Baby Chocolate Pied Scovies

[RAREROO]

Well I went to a local livestock sale today to sell some chickens and there was some people selling some baby Scovies and they had a few little chocolate pies in the bunch and I couldnt resist. So grabbed up two of them before everyone else saw the cute little things and bought them up. I know with my other domestic ducks that they are easy to voice sex at a few months old, but these are my first scovies and I was wandering if there are any early sexing tips for them ? I am hoping for both females since I dont really want to raise scovies, I just like the color and I've heard they are very broody so I'd like them to set eggs for me.

And I had a Rouen that already had an older brood so I put them all in a stock tank together and one of the little scovies got tired of the water and decided to hitch a ride, lol. The Rouen and her babies free range so I dont think the little scovies could keep up with them so I put them in the brooder. I have two other ducks that are setting so if they hatch soon I may be able to let them adopt the scovies too.

 

[honeydoll]

Oh how cute, I want one too...

 

[Bleenie]

I usually wait until they're 4-5wks old to make a definite conclusion on sexes. but if you have 1 of each sex you will see obvious differences in size around 1-2wks. the males have bigger feet and longer bodies too. i have some young babies right now too and just adopted some from a friend.

It's always different with the different bloodlines. I know mine pretty well but i sure am glad that we got 6 babies from my friend, it'll make it a lot easier to determine males from females later on!

 

[Chris09]

Hay Clint,
Welcome to the wonderful world of Scovies.

I bet before long you will have a big 12/ 14 pound Drake running around your farm..

Well I will take stab at the sex of you little Scovies and say that the chances are good that you have 2 Hens.
Not knowing the color of the parents makes it hard..
Chocolate in Scovies breeds like True Chocolate gene in chickens.

The wife and I love our Chocolate Scovies and it took me 5 years of breeding to get a good Chocolate Drake, so he will be in the breeding pen with a old Pied Chocolate hen and 3 Self Chocolate young hens...


Chris

 

[RAREROO]

Quote:
Thanks

Yep I've heard of people making the sexlinks with Chocolate runners, but like you said, neither of us know the color of the parents, there was maybe 25 in this particular box and only maybe 5 of them were chocolates, the others were blacks/pieds. And they had a few other older ones that looked like blues and silvers.
But they told me that I could get anything I think they said they get some Chocs from breeding Blacks to Blacks and some said I could get some Blacks if I bred the ones I have together. But I doubt they know the specifics of the Choc gene and how it works, hardly anyone there knows anything about genetics and I here people all the time saying they're gonna cross this breed with that breed just to see what they get and I'm there thinking, Well I could tell you what you'd get, but hardly anyone would listen to me if i did try to explain it, I guess some dont believe that you can come up with an intuitive desciption of what you'd get without doing it first,........ but like I said, I just like the color and I'm hoping for some females for broodies.

But have any of you every butcher a Scovie Drake to eat ? I'm thinking about getting one from there to eat for thanksgiving just to try since I've never had duck that those darn things are about as big as turkey anyway, so I was thinking about trying it and just wanted to see if any of you have.

 

[Chris09]

But have any of you every butcher a Scovie Drake to eat ? I'm thinking about getting one from there to eat for thanksgiving just to try since I've never had duck that those darn things are about as big as turkey anyway, so I was thinking about trying it and just wanted to see if any of you have.

I butchered out about 10 of them last year.
They were good eating as a big roaster and also ground up into "Duck Sausage".


Chris​

 

[RAREROO]

Quote:
I butchered out about 10 of them last year.
They were good eating as a big roaster and also ground up into "Duck Sausage".


Chris

Haha There ya go, we have a friend that own broiler breeder houses, they dont anymore but they did a couple years ago, and at the end when the chickens went out there would always be some that they miss or excape and he told us if we can catch them we can have them so we brought two loads home and tried to sell some of the nicer looking ones, but most of them we ended up butchering and grinding up and made chicken sausage with them and that stuff is good too, those big ugly birds arent good for much anything else other than grinding up becuase they're so tough. Guess we may have to try it with ducks too. But yeah, you're probaly right, I'll probably have a whole flock of these thangs before too long, its just some of the males are so ugly and look like they have a big infection on there face. I've though about moscovy cross mules as meat birds too but I dont know how readily they would cross with other domestics. I may try to talk my grandparents into raising some on their place, they have a big grassy yard and they just cut their goat herd down so they should get let some run around there and butcher some every now and then.

 

[Chris09]

There not that bad.
Here is 2 drakes from last years hatch. There right around 10+ pounds and spend a lot of time at the creek....

I have to try to get a picture of the Chocolate Drake we are going to keep..

Chris

 

[Chris09]

Hay Clint,
Here's that Chocolate Drake that I'm putting in the breeding pen.

You know the more I think of it, the more I think that the odds are real good that you have 2 females.

Chris

 

[Bleenie]

Quote:
I have Never been a fan of the ones with excessive caruncling(masks), but you can find some with smaller, nice looking masks and they will usually pass it on to their offspring. I've never eaten duck so im no help there, sorry.