What you'd better know before you select a duckling

1) A great tasting bird

• To have a great tasting bird you need a specifically balanced
  ratio of meat to fat.
• Too much fat and the meat is greasy.
• Too little fat and the meat is bland and dry.

Perfect flavor; A highly evolved science

• There is quite a lot that goes into raising a duck that has the perfect balance of fat and meat (more in a moment).
• But know that TASTE is everything about selling, producing, preparing and offering duck at whatever level you may be:
  Super market, restaurant, wholesaler, end user etc…
• It’s ALL about the FLAVOR.

  2) Healthy skin

• When preparing Peking Duck if there are tears or holes in
  the skin (from processing), when you cook the duck, the fat
  will bubble through the holes and streak the bird, making it
  look less appetizing.
• If the skin is not the proper thickness or damaged, the skin
  will streak and discolor creating an undesirable bird.

  Finding the right breeder

  How do you find the best birds?

  You use the best farm.

  What makes the best duck farms…?
  

  It starts with the grandfather ducks

• Grandfather stock is selected for breeding by viewing
  thousands of ducks with exacting procedures.
• Expert genetic bloodline manipulation is used to constantly
  select the “Grandfather” ducks (those who will begin
  generations of the perfect bird.)
• At Joe Jurgielewicz & Son, our duck breeding is an all
  natural process-- No chemicals used or growth hormones
  at all.
• You’re meat will be chemical free and meticulously designed
  and selected to be the most tasty and delicious bird available in the world.

  Experience is key

• Experience is the key to selecting the right Grandfather birds.
• At Joe Jurgielewicz & Son we have generations of experience breeding ducks.
• We carefully measure the birds, looking for ducks with a
  bigger gate and broader pelvis. The goal is to create a
  bigger and better bird for the breeders. These ducks are
  the heartiest and healthiest birds we could possible select.
• From the grandfather stock, Egg-layers are created…

  The egg-layers

• These ducks have one job, to produce the eggs that will
  become the product-market birds.
• A good breeder will feed these birds a special diet.
• At Joe Jurgielewicz & Son our scientific diet increases the
  amount of eggs laid and improves the quality of the product-market bird.
• We’ve spent millions perfecting the EXACT diet.

  The product-market duck

  Finally the market duck…

• From the incubator, to the hatchery, to the farm, the duck
  goes through a scientific process of feeding and farming to produce the highest quality egg possible.

  The incubation process

• Incubation is a very exacting science. Every minute detail
  counts from the time the egg is laid.
• Each egg must be candle-checked to assure a healthy embryo.
• Without the correct incubation timing and temperatures,
  the ducks can hatch with a multitude of problems, from bad
  skin, to underweight ducks with poor meat qualities.

  Incubation science

• Incubation is time and temperature… Even their skin can
  be affected by them being a preemie: The lower you can
  have a temperature and still get a proper hatch, the better
  off you are.
• Everything has to run according to a schedule and run right.
  All ducks must hatch at the same time, to make everything
  work. If they hatch late, they can be contaminated.
• Additionally, the chance for infection is very high, if not
  handled precisely.

  Duck diseases

  Ducks get diseases just as easily as any other livestock.
  Duck keepers work to avoid common diseases, such as:

  • Duck Virus hepatitis
  • Duck Plague (Duck Virus Enteritis)
  • Riemerella Anatipestifer Infection
  • Avian Cholera
  • Colibacillosis
  • Aspergillosis

  You must also protect against toxins

• Ducks are particularly susceptible to certain toxin:
  • Aflatoxin poisoning
  • Botulism
  • Castor bean poisoning
  • Rapeseed meal
  • Insecticides, rodenticides
• At Joe Jurgielewicz & Son, we have created hospital-like
  sterile environments to vigilantly protect our ducks from all diseases and toxins.
• They have a healthier environment than YOU do.

  Salmonella Poisoning

• We’re not mandated to test for Salmonella, but we went
  above and beyond the call of duty and got the kits and
  learned how to test for it.
• Eventually this is will be required by law, but we we’re ahead
  of the curve.

  Next the hatchery

• You must provide the newly hatched ducklings with a warm
  dry brooding area free of drafts, with a source of heat,
  ducklings require a high temperature of about 86°F
• Feed and drinking water must be located near the heat
  source so that the ducklings learn to drink and eat soon
  after they are placed in the brooder.

  Proper Duck housing

• A properly designed and managed, modern duck housing provides ducks a high degree of protection from the
  detrimental effects of extremes in weather and entry of
  duck diseases.
• The ability to exclude wild birds from buildings is a large
  factor in preventing the introduction and spread of diseases.

  Even the flooring must be perfect

• The smooth skin of ducks is not as tough as that of land fowl, and is more susceptible to injury when ducks are confined on surfaces that are too rough, or abrasive.
• Properly constructed vinyl-wire floors are a better choice than slats, which can cause leg deformities as well as injury to skin.

  Importance of air-flow

• Because waterfowl drink and excrete more water than land
  fowl, extra demand is placed on the ventilation and heating system to remove the extra moisture and maintain proper temperatures.
• Ventilated litter floors can cut ammonia emission by between
  50-90%.
• They also reduce the chance and transmission of diseases.

  You do NOT want free ranging

• Free ranging can expose the ducks to multiple environmental diseases and illnesses.
• A good breeder will keep the birds closely controlled in a safe environment.
• This also helps dramatically avoid antibiotics.
• The same animal rights activists that advocate free range also complain about antibiotics. You can’t have it both ways without significantly increasing the cost of the ducks; Like 100 to 300%.

  The different feeds

• Each of the different types of ducks (breeders, egg layers, grandfather ducks) require a different feed, to produce the
  most desired results.
• Our production ducks go through 3 different types of feed depending on their stage of growth. Each of these is
  scientifically designed for creating the best market-product
  duck possible.

  Even the water makes a difference

• Natural spring water, we have our own wells.
• Some plants have water with 200 parts (particles) per million.
• Our water is only 20 parts per million, 10 times cleaner than required by law.

  Quality control

• A good farm will control all aspects of this process.
• Many farms buy eggs from others and have no control over
  the quality and development of the breed of bird.
• At Joe Jurgielewicz & Son we breed our own Grandfather
  and Egg-layer ducks. We can specifically breed for the most desirable traits possible

  Breeding for quality and taste

• Many farms concentrate on how fast they can grow their
  duck with as little feed as possible to maximize profits. Unfortunately this can result in diminished taste and quality.
• At Joe Jurgielewicz & Son we are first and foremost concerned with maintaining and improving skin quality, the meat to fat ratio and most of all, the taste of the bird.

  Processing the bird properly

• The worst thing you can do to an oriental-style bird is to
  damage the skin and bruise the meat. Damaged skin will
  result in cooking problems and streaks in the birds skins
• A good processor will employ humans in the removal of
  feathers. We do the most we can to deliver a bird with
  flawless skin.
• Others have this process conducted strictly by machine,
  which can nick and tear the skin.

  Custom designed plant

• We have created a custom plant, designed specifically to
  the needs of processing ducks.
• Our plant has many unique innovations all designed to NOT damaging the skin or the meat.
• Expert care at every level to give YOU a superb bird with rich flavor and healthy quality.

  Hand processing

• Most processing plants use machines to remove the innards.
• Unfortunately these machines must create a very large hole
  in the bird to do this.
• At Joe Jurgielewicz & Son we hand remove the innards,
  making a much smaller hole.
• This makes the duck much easier to sew up when
  preparing Peking duck.

  Quality Control

• At Jurgielewicz we are dedicated to making sure only the
  highest quality ducks worthy of our name our shipped from
  our plants.
• Just from the processing to the truck, we have 80
  checkpoints of quality control before that duck gets to you.

  Precise sizing

• A good processor will offer crates of matched birds all with
  an extremely small variance in size or weight.
• This is a huge advantage to store and restaurants marketing
  and selling the prepared birds. The consumer will not have
  the option to avoid “the smaller birds”
• At Joe Jurgielewicz & Son, you’d have to look pretty hard to
  see any difference in the size of our birds as they are normally within a few ounces of each other. This took ten generations of Grandfather Duck manipulation to perfect.