Reviews by rachelsflock

Docile around kids. Hard to find. Expensive. Tender meat. Can have low fertility without fluff trimming. Sweet birds. Regularly lays, though not daily, eggs medium. Cold resistant. Grows very slowly and matures after the 1 year mark. Rooster protective and watchful but far from a terror and tolerates my kids well with no attacks to date (going on two years on this bird). Red Cuckoo English Orpingtons make amazing color crosses as well as hybrids. Planning on sticking with Red English Orpingtons for a long time. Good longevity of lay.

I absolutely love my muscovy flock. I don't know if all lines are like this, but my line is totally child safe, they reproduce like crazy and try to get in three 20+ egg clutches every year with a great hatch rate, my favorite drake even cares for his own ducklings and leads them around the yard and sits on them (until they are old enough to realize he can be dominated, unfortunately, and then he's relieved when the males are gone), they're quiet, so friendly (except for nesting mamas-watch out!), they love foraging, they look you right in the eye and talk and dance to you, and when you finally do have to correct the male/female ratio to preserve peace and safety the meat is the best thing ever. But that's the bad part. For most of the year the best males are like puppy dogs and the girls are a riot-a little less friendly if they remember you as the egg stealer, but still party animals in their own right. The ladies honk when upset, trill when they're happy, and the drakes just HUFF and hiss. So funny. They're also amazing foragers and will empty your yard of snakes and other *surprises* for better or for worse (we had a lot of snakes, aka duck spaghetti).

As far as cons go, they are definitely seasonal eggers. Mine start laying as soon as it starts staying above freezing, then stop when freezing sets in again-not counting the times on nests, of course, but they eat so little feed while nesting I really don't mind.
They can FLY like eagles, and I'm talking over your house, not just over the fence, and they LIKE it, so you either have to pinion in the first week (not hard or traumatic surprisingly), or watch carefully for molts and do your yearly duck rodeo to make sure your birds don't get lost or hit by cars if that's the kind of area you live in. I've discovered it's a lot harder to ride your drakes and clip those huge wings while they try scratch you off with all they've got-and they're pretty big and strong. And heads up, pinioned birds can still fly about four or five feet high, but like I said, you won't see them winging it to the next county, just the occasional escape from the pen.
The feathers when processing do not want to come out if you do them too late. Scalding and duck wax will become mandatory if you procrastinate like I did this year (shame on me, but I think most people can understand).
Those girls are wired to make clutches, feather their nests, and SIT...for 38 days. As soon as the spring season starts they become single minded, but even that's not terrible as long as you can handle it. And the worst mine do is pinch when you go under them. Just watch out for that nasty, cement colored broody poo. Never upset a sitting muscovy hen or she may foul her nest and you.
The worst part is their massive claws. They are flying, perching ducks. Their talons are sized accordingly. They WILL try to scratch their way out of trouble, and if you don't know what you're doing, wear a big thick coat and gloves for the first year whenever you have to handle them because they WILL scratch you deep, and it WILL get infected. I'm to the point now I don't usually get scratched unless I do something stupid (hey, female ducks don't like to be absent mindedly patted on their fluffy underpuffs like a football-totally my fault), so I usually don't anymore, but DANG those claws. Babies have sharp little scratchers too. Luckily once they get big, at least if you've clipped their wings or have them pinioned, you really don't have to handle them often. All you have to do is herd them and it's all great.

All in all they are great birds. I love them, and I hope to never be without them again (unless, of course I couldn't let them reproduce, then that wouldn't be fair to the girls who become hatch machines every spring, but re-become themselves each winter).

These guys are my favorite mallard derived breed. They were less shy than my other breeds, eat less food, and forage more and they're cute even when they don't want to be. They lay tons of large eggs and even tend to get them in the nest box. They're so cute and petite framed too. My main issue with them is that my drake stubbornly insisted on running his ladies around the yard at full tilt as soon as it got dark for as long as they were out like idiots, especially when it was lock up time, every single night right up until the end. It was like he had to prove that going into the coop was his idea. Needless to say, he and his favorite duck follower are now dead and the duck hens that had their own ideas about bedtime are still alive (and now we're going to go get a new drake). Regardless, I'm not sure I ever want to be without this duck breed again. I love them(with their cute, beady little eyes, football-sized ducks covered in ducky softness, and flappy feet without half inch muscovy claws), my kids love them for their non-aggressive chasability factor (but they are fast enough my kids will NEVER catch them), and they do get along with the rest of my birds great. We had one drake that tried getting it on with chickens, but for my hens sake we got to discover that he was delicious. However that seems like it's the exception and not the rule for drake manners and besides the bedtime thing the other drake was a perfect gentleman who brought food to his ladies and was never too much drake for them to handle. Hug a (protesting) Campbell today.

I had two gold laced hens that I loved to look at. They would run around and steal feathers off of other hens backs to the point of making them scream, bald backs, vents, and bloody vents. They even did it to each other (but not to themselves). It was like they couldn't help it-walking along, looking for food, and then suddenly "FEATHERS!!! NOM!!!". We tried everything from a higher protein diet to even MORE space, but in the end I gave up and I got rid of them to someone who fell for their looks with a full disclosure. I'm tempted to try anther strain, but it will probably wind up the same way so I'm sticking to what I've got left and avoid the mess.