Muscovy

drkimba · Jul 24, 2018

Hokum Coco said:
I had Muscovies at one time you brought up some excellent points. One point you neglected to mention is they are also death on slugs, mosquitoes and insects pests.
Through the spring and summer months they can free range and meet most of their dietary needs. Their eggs are also larger and superior in quality to chicken eggs.

You brought up some great points! The fact that they are cute and run to me everyday when I go outside is an asset as well

. My problem is I now need to build another pen or add some fencing because the drake killed my only adult hen and attacked my rooster. I now have one set of 6 week chicks and another of 13 week chicks bantams I'm afraid to put in the pen with them. Even in an enclosed hut the male 1 and female 2 Muscovy eye them as potential treats.

drkimba · Jul 24, 2018

I purchased 3 about 2 months ago at that time they seemed fully grown and had their feathers. I'm really not sure of their age the lady said young but I had read they begin laying soon. Well nothing! What sort of place have you set up for them to lay? These three seem to spend all day and most of the night eating and swimming. I've seen the male start mating behavior but have not yet seen the girls even contemplate laying. What age did yours start?

Jack Speese · Sep 2, 2018

I've had Muscovies in the past. In fact they were the first ducks I ever owned. They are quite practical, excellent natural setters and mothers (I think duck eggs are hard to incubate unless you have an incubator with an automatic turner). They regularly hatched a spring-summer clutch and a summer-fall clutch, although the spring-summer clutch was usually much bigger. Another nice attribute is that they are one of the quietest species of poultry. In principle they probably could feed themselves if you have pasture, maybe a stream or pond, at least in the summer. In practice, however, they are just as vulnerable to hawks and owls as any other poultry species smaller than an adult goose. With the hawk situation, geese and turkeys are the only species that I've ever been able to raise on pasture, and only when they were at least half-grown. A good fence keeps out 4-legged predators, but only a top of some kind will stop aerial attacks from hawks and owls. I never had Muscovies bother my chickens. They would occasionally mate with my Rouens and Blue Swedes and produce some interesting looking hybrids. The only aggression I ever observed was drake to drake. A dominant drake will sometimes unmercifully bully a subordinate drake, even to death. But they never seemed interested in mallard-type drakes. Because they are tree ducks, they have very sharp claws, something to note when catching them. And because they are large ducks and still capable of flight, they have not surprisingly very strong wings as well, another thing to watch out for when catching them. They do grow more slowly than mallard-type ducks, meaning they eat more too. But all and all an excellent species for a home livestock operation. I personally think that they are butt ugly, but that adds to their charm! But Muscovy ducklings are just as cute as any other ducklings.

NorthernChick1 · Sep 17, 2018

Jack Speese said:
I've had Muscovies in the past. In fact they were the first ducks I ever owned. They are quite practical, excellent natural setters and mothers (I think duck eggs are hard to incubate unless you have an incubator with an automatic turner). They regularly hatched a spring-summer clutch and a summer-fall clutch, although the spring-summer clutch was usually much bigger. Another nice attribute is that they are one of the quietest species of poultry. In principle they probably could feed themselves if you have pasture, maybe a stream or pond, at least in the summer. In practice, however, they are just as vulnerable to hawks and owls as any other poultry species smaller than an adult goose. With the hawk situation, geese and turkeys are the only species that I've ever been able to raise on pasture, and only when they were at least half-grown. A good fence keeps out 4-legged predators, but only a top of some kind will stop aerial attacks from hawks and owls. I never had Muscovies bother my chickens. They would occasionally mate with my Rouens and Blue Swedes and produce some interesting looking hybrids. The only aggression I ever observed was drake to drake. A dominant drake will sometimes unmercifully bully a subordinate drake, even to death. But they never seemed interested in mallard-type drakes. Because they are tree ducks, they have very sharp claws, something to note when catching them. And because they are large ducks and still capable of flight, they have not surprisingly very strong wings as well, another thing to watch out for when catching them. They do grow more slowly than mallard-type ducks, meaning they eat more too. But all and all an excellent species for a home livestock operation. I personally think that they are butt ugly, but that adds to their charm! But Muscovy ducklings are just as cute as any other ducklings.

Thanks for sharing your experience with Muscovies jack! I was wondering, at what age do they start to lay? I have two unsexed scovies that were born the same day as all my chickens (born june 1st) so im curious to know! Also it will be one way to know what they are as they are exactly the same size (feet bill and everything) so i cant say if they are either both male or female.

northernlivie · Oct 9, 2018

Jack Speese said:
I've had Muscovies in the past. In fact they were the first ducks I ever owned. They are quite practical, excellent natural setters and mothers (I think duck eggs are hard to incubate unless you have an incubator with an automatic turner). They regularly hatched a spring-summer clutch and a summer-fall clutch, although the spring-summer clutch was usually much bigger. Another nice attribute is that they are one of the quietest species of poultry. In principle they probably could feed themselves if you have pasture, maybe a stream or pond, at least in the summer. In practice, however, they are just as vulnerable to hawks and owls as any other poultry species smaller than an adult goose. With the hawk situation, geese and turkeys are the only species that I've ever been able to raise on pasture, and only when they were at least half-grown. A good fence keeps out 4-legged predators, but only a top of some kind will stop aerial attacks from hawks and owls. I never had Muscovies bother my chickens. They would occasionally mate with my Rouens and Blue Swedes and produce some interesting looking hybrids. The only aggression I ever observed was drake to drake. A dominant drake will sometimes unmercifully bully a subordinate drake, even to death. But they never seemed interested in mallard-type drakes. Because they are tree ducks, they have very sharp claws, something to note when catching them. And because they are large ducks and still capable of flight, they have not surprisingly very strong wings as well, another thing to watch out for when catching them. They do grow more slowly than mallard-type ducks, meaning they eat more too. But all and all an excellent species for a home livestock operation. I personally think that they are butt ugly, but that adds to their charm! But Muscovy ducklings are just as cute as any other ducklings.

I believe they take quite a bit longer to lay. They typically start at 6 months of age. Most other breeds begin at 4 months.

DrumstickRanchTex · Jan 3, 2019

Muscovies will often feed themselves. They eat grain, but they also eat grass, fruit, seeds, and bugs. When I got some of these, the mosquitos, flies, ticks, and spiders disappeared.

Gabrielpsherry · Mar 5, 2019

Concise but basic. I’d love to see more detailed information on domestic and wild Muscovy with cited sources.

Quacking Pigeon · Apr 4, 2019

I own white, french white, black, white-winged black,black pied barred, bronze pied barred, black pied and bronze. I’m yet too show any, although I have showed one of my black ducks before and she got 2nd.

I also hatch more drakes than ducks. And I hatch quite a lot of muscovies as they are extremely broody.

bobby2fish · Aug 8, 2019

I once dated the daughter of a man who raised and fought chickens! He said he hated 'Muscovie's' because they could kill his gamecock roosters! He claimed, the duck would grab the roosters by the neck and NOT let go until the rooster stopped twitching!

EdenHallow · Aug 12, 2019

Before we got our chickens we came home to one of these in our yard. We had never saw anything like it before and had NO idea what the heck it was. I posted a picture of it on my facebook, and my super sleuth friends (that were able to do an image search) identified it was a Muscovy duck.
It hung out at our house for about a week, and disappeared. Some time later I saw it in one of the neighbors (we live out in the country, so "neighbor" is a loose term) pens.

FathertoFeathers · Dec 10, 2019

bobby2fish said:
I once dated the daughter of a man who raised and fought chickens! He said he hated 'Muscovie's' because they could kill his gamecock roosters! He claimed, the duck would grab the roosters by the neck and NOT let go until the rooster stopped twitching!

I have had one of my males kill a pretty large rat by trampling it to death.

Mossy Dell · Dec 30, 2019

jdywntr said:
Any drake will try to breed chickens which is dangerous. The species are NOT anatomically compatible and a drake breeding a chicken can kill her.

Roosters rape ducks too! We had one Muscovy duck who fell in love with a hen and she with him. They had a long romance.

Jenbirdee · Dec 21, 2023

If I ever got a muscovy duck I would name him ZORRO

Muscovy

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drkimba

drkimba

Jack Speese

NorthernChick1

northernlivie

DrumstickRanchTex

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Quacking Pigeon

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FathertoFeathers

Mossy Dell

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