MuskovyLover
In the Brooder
- Dec 9, 2018
- 1
- 13
- 24
Here is a sample template you can copy and paste into your post to help the introduction juices flow:
(1) Are you new to chickens / when did you first get chickens? I do not have chickens, I used to, but I have switched to ducks now. I have now have added to my family 5 duckies: 2 Muskovies and 3 Pekins. A Male Muskovy named Albert, A Female Muskovy named Blackfoot, and the 3 amigos (Pekins) named: Aflac (Female) and Fire & Steve (Males).
(2) How many chickens do you have right now? I answered above
(3) What breeds do you have? I answered above
(4) What are your favorite aspects of raising backyard chickens? Well, I have a background story. I currently live in Southern Alabama. I relocated in 2006. Before that I lived in Washington State, in the foothills of Mt. Rainier. In Washington I have a whole flock of Easter egg layers; about 30-35 total, and managed them for about 2 years. It was awesome. I had a Gratis egg station out in front of my house, that people would take what they needed, and if they could, or would, a money can was there. I just raised them because I loved it. Not for the money. Unfortunately, I had a fire and the barn they lived in burned down, and as you well know, as a community, chickens, do not head the warning of fire alarms, and no-one evacuated. I lost every single one of my chickens, and it was not as simple as just, they were dead, it was a lot of having to hunt them down in the areas around the barn, etc.. I will not go into details, but I am sure you can imagine. It was a 5 alarm fire, and the fire department personnel were awesome, in assisting my husband and I in recovering and humanly working with all of the animals. I thank God for them. Ultimately, I felt that I had failed them; and swore I would never have any farm animals again. I sold my horses, sheep, cows, everything. Because I was not a good mom.
Eventually, I moved to lower Alabama. It has been many years. I live on a very large lot that abuts a heavily wooded area. I was mowing my VERY large yard. I make a loop, and when I come back around, I see a black and yellow blob sitting in the path of the lawn mower (riding). So I do not get real close, I shut down the lawn mower and go to investigate. And that little blob is 3 wild muskovy day old ducklings, and not afraid at all. So I pick them up and put them in my hat and take them to my husband that is in his shop. He immediately brightens up and says "OMG! are those what I think they are?" and I said yep, ducks. So I grabbed a box, put them in the box and went to walk over to the house, so that I could let my daughter watch them for a minute till I could figure out what to do (my daughter and her husband live in our self-efficiency apartment). As I came around the corner, out of the woods, came 3 more ducklings. Peeping and at a full run, straight to me, because I had the other peepers in the box. So I collected them all up, and by that time, my daughter came out.
So, to shorten the story a bit. I feel that God said: It is time. You need to get over yourself. Things happen. Please take care of these babies. We did look for the Momma duck for about 20 minutes. Because we figured she would be on a Quack rampage, but we did not hear anything, we scoured the creek behind out house, to no avail. There are alot of Fox, Racoon, Bobcat, etc around our house, because of the wood area, also hunters..
So, we raised the 6, before we realized they were flyers, 2 flew away. 1 impaled herself on a sharp area of our chain link fencing (lesson learned on fencing) we are now duck proofed, and we saw a necessity to clip wings, even though at first I did not want to. 1 was killed by one of my dogs; I have 4 dogs, the other 3 have no issues and can be around the ducks with absolutely no problems. But my Beagle, terrier mix is just a duck killer and we did not realize till too late and she had flew out (during that time period that we did not really know they could fly) of the fenced area we had them in, into the main area and he was on her before we could get to them.
So, we have 2 Muscovies, Albert and Blackfoot. They are AWESOME. Friendly, they love our swimming pool. We can pet them, we hang out with them on the weekends. they talk to us (hissing) telling us what happened all week. Albert had a mishap with sticking his head through the fence, so he only has 1 functional eye, but that has not slowed him down. They sit in our laps. I love them. Blackfoot lays an egg a day and I LOVE duck eggs.
So were did the 3 Amigos come from? Well, when the last 2 flew away, I was a little distraught. And feeling a little like a failure again. So I was at Tractor Supply; and there were 3 little puff balls being beat up by a whole bunch of much older pullets. And they were curled up in a corner, and I could tell they had not been able to get to the water. So I went into save the world mode.. again; and brought them home. Al and Blackfoot HATE them, lol, but they are ok now, because they are SO much bigger than both of them. But Blackfoot still rules the roost.
So we have a wonderful little ducky family of 5 and have been so for many months. No major occurrences. We have worked through the issues, the injuries, the deaths, and they have been such a joy to be with and spend time with.
![IMG_0179[1071].jpg](https://www.backyardchickens.com/data/attachments/1590/1590915-5fc9de7cb1087be07e44e2e43e089ab9.jpg "IMG_0179[1071].jpg")
![55655848655__8438BF90-90F8-4BD6-A175-94DADB32B300[1070].JPEG](https://www.backyardchickens.com/data/attachments/1590/1590914-40b0a1a622b2eda695b977c72e255164.jpg "55655848655__8438BF90-90F8-4BD6-A175-94DADB32B300[1070].JPEG")
![IMG_0375[1069].jpg](https://www.backyardchickens.com/data/attachments/1590/1590916-581d2491872d1752cab979bf7174d1b8.jpg "IMG_0375[1069].jpg")
![IMG_0411[1063].jpg](https://www.backyardchickens.com/data/attachments/1590/1590917-6ecb1c2e4e74aa844a6c881e3b4c7270.jpg "IMG_0411[1063].jpg")
![IMG_0429[1066].jpg](https://www.backyardchickens.com/data/attachments/1590/1590918-92a83fb74d84e318990a0515d12856ec.jpg "IMG_0429[1066].jpg")
![IMG_0490[1065].jpg](https://www.backyardchickens.com/data/attachments/1590/1590919-408df8aaf023da8c5fdf7f4af3c3f31c.jpg "IMG_0490[1065].jpg")
(1) Are you new to chickens / when did you first get chickens? I do not have chickens, I used to, but I have switched to ducks now. I have now have added to my family 5 duckies: 2 Muskovies and 3 Pekins. A Male Muskovy named Albert, A Female Muskovy named Blackfoot, and the 3 amigos (Pekins) named: Aflac (Female) and Fire & Steve (Males).
(2) How many chickens do you have right now? I answered above
(3) What breeds do you have? I answered above
(4) What are your favorite aspects of raising backyard chickens? Well, I have a background story. I currently live in Southern Alabama. I relocated in 2006. Before that I lived in Washington State, in the foothills of Mt. Rainier. In Washington I have a whole flock of Easter egg layers; about 30-35 total, and managed them for about 2 years. It was awesome. I had a Gratis egg station out in front of my house, that people would take what they needed, and if they could, or would, a money can was there. I just raised them because I loved it. Not for the money. Unfortunately, I had a fire and the barn they lived in burned down, and as you well know, as a community, chickens, do not head the warning of fire alarms, and no-one evacuated. I lost every single one of my chickens, and it was not as simple as just, they were dead, it was a lot of having to hunt them down in the areas around the barn, etc.. I will not go into details, but I am sure you can imagine. It was a 5 alarm fire, and the fire department personnel were awesome, in assisting my husband and I in recovering and humanly working with all of the animals. I thank God for them. Ultimately, I felt that I had failed them; and swore I would never have any farm animals again. I sold my horses, sheep, cows, everything. Because I was not a good mom.
Eventually, I moved to lower Alabama. It has been many years. I live on a very large lot that abuts a heavily wooded area. I was mowing my VERY large yard. I make a loop, and when I come back around, I see a black and yellow blob sitting in the path of the lawn mower (riding). So I do not get real close, I shut down the lawn mower and go to investigate. And that little blob is 3 wild muskovy day old ducklings, and not afraid at all. So I pick them up and put them in my hat and take them to my husband that is in his shop. He immediately brightens up and says "OMG! are those what I think they are?" and I said yep, ducks. So I grabbed a box, put them in the box and went to walk over to the house, so that I could let my daughter watch them for a minute till I could figure out what to do (my daughter and her husband live in our self-efficiency apartment). As I came around the corner, out of the woods, came 3 more ducklings. Peeping and at a full run, straight to me, because I had the other peepers in the box. So I collected them all up, and by that time, my daughter came out.
So, to shorten the story a bit. I feel that God said: It is time. You need to get over yourself. Things happen. Please take care of these babies. We did look for the Momma duck for about 20 minutes. Because we figured she would be on a Quack rampage, but we did not hear anything, we scoured the creek behind out house, to no avail. There are alot of Fox, Racoon, Bobcat, etc around our house, because of the wood area, also hunters..
So, we raised the 6, before we realized they were flyers, 2 flew away. 1 impaled herself on a sharp area of our chain link fencing (lesson learned on fencing) we are now duck proofed, and we saw a necessity to clip wings, even though at first I did not want to. 1 was killed by one of my dogs; I have 4 dogs, the other 3 have no issues and can be around the ducks with absolutely no problems. But my Beagle, terrier mix is just a duck killer and we did not realize till too late and she had flew out (during that time period that we did not really know they could fly) of the fenced area we had them in, into the main area and he was on her before we could get to them.
So, we have 2 Muscovies, Albert and Blackfoot. They are AWESOME. Friendly, they love our swimming pool. We can pet them, we hang out with them on the weekends. they talk to us (hissing) telling us what happened all week. Albert had a mishap with sticking his head through the fence, so he only has 1 functional eye, but that has not slowed him down. They sit in our laps. I love them. Blackfoot lays an egg a day and I LOVE duck eggs.
So were did the 3 Amigos come from? Well, when the last 2 flew away, I was a little distraught. And feeling a little like a failure again. So I was at Tractor Supply; and there were 3 little puff balls being beat up by a whole bunch of much older pullets. And they were curled up in a corner, and I could tell they had not been able to get to the water. So I went into save the world mode.. again; and brought them home. Al and Blackfoot HATE them, lol, but they are ok now, because they are SO much bigger than both of them. But Blackfoot still rules the roost.
So we have a wonderful little ducky family of 5 and have been so for many months. No major occurrences. We have worked through the issues, the injuries, the deaths, and they have been such a joy to be with and spend time with.
Glad you joined.
Your duckies are adorable! Hope to see you around the forum!
We are glad you joined our flock!
