Duclair vs Pekin.

[Stoney Meadow Maple]

I was browsing through McMurray‘s site, resisting placing an order, I had not given Duclair much thought before, however I am now intrigued, how do the duclair stack up against a Pekin. I love my pekins but do not want such a large duck again due to their physical issues, the duclair says 4-6 lbs putting them about the size of my Rouen hens, who seem to do just fine. Do they have similar personalities to pekins? It says they are a meat bird, but I would have no interest in eating them, do they do as well being pets and egg layers?

 

[SolarDuck]

Ooo I did not know a Duclair duck was a thing, just googled it and they are SO handsome!! Hopefully if someone who has them responds to this they post many pictures of theirs

 

[animalcraker]

I currently have 3 Duclairs that are 7 weeks old right now. It’s my first year with ducks and I don’t have any Pekins, so I can’t compare those two breeds. I do have Cayuga, Welsh Harlequin, Khaki Campbell, and Blue Runners to compare them with. Out of all those breeds they definitely have the most playful personalities. Even as ducklings they were the ones claiming their thrown on top of the brooding plate, the first ones to chow down at treat time, and the most inquisitive of the world around them.

They are significantly larger then all my other ducks. 2 of my 4 Welshies and my 2 blue runners are a week older than everyone else. My Duclairs caught up with them at 3 weeks old and have been noticeably larger since they were 5 weeks old. I haven’t weighed them yet, need batteries for the scale, but we do plan on weighing everyone ASAP and weekly thereafter until we process the ones that we aren’t keeping. Because of their larger size they do seem to get slightly more stressed in the heat compared to the others, but we hit the 100s last week during our heat wave and they all survived without any extra help from me besides making sure the pool was full for everyone to play or drink off needed.

Originally we planned on eating all 3, but since everything I ordered was a straight run we ended up with more boys than girls. Except with our Duclairs it was 2 girls and 1 boy. Because of their wonderful personality we’re going to keep the girls and process the boy when he’s ~12 weeks old. We’ll have to see how well the girls fair in our heat and laying eggs once their old enough.

 

[raggiedoll88]

I don't have any experience with Pekins but my Duclair is my absolute favorite duck, hands down. She has the best, BIGGEST personality -- she honestly has more personality than some people I know -- and she's a little lovebug.

She's bigger than my other ducks (she's a bit of a chunky monkey because she's pretty food obsessed) but she's not huge by any means. I haven't weighed her since she turned 4 weeks old (she's 11 weeks old now) but she definitely feels heavier than my other girls.

I can't comment on how good of an egg layer the Duclair is since I don't have any experience with that (yet) although I'm excited to see if they actually lay green eggs or not... that was partially what drew me to getting one. I named my Duclair Peppermint (Pippi for short) because of the green eggs, but honestly even if the eggs are plain white it won't matter to me... she has the best personality of any pet I've ever had & my husband and I are completely smitten with her.

As for being a good pet, 100% yes! Pippi is a total lap duck. She's hilarious! Inquisitive, very food-motivated, very sweet & pretty brave. Also very, very, VERY talkative... she's a little chatterbox! I'm not sure my neighbors love her (especially when she wants to strike up a conversation at 5am), but I certainly do!

In conclusion, I would definitely recommend getting a Duclair if you're on the fence... just based on personality alone

 

[TLWR]

@Stoney Meadow Maple - did you end up getting any Duclairs? What are your thoughts on them?

@animalcraker @raggiedoll88 - now that you've had them around a year, what is your experience with them as adults and egg layers?

 

[Stoney Meadow Maple]

No, no duclairs here, still my 3 Pekins, but i am trying to go smaller as a trend.

 

[animalcraker]

@Stoney Meadow Maple - did you end up getting any Duclairs? What are your thoughts on them?

@animalcraker @raggiedoll88 - now that you've had them around a year, what is your experience with them as adults and egg layers?

We just got rid of our last Duclair last week, she went with some of our other adults to be a small pet flock for a neighbor. She is still fully of personality and a joy to have in the flock. We were planning on keeping her, but our 4yr old decided he wants to keep one of the Pekins we got this year and thankfully one of them turned out to be a girl. We’re also keeping her Cayuga cross son, who appears to be a superior mix, so we already have her genetics added into our farm flock. We would definitely consider adding more Duclairs in the future if we have the space.

We got 3 Pekins this year, to compare their production qualities with our other meat/dual purpose breeds. As mentioned before we’ll be keeping the one female. The other 2 boys are going to be processed this weekend. They grew crazy fast! By 3 weeks old they were double the size of our Cayuga, Ancona, and Welshies that are the same age. By 5 weeks they had surpassed our Duclair female and were the size of our largest drake. They are certainly large hefty ducks. We got ours from Cackle, fed them Purina duck food, no supplements, and haven’t had any issues with their growth or motility.

We saved a Duclair in the freezer so we can do a cook-off and do a direct comparison with the Pekins once they’re ready. As far as egg production the Duclair produced at least 3 eggs a week. Our duck eggs are great for baking, but we prefer our chicken eggs for eating any egg dishes like deviled eggs or quiche.

 

[TLWR]

Thank you for that info.
I ended up ordering one when I placed my order with Metzer yesterday am. So a new welsh harlequin, f/w runner and the duclair. I went back and forth another 38923 times with the chocolate or black runner and the duclair. If Metzer tracks what goes into and out of a person cart, I think I won the aware for most indecisive lol

 

[Chipmunk Chicks]

I am also deciding if I should update my order to Duclairs. Originally I wanted Saxonys, but DH wanted more for eggs, so my next pick was Welsh Harlequin. But now I am concerned about the WH drake's temperament with the chickens. I don't want to set ourselves up for problems. And of course I can't get Saxonys now.

Duclairs had been on my radar for the lovely eggs, but also the meat, so I'm just wondering if that might be a better fit for a small mixed flock. I would like them to be able to free range, and I would like to keep a drake on hand for ducklings. Any experience would be great! ETA I really don't want any insatiable drake's to hurt the chickens. I was planning to get a quad. Thanks!