Muscovy questions

[wunderlong88]

am wanting to raise Muscovies. I have a very large brood area, chicken coop and run that I can keep them in but my goal is to have them free range on my predator prone 25 acres. I have a large creek full of water all of the time. I ordered white Muscovies from a hatchery in October and they were slow, fat and even at 3 mos barely could fly. They did not seem to care much about hanging out on the water and slowly were picked off by predators during the day (at night they went in the coop with the chickenks) even though the females were fly pretty good the males still were not. We finally butchered the last 2.

I am wondering if I got the wrong kind of Muscovies. I need a more wild and able to survive kind. Is their a hatchery or seller of a type that might fit the bill? Are black ones closer to the wild ones?

Also, in the past I've tried keep other types of ducks with little success but did not have a safe place for them to go at night. But I never lost them during they day as they stayed near or on the water mostly. I now have the set up for any type of duck that can survive free ranging during the day and can be trained to go into the coop at night. I keep 20-30 chickens free range and have occasional losses but for the most part they survive free ranging all day and lock themselves in at night.

Can I keep other types of ducks with the Muscovies? I would consider raising a mixed flock. I would like the Muscovies for meat and the others just to enjoy on the my creek and occasionally eggs.

I would love anyone's thoughts about this and a source to find a type of Muscovy that will work for me, if that is possible.

Thanks!

Linda

 

[OneEggToRuleThemAll]

Following.

 

[New duck mommy 2021]

@Miss Lydia
She has Muscovy and maybe able to answer
All ducks need a safe place at night if you want them to survive
But predator attacks can happen in the day as well

 

[Yardmom]

I can not speak for all strains, but it is common with domestic strains that the drakes are to large to fly even in wild type coloring. I have had drakes that survived because they were to large for my more common predators to take. I did loose one to a coyote.
Muscovies are not drawn to swimming like mallard derived ducks. A quick swim every once in awhile is common for them.

You can have mallard derived ducks at the same time as muscovies. They may ignore each other about like chickens and ducks or they may breed. If they do breed offspring will be mules unable to reproduce.

 

[wunderlong88]

Ok...I do have a safe place at night for all my birds. Can even keep the muscovies in a large fenced in orchard during the day if I need to but would prefer to free range them. Why kind of mallard type duck would be best for meat, if any?

 

[Yardmom]

Pekin and AppleYard are larger breeds.

 

[ruthhope]

Ok...I do have a safe place at night for all my birds. Can even keep the muscovies in a large fenced in orchard during the day if I need to but would prefer to free range them. Why kind of mallard type duck would be best for meat, if any?

Domestic muscovy drakes don't fly in my experience and even feral muscovy drakes that are domesticated [I have several rescues] are unable to fly after they are about 9 months old. On a good diet they just get too large. As others have noted, muscovy are not big at swimming. Of my boys, one will bath daily in clean water when it is warm, one will not bath from choice at all -- I hose him down -- and one might bath about 3 or 4 times a year. They like to dunk their heads in pots of water but can give swimming a miss. Domesticated female muscovy can often fly as they are so much lighter. Where I am in NE Florida, even the female feral muscovy prefer to walk around most of the time.

I think your ducks need to be in a safer environment during the day. My ducks "free range" within the confines of my fenced back yard. They have plenty of trees and shrubs to hide in. I have not had predators in the back yard during the day, but I am quite suburban. I don't know how safe your orchard would be, but having your ducks confined to an orchard should give them plenty of foraging.

 

[wunderlong88]

Sounds like I need to go for a duck that likes water! LOL I have a very wooded 25 acres but their is an uninhabited 1000 acres next to me so lots of predators. When I kept ducks in the past I never lost one during the day, only at night. If they will stay near or on the water they should be fine. We are around that area a lot, keep it mowed and nice. It's the wooded areas that we don't inhabit that the Muscovies were visiting that were the problem. I have a predator proof very large coop/run area that I can train them to come into at night. I already have a deer feeder that drops food 30 minutes before dark. My chickens come in great (I know they like to anyway) but I wasn't having any trouble getting the Muscovies to come in as I raised them in the coop and then the food enticed them in each night. I assume other ducks will do the same.

 

[Sosalty]

Possibly. I 1st obtained the 'white Muscovy.' They were big, slow, and glowed in the dark; the white color is a nighttime magnet for predators. My 'Black Muscovy' from Metzer's were hatched 7/17, so 6 mo. old now and are thriving on a 100'X80' pond, next to a wild creek and woods loaded with every predator known in the south. There's our house and clearings on 3 sides with about 70' cleared of brush on the far side. Would an all-hen population work for you? Giving 'em shelter at night certainly helps their survival. Mine love the water and spend 1/2 the day on it, 1/4 day free ranging above the pond (so they can fly downward for escape), and 1/4 day preening their feathers. They can take off from a sitting position on the water and if need, fly upward perhaps 50 ft, though I've only seen 'em fly higher than 10' on 1 occasion. They preferred to sleep on the water or occasionally an island, until temps dropped to around 15 degrees, then with snack incentives adopted their pen again. I use electric fencing around their pen and keep it operational always. I trap and sniper the snot out of snapping turtles and racoons, but give our local red fox, who visits the pond nightly, a pass.

A creek would be an extra challenge. Does your creek have a stretch that 30+" deep so ducks could dive to escape? Could a flood wash 'em down and away? You say it's mowed. Is there any cover for predators near the bank? Other than that, I believe the black Muscovy to be your best bet to survive in a predator rich environment. Mine started to fly after 3 mo.s, but weren't frequent flyers until 5 mo.s. Not sure about your place, but mine briefly checked out the woods once and said, unh unh. They only visit the cleared areas and only wander up elevation, I suppose cause it's easy to fly down if a dog or whatever shows. Locals report their semi-wild Muscovy surviving with just a little food tossed out but lose birds often.

This is a great topic. Seems lots of folk would like to free range and we need to share this kind of info. Keep us posted

 

[Greta A]

I have a white drake and he is outside 24/7. He could go in but chooses not to.