How well can muscovy ducks fly?

[Ren2014]

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.

Opie... considering he comes through a doggie door to get to you, I think he would find a way to bust through walls if he had to

@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.

@Sire12 Very shallow water at first of course. Babies can drown. Even at several weeks old they can drown. Heck, even adults can drown but under extraordinary circumstances.

I gotta say the dumping and cleaning kiddie pools out daily was way too much for me. Here's a really good, but long, youtube vid on an easy way to empty and clean them. I found this after I had given up on them. We used pvc drains with valves on ours and it was still a hassle.

 

[FoodFreedomNow]

Opie... considering he comes through a doggie door to get to you, I think he would find a way to bust through walls if he had to

@Sire12 Very shallow water at first of course. Babies can drown. Even at several weeks old they can drown. Heck, even adults can drown but under extraordinary circumstances.

I gotta say the dumping and cleaning kiddie pools out daily was way too much for me. Here's a really good, but long, youtube vid on an easy way to empty and clean them. I found this after I had given up on them. We used pvc drains with valves on ours and it was still a hassle.

X2 on @Ren2014 's advice on the ducklings...I start them off in just a couple of inches for a limited amount of time, supervised only, when they're ducklings. Kiddie pools are for when they're fully feathered and big enough to comfortably jump out on their own. BTW, the paint roller tray works great for young ducklings - it's graduated, so they can get in and out easily. They grow so fast, though, it will only be usable for a few weeks.

 

[Sire12]

Thanks for all the info peeps much appreciated! I wasn't aware of muscovy eggs being tough to hatch so that link will be very beneficial although it seems there's a lot of complex steps to take i admit I'm a bit of a novice at incubating so i think i will wait and see if i can find a musc duck and then buy eggs for her brood on for me, then a drake from the hatch will be unrelated and can be paired with that female for later babies, they seem to be a bit rare nearby but fingers crossed, i do have 2 hens that are very broody that might hatch them for me but they are very skittish so il hold off for now and source a pool in the mean time

 

[Sire12]

I've been looking nearby for sellers but theres nothing :/ might just try the incubation based on that link and hope that I manage to do everything right, I already bought them 2 of those blue hard plastic pools they were on offer, so one can be for the ducks and I can make the other into a dust bath for the choocks, also need to think of a good coop idea for them to stay in since some people say they'd be too messy to sleep in with the hens in their coop

 

[Miss Lydia]

I've been looking nearby for sellers but theres nothing

might just try the incubation based on that link and hope that I manage to do everything right, I already bought them 2 of those blue hard plastic pools they were on offer, so one can be for the ducks and I can make the other into a dust bath for the choocks, also need to think of a good coop idea for them to stay in since some people say they'd be too messy to sleep in with the hens in their coop

Ducks are messy if you put food and water inside their coops. My ducks and chickens sleep together inside their house 3 of my Muscovy's roost up with the chickens too.
I don't put food and water inside they eat and drink all they want during the day then go in their house to sleep.

 

[Sire12]

Ohhh ok, I knew they had a reputation of being messy but if that's the main cause of it then that's perfectly fine since all my hens eat and drink outside in the yard anyway I scatter most of their food so they can forage for it

 

[Ren2014]

Ohhh ok, I knew they had a reputation of being messy but if that's the main cause of it then that's perfectly fine since all my hens eat and drink outside in the yard anyway

I scatter most of their food so they can forage for it

I feed my little ones 24/7 until they are old enough to mingle with the rest of the flock

 

[Miss Lydia]

I feed my little ones 24/7 until they are old enough to mingle with the rest of the flock

Oh yes ducklings are treated differently of course, I was focusing on Adults.

Also for a duck to be able to roost they need at least 2X4 to roost on I have 2X4's in my coop for chickens and ducks as roosting boards.

 

[Ren2014]

Oh yes ducklings are treated differently of course, I was focusing on Adults.

Also for a duck to be able to roost they need at least 2X4 to roost on I have 2X4's in my coop for chickens and ducks as roosting boards.

I wasn't sure what we were talking about and I was too lazy to look back

 

[Sire12]

My brahmas have just started hatching today so the bator will be free soon and I'm going to get my first scovie eggs next week, one thing I've read and am concerned about is that if you imprint on them when they hatch and the drakes grow up thinking you are one of them they will be aggressive towards you to compete for the females is that correct? I only plan to keep 1 drake and a pair of girls or possibly 2 drakes and 4 girls if I have enough room