INDIANA BYC'ers HERE!

[Indyshent]

Wis I could post a video..... All six ducks are Much happier, and quieter, since being put in together

They're much happier in numbers.

Pekins are an excellent dual-purpose duck breed. I'm not sure why you got into Muscovy when you had Pekins.


Here's a rundown of Mallard-vs-Muscovy, based on my few years of experience:

Muscovy pros:

1. Unique appearance
2. Taste unlike other poultry--very lean, tasty, dark meat
3. Generally easier to sex in a shorter time because boys have longer tails and get bigger faster
4. Quiet. Super, super quiet.
5. Generally less rape-y than mallard-derived drakes
6. Lots of neat plumage colors that you don't get to see in other ducks
7. Neat bill and caruncle colors and patterns
8. Can have "blue" (white) irises
9. Fly really well
10. can have super cool mohawk crests!
11. Surprisingly expressive faces
12. Less messy than Pekins
13. Great mothers and reliable broodies
14. Exterminate mosquito larvae with extreme prejudice

Muscovy cons:

1. Crazy looking hamburger faces
2. Stiff feathers that aren't as cuddly
3. CLAWS-allujah! Great CLAWED almighty!
4. Not terribly cold hardy (tropical origins=lean=less body fat=less cold tolerance)
5. Expressive faces=hard to process
6. Horrible fighting between drakes in breeding season!
7. Take longer to get to weight
8. Eat a ton when getting up to weight. Dish food with a backhoe.
9. Seasonal layer. If you're into duck eggs, these guys aren't going to fill you up. They've never been bred for egg production = poor layers.
10. Broodiness afflicted and hoarders of eggs
11. Really stubborn about getting what they want. With clipped wings, I've had them get over fences to steal the cat food on my neighbor's porch. Then they'd gab and crap all over the porch.

Pekin pros:

1. Impervious to cold. Will literally walk on a iced pond and quack at you in hopes you'll do something about it.
2. Grow faster. Can be reliably sexed by 8 weeks and butchered about that soon too
3. Soft and cuddly (when they feel like it being cuddled)
4. Sound like old men telling dirty jokes
5. Howard the Duck and all of Donald's family are Pekins--and they do tell a little bit about what Pekins are like
   
6. All look about the same and a bit less expressive = easier to process
7. Lay great big eggs like crazy
8. Not typically broody = more eggs!

Pekin cons:

1. Super messy poopers
2. Super messy eaters
3. Instantly, all of your water is now dirty
4. In numbers, they're particularly loud (especially if you have really nervous girls)
5. Rape-y as all get out. Each Pekin drake is Wilt freaking Chamberlain reincarnated. Remember what Jesse Ventura said about chewing tobacco in Predator? Well, they stole it, distilled it, concentrated the very essence of the stuff and pass it to each of their sons in ovo.
6. Not as good at mothering, in my experience

***The majority of Pekin traits are shared by other mallard-derived breeds. Some breeds are bigger or faster than others or lay more eggs. Pekins are known to be particularly rapacious among mallard-derived breeds on occasion. Mallards were domesticated a really long time ago in China, so humanity has had a really long time to fine tune their husbandry and get what we want out of them. There's egg breeds and meat breeds and dual-purpose breeds and bantam breeds and lots of colors and even different egg colors (Cayugas are supposed to lay black). If you like the variety of purpose, mallard-derived breeds are the way to go.

All of my Runners have been boys so far. I'm hoping the (blue?) one I'm raising now isn't because I really really just want eggs from my ducks.I have three Cayuga ducklings, and knowing my luck, two are drakes. Really wanting black eggs. I've just got to see those things in person. Cayugas are a smaller dual-purpose duck breed (not quite as small as Runners) but they're mostly an egg'n'show breed. These four are pretty docile and are now to the point they run up to me to be let out of the brooder for swim time. Surprisingly sociable for ducks, in my experience. Turkeys tend to be friendlier for me than for some other people, but the trade-off for turkey love seems to be that ducks don't usually like me at all.

I had a Swedish Black and several of her progeny in years past. She was crazy-broody all the time. Seriously, in a year, she spent at least nine months on the nest. She could hatch babies, but couldn't take care of them, so they would wind up drowning in a water dish right in front of her face. She was also pretty mean. Very pretty duck, but I don't want to judge the whole breed based on what I saw from her.

 

[tmarsh83]

Ducks are in the cards next spring.

I'm planning a rather elaborate duck/hog/chicken rotation for the garden.

Neighbor, who first supplied me with chickens has ducks. Planning on two runners and two khaki.

 

[Chaneys Ranch]

I have 3 duck breeds I enjoy most. I have tried several breeds. Our primary goals for each in bold...

Muscovy is #1 for me. Awesome personalities and excellent broodys! And I prefer a duck that can fly well. We use the drakes mostly as table birds, they are very prolific seasonally. So many different colors, just need to keep drakes separated or they do usually fight once matured. Drake pens work best, no where near any ducks. When I prepare some for the table, my Mom thinks its roast beef, yum.

My little Snow Mallard are more pets, I just adore them. Big social personality out of such a tiny duck. Fearless little things so mine do stay confined. My little Mallard drake will attack a Pekin Drake in a flash! He only weighs maybe 2lbs, bad idea lol.

Pekin are DHs favorites and are dual purpose for us. Plenty of huge eggs, very loud birds.. but I don't mind the noise here, and both neighbors have, or had Pekin also. They are messy so plenty of land or good drainage is important for a larger flock. Most of the muddy mess is at one side of the pond here. They have a favorite area to dabble. Lay super big eggs, and drakes are a good size by 11 weeks.

 

[Chaneys Ranch]

Realized this weekend I do have 1 last litter of piglets coming. Willow, my Berkshire sow has milk in and is moved to the farrowing trailer. Surprise!

Lot of quick juggling to move DoubleStuff out, the 3 gilt piglets to the new grow up pasture and away from DS to wean them. They are 7 weeks old already, piglets normally wean at 3 weeks. 3 new girls for next years breeding plans, awesome Hampshire line. Considering line breeding, my boar is pretty awesome temperament and has stayed a good size. DS is a big sow, but just as social and manageable as anyone could hope for. I have had many complements on both adults regarding type and temperament. Its a no brainer decision and we will see how it goes next spring.

Been so focused on coops and chickens I hadn't really noticed Willow's big belly until Thursday. We thought her last breeding didn't take, and my hogs get plenty of forage.. but Oreo didn't leave until June 22nd. I guess he sneaked one in on us! He had left temporarily to breed our neighbor's sows. Oreo is home now, and DoubleStuff went to his pen tonight for planned January Farrowing. They are Hampshire, and a dear friend's little girl said they look like Oreo cookies! Airianna helped me name them appropriately when we got them a year ago last March.
DoubleStuff was really happy to see Oreo home. Both got a few dozen eggs as a welcome home gift to Oreo lol! He just happily trotted back to his pen as soon as he got here. Awesome boar, just the funniest social guy ever. First stop was the mudpit, of course! He makes a "eeheeh uhuh" sound that just cracks me up, little grunts. Been scratching his back and ears a lot, glad he is home. Sometimes I consider not keeping hogs anymore, and then my Hamps remind me why I love them so much.

 

[Indyshent]

Realized this weekend I do have 1 last litter of piglets coming. Willow, my Berkshire sow has milk in and is moved to the farrowing trailer. Surprise!

Lot of quick juggling to move DoubleStuff out, the 3 gilt piglets to the new grow up pasture and away from DS to wean them. They are 7 weeks old already, piglets normally wean at 3 weeks. 3 new girls for next years breeding plans, awesome Hampshire line. Considering line breeding, my boar is pretty awesome temperament and has stayed a good size. DS is a big sow, but just as social and manageable as anyone could hope for. I have had many complements on both adults regarding type and temperament. Its a no brainer decision and we will see how it goes next spring.

Been so focused on coops and chickens I hadn't really noticed Willow's big belly until Thursday. We thought her last breeding didn't take, and my hogs get plenty of forage.. but Oreo didn't leave until June 22nd. I guess he sneaked one in on us! He had left temporarily to breed our neighbor's sows. Oreo is home now, and DoubleStuff went to his pen tonight for planned January Farrowing. They are Hampshire, and a dear friend's little girl said they look like Oreo cookies! Airianna helped me name them appropriately when we got them a year ago last March.
DoubleStuff was really happy to see Oreo home. Both got a few dozen eggs as a welcome home gift to Oreo lol! He just happily trotted back to his pen as soon as he got here. Awesome boar, just the funniest social guy ever. First stop was the mudpit, of course! He makes a "eeheeh uhuh" sound that just cracks me up, little grunts. Been scratching his back and ears a lot, glad he is home. Sometimes I consider not keeping hogs anymore, and then my Hamps remind me why I love them so much.

Hampshires are wonderful. If I ever got into hogs, it'd probably be with Hamps. I don't think I could ever process them myself though. Might have to stop eating bacon at that point

In my earlier post, I wasn't trying to insult Muscovies, just so everyone knows. I enjoy Muscovy temperament; I'm just an egg person. Processing Muscovies is super difficult because I had worked really hard to socialize the group I processed. Duckies look like they're smiling, but the big, expressive eyes on scovies really amplify their personalities. I'm going to have to toughen up and not socialize my food so much one day, and my inability to do that so far has led me to prefer egg breeds. Obnoxiousness and/or a lack of individuality in a meat breed is preferred, and Muscovies are all singular characters.

 

[Lengerich Farms]

They're much happier in numbers. 

Pekins are an excellent dual-purpose duck breed. I'm not sure why you got into Muscovy when you had Pekins. 


Here's a rundown of Mallard-vs-Muscovy, based on my few years of experience:

Muscovy pros:

1. Unique appearance
2. Taste unlike other poultry--very lean, tasty, dark meat
3. Generally easier to sex in a shorter time because boys have longer tails and get bigger faster
4. Quiet. Super, super quiet.
5. Generally less rape-y than mallard-derived drakes
6. Lots of neat plumage colors that you don't get to see in other ducks
7. Neat bill and caruncle colors and patterns
8. Can have "blue" (white) irises
9. Fly really well
10. can have super cool mohawk crests!
11. Surprisingly expressive faces
12. Less messy than Pekins
13. Great mothers and reliable broodies
14. Exterminate mosquito larvae with extreme prejudice

Muscovy cons:

1. Crazy looking hamburger faces
2. Stiff feathers that aren't as cuddly
3. CLAWS-allujah! Great CLAWED almighty!
4. Not terribly cold hardy (tropical origins=lean=less body fat=less cold tolerance)
5. Expressive faces=hard to process
6. Horrible fighting between drakes in breeding season!
7. Take longer to get to weight
8. Eat a ton when getting up to weight. Dish food with a backhoe. 
9. Seasonal layer. If you're into duck eggs, these guys aren't going to fill you up. They've never been bred for egg production = poor layers.
10. Broodiness afflicted and hoarders of eggs
11. Really stubborn about getting what they want. With clipped wings, I've had them get over fences to steal the cat food on my neighbor's porch. Then they'd gab and crap all over the porch. 

Pekin pros:

1. Impervious to cold. Will literally walk on a iced pond and quack at you in hopes you'll do something about it. 
2. Grow faster. Can be reliably sexed by 8 weeks and butchered about that soon too
3. Soft and cuddly (when they feel like it being cuddled)
4. Sound like old men telling dirty jokes
5. Howard the Duck and all of Donald's family are Pekins--and they do tell a little bit about what Pekins are like 
6. All look about the same and a bit less expressive = easier to process
7. Lay great big eggs like crazy
8. Not typically broody = more eggs!

Pekin cons:

1. Super messy poopers
2. Super messy eaters
3. Instantly, all of your water is now dirty
4. In numbers, they're particularly loud (especially if you have really nervous girls)
5. Rape-y as all get out. Each Pekin drake is Wilt freaking Chamberlain reincarnated. Remember what Jesse Ventura said about chewing tobacco in Predator? Well, they stole it, distilled it, concentrated the very essence of the stuff and pass it to each of their sons in ovo. 
6. Not as good at mothering, in my experience

***The majority of Pekin traits are shared by other mallard-derived breeds. Some breeds are bigger or faster than others or lay more eggs. Pekins are known to be particularly rapacious among mallard-derived breeds on occasion. Mallards were domesticated a really long time ago in China, so humanity has had a really long time to fine tune their husbandry and get what we want out of them. There's egg breeds and meat breeds and dual-purpose breeds and bantam breeds and lots of colors and even different egg colors (Cayugas are supposed to lay black). If you like the variety of purpose, mallard-derived breeds are the way to go. 

All of my Runners have been boys so far. I'm hoping the (blue?) one I'm raising now isn't because I really really just want eggs from my ducks.I have three Cayuga ducklings, and knowing my luck, two are drakes. Really wanting black eggs. I've just got to see those things in person. Cayugas are a smaller dual-purpose duck breed (not quite as small as Runners) but they're mostly an egg'n'show breed. These four are pretty docile and are now to the point they run up to me to be let out of the brooder for swim time. Surprisingly sociable for ducks, in my experience. Turkeys tend to be friendlier for me than for some other people, but the trade-off for turkey love seems to be that ducks don't usually like me at all.

I had a Swedish Black and several of her progeny in years past. She was crazy-broody all the time. Seriously, in a year, she spent at least nine months on the nest. She could hatch babies, but couldn't take care of them, so they would wind up drowning in a water dish right in front of her face. She was also pretty mean. Very pretty duck, but I don't want to judge the whole breed based on what I saw from her. 

I got the muscovys out of curiosity and a want for diversity. The two Pekins I have make that part of the yard smell like the pig barn at the state fair. I've also been told that Muscovy hens will go broody on chicken eggs the chick hen won't brood one. I love the Poole of them and their name in Spanish means "mute duck". I'm about to rip my hair out with the Pekins, but I want to have ducks so figured I'd try another breed, and they popped up for sale. From the sound of it if I happen to not like the muscovys either, they won't be hard to find homes for.

 

[Indyshent]

I got the muscovys out of curiosity and a want for diversity. The two Pekins I have make that part of the yard smell like the pig barn at the state fair. I've also been told that Muscovy hens will go broody on chicken eggs the chick hen won't brood one. I love the Poole of them and their name in Spanish means "mute duck". I'm about to rip my hair out with the Pekins, but I want to have ducks so figured I'd try another breed, and they popped up for sale. From the sound of it if I happen to not like the muscovys either, they won't be hard to find homes for.

Hmm. Pretty much no matter what you do, ducks are messy, with mallard-derived breeds being more so. They like modern art poo--the kind where they get to throw paint on a canvas and admire how it splattered everywhere. You can try feeding them pre-wet food or fermented feed to help them eat less and make less mess. It'll help with the splattiness, too. Both types need a good deal of protein. Heat makes all poultry have nasty poo, so there's nothing you can do about it if they're hot (except cool them down, but I don't think it'll help much with the poo). Not sure about the smell. Try hanging up air fresheners and fermenting feed. The food smells more, but the poo smells less.

Some of your issue might stem from how the birds were raised or from individual temperaments. Ducks of all breeds are pretty individual, but they respond very well to persistent parental care from a very young age. Some people have better luck getting the duckies to warm up to them. Muscovies in many ways are easier to find homes for, but the problem always becomes rehoming drakes.

 

[Lengerich Farms]

Hmm. Pretty much no matter what you do, ducks are messy, with mallard-derived breeds being more so. They like modern art poo--the kind where they get to throw paint on a canvas and admire how it splattered everywhere. You can try feeding them pre-wet food or fermented feed to help them eat less and make less mess. It'll help with the splattiness, too. Both types need a good deal of protein. Heat makes all poultry have nasty poo, so there's nothing you can do about it if they're hot (except cool them down, but I don't think it'll help much with the poo). Not sure about the smell. Try hanging up air fresheners and fermenting feed. The food smells more, but the poo smells less. 

Some of your issue might stem from how the birds were raised or from individual temperaments. Ducks of all breeds are pretty individual, but they respond very well to persistent parental care from a very young age. Some people have better luck getting the duckies to warm up to them. Muscovies in many ways are easier to find homes for, but the problem always becomes rehoming drakes. 

I actually bought 10 ducklings this spring from TSC when they were on clearance for1$. My buddy had to room and agrees to add the to his chickens. They've seen me and k ow my face from the beginning as I was over there multiple times a week. (The probably also remember me chasing them through his 1.4 acre yard to catch one for dinner. "Hey, anyone seen bob?

) my chickens are laying more now that they have their own pen. The chicken pen doesn't smell like a ancient roman sewer.... And they seem to really be trying to teach the ducklings (and take their food)

I'm not sure,maybe sucks aren't for me
And I should stick to chickens. If this doesn't work out, some will luck out on 3-4 Muscovys!

 

[Lengerich Farms]

Has anyone done "vent gendering" before? Is it reliable, is it advisable? If done properly, will the males genitalia just pop out like "Hey! I'm a boy!" I really want to know what I have so I know if I need to add a hen or
Remove a drake before we get attached.

 

[Indyshent]

Has anyone done "vent gendering" before? Is it reliable, is it advisable? If done properly, will the males genitalia just pop out like "Hey! I'm a boy!" I really want to know what I have so I know if I need to add a hen or
Remove a drake before we get attached.

Waterfowl have masculine appendages of a crazy order, but surprisingly, they're really difficult to sex unless they feel like getting some action. They can pull it out of hammer space, but apparently, we can't pull it out for them easily.

Muscovy drake-lings have longer tails and are about a third bigger than duck-lings. They work on that size difference very early, so you'll be able to tell quickly. Eventually, you can voice sex them because boys wheeze and hiss, and girls can quack if you pick them up, but mostly they wheeze and boys hiss.

You're more likely to damage your birds trying to pop 'em.