I found this on someone's craigslist ad for Muscovy ducklings:
Muscovy ducks are overlooked by most people because of their warty face, but these birds are practically a must-have. Little known facts about these incredible ducks are:
* Musvovy's is a farm's perfect fly catcher. Flies make up a large part of a muscovy's diet, normally making up almost all of the diet for the ducklings. Young muscovies will scout around the ground and literally catch flies in mid-air to gobble up. It's a lot of fun seeing your fly catchers at work as they bob their heads around and dart after tiny black bugs. Muscovies are opportunistic eaters and will happily wolf down nests of mice, small snakes, and practically any bugs they come across, including slugs.
* Unlike all other breeds of ducks, muscovies can't really quack. They make an exotic, chattering-hissing noise when they greet you or talk to one another. This keeps the noise down.
* Being a larger duck, they are extremely friendly and don't act anywhere near as skittish as other duck breeds. They will happily come up to you, bobbing their head, chattering and wagging their tail (yes, when they're happy they wag their long tails like a puppy
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* They are much more disease resistant than chickens making them more hardy than raising a bunch of broilers for the freezer.
* They are easier to brood than chickens since they grow faster. Within 2-3 weeks they don't require a heat lamp outside in this weather (the down grows before the feathers do and insulates them really well).
* You can sex muscovies faster than other duck breeds, and even faster than chickens, to know exactly what you have. Males grow larger than the females and the size difference is pretty obvious by around 2-3 weeks of age. This gives you the ability to sell "sexed" pairs and trios of muscovies while they are still ducklings without having to tell someone "I don't know what I have."
* Muscovies are a South American tree duck, so they don't dabble and play in their water as much as your other breeds of ducks.
* The mothers are fantastic, often hatching out clutches of 15-20 ducklings at a time. They're not picky about what eggs go under them, either, and will happily hatch 1-2 dozen chicken eggs for you with a much, much better hatch rate than a regular styrofoam incubator (they will average around a 90% hatch rate).
* Like geese and other ducks, muscovies can be live harvested for their down to make quilts, stuffed dolls, pillows, and anything else you can think of.
* Duck eggs are healthier for people, and are being hailed as the egg of choice for cancer patients (chicken eggs are acid-based while duck eggs are alkaline). Duck eggs are also much larger than chicken eggs, giving you large and jumbo eggs right away without the hassle of waiting for your pullets to stop laying small to medium sized eggs. They are fantastic for baking, making breads, cakes, pies, and cookies lighter and more fluffy/crispy.
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