Pekin

Everyone who visits me says the white ducks with the orange bills and feet are their faves - they are just so classic and pretty. Because of their weight they can have foot and leg problems so they require extra extra niacin supplements. also they may not live as long as other breeds because they are bred to be meat ducks (fast growth and heavy weight leads to heart failure and more)

We rescued an abandoned duckling in a nearby lake, and her charming personality has made us have a whole new love for these feathered friends! She is cuddly and loves to follow us around, I highly recommend raising ducks if you’re looking for a loving companion. They need to be kept with other feathered companion!

I currently have 2 Pekins, both females. They are my best layers of the flock. They lay eggs almost daily; rarlely missing a day in egg production. Weather does not affect the consistency of egg production. Eggs are white and LARGE and taste great and are great for baking. My Pekins are trained to respond to my call. I can call them in from the water early if I need to. They are sticklers for routine, so they will come up out of the tank at the same time every day on their own. Pekins are BIG eaters. I jokingly call them my piggies. They are usually the first to get to the feed, and will shove others out of the way until they've had their first bite. Pekins are great foragers; I haven't seen a grasshopper on about 5 acres (I only have 5 ducks). They are gentle for the most part. If it's not time to eat, they tend to be skittish with people other than myself. They only let you get close enough to touch them when it's dinnertime. They will eat feed and pieces of fruit from the hand of my 2-year old. My Pekins are also the best brooders of my bunch. Out of my 3 breeds, the Pekins were dedicated to their nests until the job was done.

I’ve had my male for a year now and he’s really great. he learned how to fly from my mallard pair.

I named my Pekin Doris Day. She was a great pet bird! Miss her.

I have a mated pair I raised from 3 days old and they are wonderful! They absolutely adore my 2 year old son and he loves them. They are very patient and Donald, the male, loves to "race" with me. Ill run and he'll run with me and come in for cuddles. They are a very powerful breed and make great watch "dogs" for any intruders that come into the yard.

The hen is quite the quacker. The drake is pretty persistent in mating the muscovies, chasing them around the yard, pinning them to the ground, finishing his deed in 2 seconds and flop right off. I thought ducks mated on water. Apparently, he's got this figured out on land.

I hatched these out for a 4-H project having no intention of keeping them. I ended up with a beautiful pair and I'm looking forward to getting more. The eggs are fatastic! She started laying around Christmas and gives me an egg every day. They free range in the yard, but don't go very far. They are very nice to work around and are content to hang around the kiddie pool all day. They tolerate the cold much better than chickens.

As an owner of five Pekin ducks whom are over a year old and hand raised I feel like I've had time to observe these beautiful animals. They stay in the preferred area in and around their run and under the shelter of trees always. They move together as a group so as long as I see one I know the others aren't far behind. My three females were excellent egg layers-double yolks on a weekly bases. Unfortunately even after being raised by our family since they were days old they still aren't comfortable around us. They are treated humanely and pampered properly never chased or mistreated but they still refuse to accept that they live with us. They only run to us if they know we have food for them. They don't mind sharing space with the chickens but they hate our ducklings. They are around four months old and we still have to separate them in the coop. The ducklings do nothing to taunt them but the Pekin's are relentless. They pick out their feathers and chase them out of the pond. Despite the draw backs we love our Pekins. They are a wonderful addition to our small farm and I will never regret owning them.

I have two Pekin ducks, a male and female that are my first ever Ducks. I do NOT regret getting them at all. They are very easily tamed if you get them when they're young Although, my Drake is a biter and likes to aggravate my Muscovies. But they will follow me around the yard if I let them, and sometimes they try to fly, which is super funny! So if you don't want to fall in love with ducks then don't get this breed ! They never fail to make me laugh and keep me super happy !

I have two, one died, I got another. She died from metal poisoning. My drake is a sweetheart, accepted the new duck instantly. They are very friendly, tame, talk to each older a lot, great with kids, stay in the yard, listen when called. They are great. The only thing bad I can even say about them is my female is messy because she poops so much and a lot. I'm working on changing her diet, she's farm fed and raised, my drake I've had from a baby so his diet is different. When I move, I'll get more. I want to try different breeds but just because. There are a million reasons I would never give my Pekins up!

I got my first Pekin last week and he has gotten along very well with our younger ducks and chickens. He is always wanting to snuggle wich i have only seen in my chickens, none of my ducks!

I will begin my review by stating none of our ducks came from a breeder or hatchery. Duck eggs were given to us by a friend who owns ducks so we could try and hatch them.

The pekin female is friendly, alert, and a great egg layer. All pekins are beautiful, with nice white feathers and orange bills (some have lighter yellow bills). The healthy males we had were a bit aggressive with the females and very horny. So much so, that the females were bald on their backs and necks, and their wings were also going bald in spots where feathers were getting ripped out. Some would get injured, and were limping, and they were still mating with them, forcefully. The males were taken care of.

As far as health issues, we had 6 pekins hatch from our eggs (the others were 5 cayugas). 2 of the pekins died at 2 weeks old - they didn't grow, even though they acted fine, ate and drank and played. Another had a serious version of a genetic defect known as wry tail. He was always limping and his spine would jut awkwardly to the side with every step he made - even his head was always tilted to one side. He eventually died at just under a year old, from no apparent cause other than his condition.

They are quick to be overweight and can have trouble getting back to a normal size.

It is unfortunate that out of the 6 pekins we started with, three of them died, and the other two were too aggressive to keep, because they are otherwise wonderful, friendly, and beautiful birds!

Our female pekin lays large, white eggs, easily much larger than the cayugas eggs. She lays one a day, almost every day, and does not go broody.

This has to be one of the best duck if not the best! I made no mistake getting one on Easter at the feed store. The one we have right now has to be the nicest duck on earth! She lays big eggs for us and is always ever so cheerful! But watch them around your dogs. I let my duck walk around my house, I was putting up the dog food that she goes right for and I heard a snarl and a loud quack. I turned back and the dog had bitten the duck's bill! This dog has NEVER seemed aggressive! I was so angry!! I found a small stuffed animal and threw it at the dog. My duck was okay and made a recovery in about a week but don't turn away for a second! Luckily the dog was a Pomeranian, it could have been much worse. (This dog has almost bitten me on the face twice after the ONE time I threw the stuffed animal..yeah I don't know whats up with it. I was the one who rescued it off the roads and saved it's life...I would rant a loong time about that if this wasn't a review. xD)

That's my review for the pekin. Overall?
I would recommend this duck for somebody who likes cleaning! Alot.

I have had three Pekins for about three months now and am not so much impressed. I WANT to be, but I am not. While they are absolutely gorgeous especially laying together under the grape vine trellis, they hate going into the pond (so they have no protection at all from predators, even what could be had on a pond). In fact, they will just stay thirsty in the hot sun instead of going to the water unless I have herded my other ducks (some half grown ducklings that I am getting used to the pond) down first. Then they will gulp water at the edge like they have not drunk in years.

Speaking of the ducklings, the Pekins prowl the edge of the pond when the ducklings swim and try to dominate them and break them up when they get on land. The two drakes will not mate with the female, who keeps trying to mate with anyone who wants to sit on the grass (really creepy to be stared down by the female, then have her run up your leg or arm), so I am not sure why the drakes (and the duck) keep trying to harass the ducklings. In order to let the ducklings swim in peace, one of us has to be the bouncer, keeping the Pekins from going to where the ducklings are.

Back to the going thirsty bit, I herd them from an outside run in the morning, which is perfectly fine. I don't mind that a bit. However, they will only spend a little bit at the pond (their feeder is there) before they want to go back into the run. This is what I mean by "barn sour"--like a horse who just keeps wanting to go back to the barn. So they hang out outside the run and get thirsty. If it rains, they will drink out of mud puddles when a very gentle slope to a spring fed, nothing creepy or predatory, pond is literally just a few feet away. One time they did go into the water and a bream touched one's foot and they lit out of there and avoid it (except to harass the ducklings).

Additionally, they do not seem great at foraging. The ducklings work the bank of the pond like miners digging for gold. The Pekins lounge in the grass, eat the food put out for them (or field strip my clematis and blueberries) and do not seem interested at all in eating bugs.

Now, to be honest, I wonder if it is because I got them at TSC during their chick days instead of through a breeder--bad genes, mass produced. I would be willing to perhaps try the breed again from a breeder. These, I believe, will be going away soon before they teach the ducklings bad habits.

I do have to say that they are beautiful and I mean GORGEOUS--big white pillows with sweet faces and dark eyes. They do seem relatively expedient in terms of feed--they do not eat a ton. I WANT to love them. Just can't see a use for them.

I have not tried the meat yet, and there are no eggs (too soon for them to breed, I guess). I am instead going to focus on a few other breeds I have.

Our first Pekin ducks came to us in the way of five eggs from a friend. We placed them in our incubator and three hatched. We wanted five ducks so we purchased two from Tractor Supply. We had planned to put them on our pond when they were big enough, but our plans had to change when we couldn't move to the farm as soon as we hoped, so we built them a pen with a small pond and a house in our yard. They are no trouble at all and everyone loves them. Our closest neighbor has never complained that they are too noisy. I do supplement their feed, but they mostly eat plants and things they find on their own.
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They get along very well with one another and I have never seen them fight. We had eggs everyday until it turned cold in early December, but they have started laying again. I would recommend Pekin ducks to anyone who wants a beautiful sweet tempered duck.