New to Muscovies

[SunnyAlberta]

I have recently acquired two one-year-old females. Could experienced Muscovy folks help me out?

Formerly they lived with geese, horses, turkeys and pigs. They ate whatever they chose. I've offered them mixed seeds/grains/lentils (a high protein mix my pigeons like), bread, celery, and alfalfa pellets, but they seem to be eating little if anything. At what point should I worry that they aren't eating?

For drinking water they have a large kitty litter pan. I see evidence of them bathing in it. Should there be a separate waterer for them or does it matter? How deep should the drinking water be?

In the pen there is a small coop with perch and nest boxes, a dog house, and a small dog crate. They are choosing to snuggle together on the dirt ground under the coop. Should I put some sort of nest box or perch under there for them? How high and wide should the perch be?

They are penned all the time now, but if I clipped their wings I could free-range them in our yard. Should I worry about my dogs (Lab x and Great Pyr/Border Collie) going after them? The dogs are good with chickens.

May Muscovy poo go straight into my garden or should I compost the soiled bedding first?

How soon after moving them (three days ago) should I expect to see eggs?

If I chose to add a third female or a drake, is there a recommended waiting period or integration method to avoid stress?

Thanks in advance!

 

[DUCKOBSESSED]

I no longer have Muscovies but when I did the slept under my coop. They will take some time before they start to lay again. If you get a new bird isolate it for a week or so to make sure it is healthy then let them see each other through a fence for a little while before moving it in. Hope this helps a little.

 

[EeyoreD]

Scovies are funny. They make their own minds up about where they're going to sleep. You could spend a lot of time and effort trying to give them the perfect spots and they're going to still end up cuddled together next to a wall or something (a lot like cats that prefer the box the bed came in to the bed itself).

You said that they "ate whatever they chose" in their last home. I would try to see what that exactly was and then mix some of that in. My scovy drakes will eat anything you toss to them because they're giant pigs. But some (not all) of my females seem to be a bit reticent on trying new things. But basically if you are providing things that are good for birds (and it sounds like you are), they may be either shy or finding their own food. Give it a bit longer but if you can, try to find something they're familiar with.

As for water - bathing and drinking water can be the same as long as it's occasionally cleaned (but you don't have to be OCD about it. Mine often prefer their muddied pan to the one I just cleaned with fresh water). It just needs to be at least deep enough that they can dunk their heads - whole head. If they can get in and bathe their bodies so much the better (they'll appreciate it) but not required.

I don't know how big your land is but I'm not sure you'll really need to clip them. They DO fly but usually not far and certainly not far from where the food is. If you have neighbors within 1/4 mile that won't appreciate a duck visit then clip. If not, I wouldn't worry about it, but just don't set them free until you're sure they like your food. The only time mine fly away (and only then within 1/2 mile) is when there's not bathing water for them. They fly to the neighbor's spring fed, thawed pond and then fly back home when they're done.

In fact, if you have dogs it might be good NOT to clip them. But then again if your dogs are like mine they just want to play but not hurt so...

As for eggs, well - did you get the scovies for eggs? They're really not layers. I mean they DO lay like crazy in the summer but they're going to want to brood. A lot. And it's going to take some doing to make them NOT want to brood. My scovies would try to hatch rocks if I let them. But yeah, they're going to need to scope out the place, find a preferred nesting spot and then they'll lay but that could take a week or three.

Introductions - the big thing on introductions is the quarantine period. Unless you're getting them from the same place you got the originals from you want to keep your new ones away from your existing flock for AT LEAST 2 weeks (a month is better). That means they can't get even remotely near each other - like 30 feet minimum open air or in an enclosed space. After the quarantine period you can put then in pens nearby to let them see and interact with each other for a week or two (depending on how things are going) and then intermingle.

But, this is important, the quarantine period is NOT to allow them to get to know each other, it's to ensure you're not introducing diseases to your flock (remember, like human colds, sometimes it takes time for disease to manifest symptoms). Keep your new birds apart for at least 2 weeks if not a month. If they look healthy after that period THEN start your slow introductions.

As for the compost... I'm pretty freewheeling on my garden dressing but most of what I put on there has been the crap that's been outside all winter. Someone else may have a better answer to that.

Good luck! I LOVE my scovies.

 

[SunnyAlberta]

Yes,I did get the Scovies for their eggs. And pest control. I'm undecided if I'll get a drake or not. I haven't tasted the meat, so I'm not sure if I want to raise birds for that purpose. The colors and patterns Scovies can come in are very intriguing.

 

[Going Quackers]

Ducks dislike change so usually like moving to a new home, will stop laying for a period of time, when they will return will vary. As for feed, i use whole corn and a complete feed, it's a grower with 16% protein, then they forage...

None of mine are clipped, they do fly but don't go flying off to the next town, i think it's important to evaluate your situation for that... as for bathing water, yes they need different sources while scovies are not quite as big water hogs they do and like a bath.. you can use larger livestock rubber bowls, i also use kiddy pools and troughs... for water to drink and keep clean this is a neat set-up i ran across on a blog.. keeps them out but allows deep enough for nare cleaning.



the how-to's on this page..

http://frankiemakes.blogspot.ca/2012/06/watering-solution-for-ducks.html

i have a perch in my barn but it's basically a shelf.. a 2x4 is a good idea... next boxes? not been something i have done, they nest anywhere they please i've even had them try on the floor of the horse barn lol

As said quarantine any new birds at least 3wks.. and for ratio's 2-3 per drake is the basic idea... but drakes do change the entire dynamic so that is something you'll have to think on.

 

[SunnyAlberta]

How does a drake change the dynamic? My critters are pets first.

 

[EeyoreD]

I can't speak to what Going Quackers meant by that but I can speak to my own experience.

And changing the dynamic could be good or it could be less than what you want. In my case, after I lost my drake last spring, in some cases the dynamic changed for the worse.

Without a drake:

The females may be more focused on you as protector/sometime companion. With a drake they may shift their attentions from you to him. When I lost my drake (and before the new ones matured this spring), one of my girls would look for me and when I came out would follow me around and not leave my side. She still does, to some extent, but it's noticeable that she's less attached to me and there's more of a "true flock" dynamic than there was.

On the other hand, another of my females became an absolute terror. She decided that, in the absence of a drake, SHE was going to be the male. The bully, the attacker (and she was much more aggressive about it than the drake - who fought a MINK and survived - ever was). She was a good brooder and mother last year but after the drake was gone she became so awful that I really wasn't sure if I was going to keep her around this year. Now that the new drakes have matured, she's become MUCH more mellow. Oh she's still a bossy little thing, but she's not downright mean like she was. Time will tell when the offspring arrive but she is definitely mellower.

Now, I will say this about scovy drakes. Some can be just absolute charmers. I raise most of my birds for meat so I generally make a point of not getting attached and that's not that difficult. But that drake, I bawled when he died. In fact I'm misting up now. I actually buried him - dug an extremely deep hole, wrapped him in hardware cloth so nothing would get to him and planted a blueberry bush on top of his grave. I will NEVER forget that duck.

I kept three drakes overwinter (because I knew it was going to be a hard one) and just recently culled one who was just aggressively awful with the women and didn't respect their chosen fella. Of the remaining two, one is pretty standoffish. He's a good duck, tends to his harem. But he can take or leave me. The other one (and I have mixed feelings about this because I'm getting attached again) is very much like my first. When I come outside, he greets me. Even though he's tending to his women he still likes to come up and say Hi. Course it's spring and he might be confused... I've taken to calling him Boyfriend.

It's hit or miss on what you'll get, but I think others might agree here - when they want to, Scovy drakes can absolutely steal your heart.

As for the meat - if you've had duck before at a restaurant, it's NOTHING like scovy meat. They have VERY little fat. So little that you can't really roast them and if you want to make confit you're going to want to have some other bird to get the fat from. However, the meat is extremely good.

I usually use the legs/other stuff for stock (or confit in goose fat) and just toss the scovy breasts on the grill. It is very, very similar to sirloin steak. If you had them both on a plate in front of you, it would be obvious which was the duck. But if you had grilled scovy breast one week and sirloin the next... well it still might be obvious, but if you like a lean steak like a sirloin, you'll like scovy breasts.

 

[SunnyAlberta]

Am I better off to add a male of a different colour or to get fertile eggs that these girls may hatch? I really like different colours and patterns; I tend to get geeky about animal colour genetics and I especially love chocolate and lilac/lavender.

The girls are eating well now, alfalfa pellets, timothy hay, corn and lentils.

 

[EeyoreD]

Oh yay! I'm glad you found something they like and that they're settling in! I still want you to post some pictures though. You know you want to.

You don't need a male of a different color for them to want to/be able to hatch (I may be misunderstanding what you're asking, though).

I'm not really good on bird genetics. Meaning I don't know how to breed different things to get what I want, but I can recognize good stock. I don't know if she's selling fertile eggs for her lavender scovies but I will say that WestKnollAmy provided me with some excellent Indian Runner eggs last year (post office screwed up, my brooder had issues so I didn't have a good hatch - NOT HER FAULT. The one I got from that batch was ... well my family calls it The Giant as compared to the ones I got for company - beautiful and EXCELLENT conformation as well as awesome personality). I think she's actively working on her lavender scovy lines but don't know if this is early days for her in the line or if they're available for sale.

I can wholeheartedly recommend her as a seller but she also might be willing/able to give you some genetics pointers. I was really impressed with her runners and the pics she's shown me of her lavender scovy leads me to believe those would be just as good. She takes CARE with her breeding. Might be worth a PM?

 

[SunnyAlberta]

You don't need a male of a different color for them to want to/be able to hatch (I may be misunderstanding what you're asking, though).

I prefer Scovies that are not black and white. (Of course, my girls are black and white, but they came from an online friend who lives nearby so it was the best way to get started, I thought.) I know that with a blue or silver drake I can produce blue ducklings. The alternative, instead of getting a drake, is buying fertile eggs in the colours I prefer. Thanks for the tip about lavenders! I will followup.

http://www.muscovyduckcentral.com/genetics.html