Call Ducks

[Muscovies]

I was thinking of getting some calls but are they a good duck breed to raise are the mothers broody?

Thanks

 

[J3172]

Good ducks to breed yes, good mothers for the most part, loud yes.

 

[Muscovies]

Thanks for the info do you have any?

 

[duckluck]

Great ducks to breed, yes, super fun to raise and *some* mothers can be broody but they can be very unreliable as brooders...they like to leave the nest too early and are more likely to do so, the better the quality of the Call. The better the quality for showing, the lesser the quality of the duck's brooding inclinations, generally speaking. They also don't lay all year like many duck breeds, they lay relatively few eggs, so people really want to hatch what they can get from them and not have them only lay as many as they can brood...I personally incubate all my eggs and don't leave it to chance, and I also feel this raises my odds of getting live ducklings because some of the eggs a broody duck may sit on could be infertile. Once she has a clutch and sets, you lessen your chances of getting any more eggs from her that year.

Some people use chickens to incubate them but we don't have or want chickens, so I use machines.

 

[dmiravalle]

We are fairly new to call ducks but this is what we have learned so far.

Hens are not reliable in hatching their own eggs.

The chicks can have difficulties hatching due to their beak size.

Only the females are loud, the males chatter a lot but don' t "call".

And chickens don't make good brooders for them because they don' t retain enough humitity for the eggs and don't try to mix chicken eggs with your call duck eggs in a incubator.

They are a crack up to watch, very social and learn to be "friends" with you quickly. I just love them. (even though they are supposed to be my sons) and they do well in our cold icky weather. (seems to be a party for them)

Hope that helps in your decision.

 

[BlackBrookPoultry]

I had 3 call hens set on nests last year and they did great. One of them was not the best mother though. She did not do too good of a job keeping her babies near her. They kind of wandered wherever. They don't lay a whole lot of eggs either.

 

[afeatherfan]

Call duck's love them!!!

 

[roocrazy]

mini appleyards are small like calls andf are almost gauranteed to go broody

 

[dmiravalle]

Are the appleyards as loud?

 

[Muscovies]

Thanks BYCers