egg laying age for muscovys?

[spish]

hi can anyone tell me around what age should muscovies start laying eggs? at a guess my 2 are between 24 and 28 weeks old ....will it be anytime soon?

 

[my1stchicks]

Should be soon. Mine started at 26 weeks. Just keep your eyes out their good at hiding them!

 

[goosedragon]

Quote:
I have no idea of what your weather is like there, but Muscovies are warm weather ducks that tend to lay when the night time temp is above 60 degrees F (about 18 degrees C ?) most domestic ducks start in the spring and quit in the summer the muscovy will keep on laying if she isn't brooding for a hatch,

 

[Red Maple Farms]

Quote:
If that were the case, there would be very few muscovies laying eggs in northern Wisconsin or the Michigan UP. That said, I believe it is more light dependent. Our muscovies began laying in middle March, early Apirl. Here is a hatch from muscovy and mallard eggs placed in an incubator on April 4th.

 

[nissa_loves_cats]

I got a pair of Muscovy (year-old) recently and the female is not laying yet. I removed the guinea fowl from the pen they were in since the male guinea was beating up on the male Muscovy. I also removed a turkey from the pen so now all they have to share the pen with is chickens. Still no eggs. Do I a) give it more time or b) start making death threats?

 

[Red Maple Farms]

Quote:
How long have you had her? A change in environment or other form of stress could cause a muscovy hen to stop laying for a couple weeks.

 

[nissa_loves_cats]

I've had her only about 2 weeks--- yes, I'm impatient. Some other ducks I bought laid the first day I had them--- even one that I was told was a drake! And these Muscovies were free-ranging when their previous owner had them.

 

[keeperofthehearth]

nissa_loves_cats, I would give her time. Not only did she move fm one home to another, she was used to free ranging. That's a lot of change for the girl. New home, penned, mean ol' guinea and turkey and she may not be used to chooks. Scovies are also very slow in comparison to chooks esp. when it comes to getting snacks. The chooks will beat them out everytime. My Scovies never had a chance for a snack until I separated them fm the chooks. Chooks will mob for snacks, under,over, on top of..... yeash!!!! Land Piranha!

Poor Scovies would just wag their tails angerily, hiss, draw their heads down.....snacks gone. Soooo, you could check and make sure she is getting enough nutrition in case she is being crowded out fm the food. Find a way to get her some extra snacks to make her adjustment easier. I found that if I threw some greens into the Scovies water bowl they might get a bit of it. Chooks learned to crowd the Scovies out and pick the greens fm the top BUT if it was a snack that could sink .... PEAS..... They could get to those. Also, chooks would head into the coop earlier than the ducks and I'd close the coop door for a few minutes while I'd feed the Scovies a snack.

 

[nissa_loves_cats]

keeperofthehearth, I'm sure you are right. The ultimate solution is to have a separate pen, which I do plan to build once I'm not being distracted by unseasonable snowstorms and unplanned sheep escapes....

I do keep the food dish in the pen filled, plus scatter corn and oats around the pen. I feed hard-boiled eggs as snacks and toss it to different corners of the pen so the 'scovies and the low ranking hens can get some. I throw some grass into the pen every day and today I picked some clover as well and threw a bunch into each poultry pen and boy does everybody prefer THAT to plain old grass. The Muscovies do seem to be getting their chance at the greens pretty well.