Coyotes get another muscovy duck

[luvmychixandducks]

Well I needed a surgical procedure on my eye on Friday, so let the two free range ducks- Muscovy duck and drake- out to graze and went to early am doctor appointment.
Got back home several hours later but due to side effects of treatment needed to sleep a bit.
Woke up mid afternoon to find the drake minus tailfeathers, and the duck gone.
There have been numerous reports of an injured coyote in the area, so I guess it was hungry, and with limited mobility took the easiest target- the duck.
I went to the FFA auction in Topsfield and bought two new ducks 20 weeks old, and they are in the pen getting acquainted with the drake.
The two new girls turned out to be Muscovy crosses, not pure muscovies, as they quacked when I got them home - so no babies from these two girls next year.
Well, the eggs will still taste great and the drake won't know the difference. .

 

[HEChicken]

I'm sorry for your loss. Was the new duck's quack a real duck-sounding quack or just one of those intermittent honk-quack's that even fully muscovies let out now and then?

 

[luvmychixandducks]

Oh it was a real quack... now that I suspect the crossbreed factor, I can see that these girls are much thinner than the blocky full muscovies we've had in the past. They will settle in and be good companions for the old drake male - who has been around for about six years and has survived free range with coyotes within a few hundred yards (den sight).