How well can muscovy ducks fly?

[Sire12]

Im going to buy and hatch out muscovy eggs they will be ideal for me since they don't make any noise and are friendly with people, but I only have a 4 foot fence in the yard will the ducks be able to clear that even when they are wing clipped? I know the drakes are too heavy to fly

 

[Miss Lydia]

Im going to buy and hatch out muscovy eggs they will be ideal for me since they don't make any noise and are friendly with people, but I only have a 4 foot fence in the yard will the ducks be able to clear that even when they are wing clipped? I know the drakes are too heavy to fly

My drakes have flown usually when they are up on the hill they can make it over our 4' fence. I clip both wings on my females if I leave one unclipped they can still get over the fence.

 

[Sire12]

Wow hmm I'm not sure then.. I could maybe try adding another foot to the gate maybe but if they can fly that well as you say then I might not be able to keep them : (

 

[Ren2014]

I don't think they will be able to get over it with both wings clipped.

I once thought drakes were too heavy to fly until I saw my boys in the air

I don't clip wings.

 

[Miss Lydia]

Nope if you clip both wings and it does actually look better to they can't get over the fence.

 

[Sire12]

Perfect thanks for the info

 

[FoodFreedomNow]

I have to add my two cents' here to what @Miss Lydia and @Ren2014 said - drakes will surprise you. I clip drakes' wings because they definitely do fly well...though they resemble (and even sound a bit like) a 747 taking off. For most of my boys, clipping just one wing seems to suffice, and if you leave the first two flight feathers, you won't be able to tell the wing is clipped when it's folded against them.

My flock drake, who is very large and heavy, shocked me one day when I found him comfortably perched atop a 4' welded wire fence. How he managed to balance himself there was a real mystery, but "where there's a will, there's a way", I guess.

 

[Miss Lydia]

I have to add my two cents' here to what @Miss Lydia and @Ren2014 said - drakes will surprise you. I clip drakes' wings because they definitely do fly well...though they resemble (and even sound a bit like) a 747 taking off. For most of my boys, clipping just one wing seems to suffice, and if you leave the first two flight feathers, you won't be able to tell the wing is clipped when it's folded against them.

My flock drake, who is very large and heavy, shocked me one day when I found him comfortably perched atop a 4' welded wire fence. How he managed to balance himself there was a real mystery, but "where there's a will, there's a way", I guess.

If my drake wants to come inside the house he will literally climb over the 4' gate that separates their yard from ours. They dif can find the will and the way. he is the only one I
don't clip since he isn't going anywhere with his girls here. I have never even seen him try to fly and he's going on 6yrs old. Some of my other drakes have made it over the fence before though.

 

[Sire12]

Hmm ok thx I think they might be manageable flight wise, I've seen more videos of them now and they look too cute NOT to get with their waggly tails also how deep does a pool if water need to be for them, would one of those blue hard plastic kiddie pools / sand pits be ok? Also should I only keep 1 drake? I am getting 6 eggs so say I got 2 ducks and 2 drakes would I need to give one away? I've seen some vids of males fighting for top drake it looked pretty savage

 

[FoodFreedomNow]

@Sire12 , plastic kiddie pools will work just fine - I have 4 of them for mine, 2 of the bigger/deeper ones and 2 shallow ones. They use all of them, and the water doesn't really have to be deep (though they'll dive if given the opportunity!). The fact that you can dump the pools and rinse them out daily is a big bonus, IMO.

I have several drakes of different ages and there isn't much in the way of fighting, so I think it's possible that you could have more than one drake, as long as you have enough ducks to keep them happy; a ratio of at least 3-4 ducks per drake is recommended.

The wagging tails and their head-bobbing - along with their big personalities - make them very charming, indeed.

Have you incubated Muscovy eggs before? If you haven't already seen it, this is a great tutorial and resource: https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/incubating-and-hatching-muscovy-eggs.