First time muscovy owner

[Jbently28]

So we went to our local chicken swap this morning. I had to meet one of the vendors who was purchasing one of my ancona drakes. I had intentions of purchasing a black swedish and a pekin to go along with my anconas, WH, KC, and buff. I wanted to look around before making my purchasing. We passed by a booth that had tons of little muscovies of various ages. I was completely consumed by the little ones as a little girl was sitting right in the middle of all of them feeding them treats. They weren't skittish a single bit. The lady asked me if I wanted to feed them and I instantly fell in love as the started jumping up for treats. We talked for a while about clipping their wings, personalities, etc and I finally decided that I definitely wanted to add a couple of them to my flock. We spoke of sexing since I was hoping to add no more drakes to the flock. They had concluded that many of the theories were not in fact accurate. I asked about the shape of their tails and she pointed out that all of them had the same shapd tails when compared to others their age. I read also that that's not 100% accurate until after they have fully feathered out at about 16 weeks. My husband and I picked out 2 that had already started to feather out just based off of looks alone. They were all just as equally sweet and already prespoiled. So here are my 2 new additions! The little one on the left was the only one of it's color. The lady said that they only hatch out a handful of them each year. Does anyone know what color it is?

 

[chickens really]

Depends but the Chocolate is a Hen the black is a Drake..

 

[Jbently28]

Depends but the Chocolate is a Hen the black is a Drake..

How can you tell?

 

[chickens really]

How can you tell?

Depends on the bloodline but Chocolate are usually Hens..

 

[Miss Lydia]

If you do have a Muscovy drake if you get at least two more females he’ll stick to them and leave your other ducks alone. Does look like female chocolate and the other is a drake I am going by face features.

 

[Daphne_loves_mealworms]

Congratulations on your new additions!! How old are they?

Edited to add- Muscovies are wonderful ducks. My husband picked out two little ones last year. We somehow ended up with two hens, but it took a long time to figure out what sex they were. I agree with others that your chocolate duckling looks very much like a hen!

 

[Miss Lydia]

Muscovy drakes can come in Chocolate too. But this chocolate has a female face! Beautiful scovys.

 

[Trimurtisan]

Oh so cute! Congrats on the young ones.

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[Going Quackers]

Muscovy drakes can come in Chocolate too. But this chocolate has a female face! Beautiful scovys.

Agree. I own one lol.

Anyways ML and I are on the same page left duck, right drake... Muscovy are all by size, they never get drake feathers... voicing can be used but that typically is the last thing you'll notice.

Muscovy are prolific breeders, massive bug vacuums and fly. They also climb very well from extremely young. They also wag their tails like dogs lol. The drakes only hiss when mature which freaks a lot of people out at least in my experience, i guess between the claws and massive size, they feel they are a threat, generally they are not.

They prefer to puddle about in water vs bob about like most mallard derived not saying some don't enjoy water but i haven't found them to be as water crazed as them overall.

 

[Jbently28]

Thank you so much everyone! I told my husband that I was pretty certain of the sexes when we brought them home. I'm not absolutely certain of the ages as the breeder had many in different age ranges, but I'm guessing about 5-6 weeks. They both seem to have the same amount of feathering at the moment and there is definitely a noticeable size different. The chocolate, which I presume to be a female, is just so petite and girly looking to me so I'm just going based off of that. I've been researching muscovies for a while now and have gone back and forth about getting them only because of the flying aspect, but I do plan on clipping their wings if it becomes an issue. I can tell you that I am already hooked on the breed. They are just so much calmer and approachable than any other ducklings I've ever had at this age. Definitely nothing like any duck breed I've had before. When I reach down to pet them they nestle their little heads into my hands much like a newly hatched duckling would do before the fear instincts kick in. I can definitely see adding more hens in the future. We have our local chicken swap once a month March-October and muscovies seem to be very prevalent in our area. There are more colors and patterns available at every swap than you could imagine. My muscovy obsession may become a problem for my husbands wallet I've heard from so many muscovy owners that you can never have enough and I completely understand now