When it comes to fowl, I'm all for eugenics. Instead of constantly harassing our birds with ointments, medications, band-aids, tapes, trims, splints, surgery, training and various other procedures, I sympathize with the method of 1) buying the healthiest specimens we can find, 2) let them reproduce, 3) cull all sick individuals, and 3) rinse and repeat throughout the generations until you have a flock that stays hale and healthy with basic care.
Enter our muscovy ducks. We bought them as four adults, one drake and three hens. They live in a grassy enclosure of some 20 by 20 feet, have a kiddie pool size pond that's changed every day, some thick branches on various heights for them to roost on, and a coop which they only ever use to lay eggs in. They eat regular basic chicken pellets and are allowed to roam free on a half-acre yard with lots of grass and surrounded by woods all day long, most days.
A year ago or so, the drake was treated for bumblefoot. The hens were checked for it at the same time, but their feet looked fine.
About the same time, we slaughtered about 10 male ducklings that were 10-15 weeks old or so. Half of them had bumblefoot.
This year, we have a brood of 22 ducklings, 9 weeks old tomorrow. I've picked up five of them (with much ado) of both sexes, and all of them have bumblefoot.
Granted, the ducklings have on some days not been allowed to roam free. On one occasion they were pretty much cooped up for a whole week. Also, their pond was not changed that week. And on a separate occasion, 1/4 of their yard was covered in not-too-coarse gravel for about a week. So there have been some possible bumble-foot causing "mistreatment" going around. But their feet seem super-sensitive to me. Do they have to walk around on fresh grass 24/7 from day 1 in order not to get bumblefoot? How do 99 % of muscovy keepers around the world get by, then? Most of them don't even let their scovies free range, do they? Or was it the week without a pond that did it? Seems somewhat unlikely, since most of the scovies don't even want to take a bath most of the time.
So my main question is: Can I kill the present drake, replace him with a non-bumblefooted one (if there is one), and hope to not get as much bumblefoot in next year's brood? And maybe, as I called it, rinse and repeat and barely get any bumblefoot at all in a distant future?
Enter our muscovy ducks. We bought them as four adults, one drake and three hens. They live in a grassy enclosure of some 20 by 20 feet, have a kiddie pool size pond that's changed every day, some thick branches on various heights for them to roost on, and a coop which they only ever use to lay eggs in. They eat regular basic chicken pellets and are allowed to roam free on a half-acre yard with lots of grass and surrounded by woods all day long, most days.
A year ago or so, the drake was treated for bumblefoot. The hens were checked for it at the same time, but their feet looked fine.
About the same time, we slaughtered about 10 male ducklings that were 10-15 weeks old or so. Half of them had bumblefoot.
This year, we have a brood of 22 ducklings, 9 weeks old tomorrow. I've picked up five of them (with much ado) of both sexes, and all of them have bumblefoot.
Granted, the ducklings have on some days not been allowed to roam free. On one occasion they were pretty much cooped up for a whole week. Also, their pond was not changed that week. And on a separate occasion, 1/4 of their yard was covered in not-too-coarse gravel for about a week. So there have been some possible bumble-foot causing "mistreatment" going around. But their feet seem super-sensitive to me. Do they have to walk around on fresh grass 24/7 from day 1 in order not to get bumblefoot? How do 99 % of muscovy keepers around the world get by, then? Most of them don't even let their scovies free range, do they? Or was it the week without a pond that did it? Seems somewhat unlikely, since most of the scovies don't even want to take a bath most of the time.
So my main question is: Can I kill the present drake, replace him with a non-bumblefooted one (if there is one), and hope to not get as much bumblefoot in next year's brood? And maybe, as I called it, rinse and repeat and barely get any bumblefoot at all in a distant future?
