i started with Pekin, then Runner and Khaki, Cayuga, and then Muscovy. Started with 10 babies, grew the flock to over 500 birds, tnen now back to about 50 birds. Muscovies are the best duck breed for me; they solve my mosquito problem, mice/rat problem, and most importantly incubation issue...
Muscovies are the best of all poultry birds that I have raised. they are not water crazy like the other, they eat lots of grasses and whatever they can find. cleaning the coop is a normal routine duty that i do every three months on a weekend. i have had 1,000 Muscovies when I was unemployed...
they take care of themselves, i just open coop in the morning and close it at evening. they eat mostly grass/vegetation so i rotational grazing them. i think you do abpit equivalent amount of works whether you have 5 Muscovies or 50 Muscovies.
just see your digging works already hurting my back :)
these days, I do everything above ground; much easier to keep things clean and see any issue that arises. I would not be draining the dirty water back into the clean pond unless the dirty water was been filter.
I'm still trying to figure...
i have mine similar to this design, except the pump is at the lowest point in the pontd to be able to pump out all the sludge as well. my system included a container for a mechanical filter, another container of lava rocks, and another container for charcoal before the water is in the head tank...
my Muscovies are not like my Embden which pair one-to-one for life. you still need diversification in their genes else you'll start seeing deformities
to own poultry birds mean you need to protect them. they are called "livestock" because their lives depends on you. build them a secure and safe...
they go on the roof too many times, so i clip a wing on each of them so they cannot fly too high. in my coop, i built shelves throughout the coop that they can walk up to sleep. muscovvy has chicken habit of wanting to sleep very high from the ground. my muscovies don't wonder off too far from...
if you free range, muscovy are like geese so eat more grass than pellets. good eggs need to feed them calcium. i dry or cook egg shells then mush them up for the girls
has anyone use solar pump to pump water for their poultry birds? my ducks always dirty the water, so need to change the water too often. I need an automatic system that will pump clean water to the drinking buckets and the dirty water in the buckets to return to a sump tank which is to be use...