Muscovy Duck hen missing (no trace of her)

[Albert1108]

Good evening

Could it be that my girl went broody into the woods behind and in front of my house?
Or was she eaten by a predator?

It’s been 6 days since she went missing, no signs of feathers, blood, poop.
(My Pekin girl and mallard boy when something happens alerts us, this time they didn’t do so)

 

[nuthatched]

It's highly likely she was 'got', but hopefully she's just holed up somewhat.

 

[Miss Lydia]

Can she fly? Muscovy are notorious for flying if given the chance. You might want to widen your search to a body of water that might be close by. What part of the country are you in, my Muscovy aren't even laying yet and probably won't until March.

 

[ruthhope]

My son lost a sweet muscovy last year that 'disappeared' from his back yard. His 3 Pekins were still there behaving normally. His muscovy had her wings clipped which I regret now as being able to fly might have saved her. We checked all around and down the county drainage ditch behind his yard all the way to the nearest retention pond. No trace of her at all. I am still tearful about that.

 

[Albert1108]

It happened all in the morning, it was around 10 a.m. when she went missing.

She was laying eggs because I’m currently living in Costa Rica, I started incubating 4 of her eggs and they are fertile, which makes me wonder if she just went to nest in another place, days before I was picking up her eggs and eating them

 

[fluffycrow]

As @Miss Lydia said, is she clipped, or can she fly? In addition, does she normally wander off, or does she stay close to home?

 

[Miss Lydia]

Doesn’t take much for a predator to spring a surprise attack and run off with a duck etc. hopefully what your thinking is true and she’s brooding somewhere close. Do you have predators large enough to carry off a duck?
When mine were young oh my gosh everyday was a hunting I party to find a broody. I finally closed off every place inside their fencing they could scoot under. Then one would climb out of the wood fencing so then began clipping wings. Now they are older and they like being broody inside their coops even if they haven’t any eggs. So be sure to look under anything and everything some places mine would get into I am still amazed they got under.

 

[Albert1108]

So far, the only thing I’ve seen flying around the mountain is 2 hawks, but we have 2 dogs and when they see something that is not a duck, a chicken or a human, they will certainty attack …

 

[Albert1108]

As @Miss Lydia said, is she clipped, or can she fly? In addition, does she normally wander off, or does she stay close to home?

Last time she was able to fly, but I clipped her wings, I don’t know if I did it correctly, and it’s no the first time she goes missing, back when we were living in our previous house, she would sneak up to go to a mini forest we had behind our house, and I was able to go and pick her up,
In our new property she went missing 2 times but she would always come back like nothing happened , I feel so terrible because basically I took her for granted the 3rd time it happened, without knowing it would’ve been the last time seeing her with me and my other 3 ducks