production strain, you hatch a lot of ducklings that can be grown for meat.

Outside of the commercial market, advertisement, and entertainment industries, the Pekin is a very popular duck among kids and 4-H groups. It does well as a meat class bird at the county fair and is an amazing addition for any backyard hobbyist.

Breed	Temperament	Weight	Egg Production	Mothering	Bluish Eggs	Egg Size
Pekin	Calm	8-12.25 pounds	150-200/year	Poor	<2%	90-100 grams
Fertility	APA Class	Foraging Ability	Conservation Status	Our Show Quality	Flying Ability	Origin
89%	Heavy	Fair	Abundant	Meat Class Only	None	China

Information from our Duck Comparison Table

Fresh Duck Egg Survey Results

As explained in our prior post, we emailed a survey on fresh duck eggs to 93 of our customers that had purchased ten or more female Khaki Campbell, Golden 300 Hybrid or White Layer ducks.  The response rate was fantastic as we received 89 completed surveys! 

We felt the most important question in the survey was what services and products our customers wanted that would help them produce and sell more fresh duck eggs.  We gave them twelve choices and they ranked them from most important to least important.  More detailed descriptions of these questions was in our prior post.  In the following graph, the longer the bar, the higher average ranking it received.

Services Our Customers Want So They Can Produce and Market More Duck Eggs

Items in the Other category were requests on how to keep the pens drier, how to manage ducks on pasture, provide sample advertising, conduct a survey of pricing, and explain why duck eggs cause fewer allergic reactions than chicken eggs.

As we develop answers or products to meet these needs, we will provide them in this blog.  We are also developing an email list of those interested in the production, marketing and use of fresh duck eggs.  We hope to involve these people in our fresh duck egg program.  We may ask for their favorite duck egg recipes and quotes from chefs or bakers to whom they sell so we can produce a marketing brochure everyone can use.  Or we may ask for comments on a redesigned duck egg carton.  Or we may conduct another survey on pricing so those just starting in the business know what others in the nation are charging for duck eggs.  If you want to be included in this group, please email us at metzer@metzerfarms.com 

The following chart shows where our customers sell their duck eggs.  With duck egg brochures, recipes and marketing ideas, I would suspect more will start selling to bakeries, restaurants and grocery stores.

Where Our Customers Sell Their Duck Eggs

 

We were also interested in the flock sizes of those responding to the survey.  As you can see, most of have flocks of from 11 to 100 females.

Flock Size for Survey Respondents

Our last question was their prediction of sales for next year.  The number on the left is the number of respondents for each category.  Over 60% of the respondents predicted sales increases of 10% or more. If you weight the responses according to their flock size, the overall prediction is an increase of 12.3% in sales next year.

Responders were given five choices for next year's sales forecast

Many duck eggs are also sold in Asian stores as balut and salted eggs.  Less than 5% of our respondents sold balut and salted eggs.

As we said earlier, we feel there is a tremendous potential for fresh duck egg sales.  Now that we know what our customers need, we will start working on these services so our customers can meet this market demand.

Salted Duck Eggs - How to Prepare, Where to Sell

Originally posted by John Metzer on Sat, Dec 18, 2010 @ 11:41 AM 

 In the United States, few duck eggs are eaten. In other parts of the world, however, duck eggs are a major portion of the diet. Over 65% of all duck eggs are produced in China and over 90% of all duck eggs are produced in Asia.  Interestingly, waterfowl increased their share of consumed eggs in the world from 6.57% in 1991 to 7.02% in 2007. So the growth of duck eggs is faster than chicken eggs in the world! Take that, chicken farmers!

 Duck eggs are eaten fresh, salted, thousand year old and balut. If you have an interest in any of these products, visit our website for pricing and shipping information. In this blog I will discuss salted duck eggs - future blogs will cover balut and thousand year old duck eggs.

Salted duck eggs are prepared by one of two methods. The original method was to mix salt and clay or charcoal and pack that around a fresh duck egg. The most common method in the United States is to immerse a fresh duck egg in a salt brine. Any plastic or glass container will work but we salt our duck eggs in plastic garbage cans. Fill it ¼ full of water and then add eggs until they are about 4” from the top. As the salt water will make them float out of the water, you need to place some type of plastic panel or screen on top of the eggs and place several bricks on them to ensure all eggs are held down in the water. Then you pour a bag of water softener salt over the eggs and then finish filling your container with water. You must make sure there are always salt crystals in the water. If there are no crystals, add more salt. The eggs must stay in the water for 4-5 weeks depending on the temperature. The salt permeates the egg faster if the water is warm. Once I salted some eggs in a plastic bucket in an operating incubator. It took less than 2 weeks.

It is interesting how the salt changes the proteins in the egg. After salting, but before cooking, the yolk is hard, like a ball of modeling clay, whereas the albumen is very runny. The color of the yolk darkens as the salt permeates it. If the salting process is not complete, the middle of the yolk will be light yellow.  It is complete once the entire yolk has darkened. If the yolk is completely salted, you can squeeze a drop or two of oil out of it. Note that the salt does not add any oil or fats, the chemical properties of the yolk has changed to allow the oils to be separated more easily from the proteins. The yolk also has a different texture after salting. It is slightly more “grainy”. The eggs are always boiled prior to eating.

This is an uncooked, salted duck egg yolk that has been cut in half.  Note that there is very little light yellow in the center of the yolk.

The Filipino culture is to dye the egg a deep maroon color after boiling. Why? Maybe the red color is good luck and it helps them differentiate their salted eggs from balut (partially incubated eggs).

Salted eggs are consumed in a variety of ways. Filipinos typically cut them up and put them on tomatoes or salads. Another popular use of salted duck eggs is for the autumn Moon Cakes where a salted duck egg yolk is inserted in a special pastry.

This may be a way for you to sell some of your duck eggs. Inquire with some of the Asian restaurants or grocery stores in your area. Focus on Thai, Chinese, Indonesian, Filipino and Vietnamese stores/restaurants as these are the top per capita consumers of duck eggs in the world.  The per capita consumption in Thailand is over 63 eggs per year!

Our main distributor puts three uncooked, salted eggs in a clear plastic container for retail sales. If you sell to Filipino food stores, you can probably sell to them in flats as they prefer to cook and dye the eggs prior to sale.

Any sized duck egg can be salted. Our best egg laying ducks, the Golden 300 Hybrid and White Layer, produce an average sized duck egg that would work very well for the salted egg market.

Have I eaten a salted duck egg? Yes - and they are rather tasty. Try one!