Just adopted Muscovies..

[itsbob]

I have/had both Pekins and Khakis, and they stayed on the ground. Neither would walk up the ramp into the coop, and even slept on the bare ground.

Two weekends ago I adopted 4 female muscovy..

I've seen a Muscovy on a roost, and tonight 3 of 4 are in the coop with the chickens. Can I expect them to lay their eggs in the same nests in the coop?

Also I have a Pekin Drake, I would assume he can fertilize the muscovy females too? Is there a way to tell the difference between Pekin and Muscovy? How abput Khaki? Don't have any Khakis at the moment but have 7 baking in the incubator now.

 

[gander007]

I had a pond about 10 years ago and yes Kaki Campbell's can fly
about 100 yards at a time but not migrate this is not a correction
just an observation I made some time ago ........


gander007

 

[itsbob]

I had a pond about 10 years ago and yes Kaki Campbell's can fly
about 100 yards at a time but not migrate this is not a correction
just an observation I made some time ago  ........


gander007   

I asked Metzer about the Khakis, somewhere I read they needed to be clipped.. they told me without a doubt they can't fly, enough to escape a fox maybe but not going to fly away ( and apparenly, and sadly not very good at escaping from foxes)

The Muscovies I've caught three and clipped them, hoping #4 won't leave without them.

 

[sourland]

The muscovies may very well lay their eggs in the coop in the chicken nest boxes. If he can catch them, the pekin can fertilize the Muscovy eggs. Any ducklings that result will be infertile - mules.

 

[itsbob]

The muscovies may very well lay their eggs in the coop in the chicken nest boxes.  If he can catch them, the pekin can fertilize the Muscovy eggs.  Any ducklings that result will be infertile - mules.

Perfect thanks...

I'm hoping they lay in the coop and the Pekins lay on the ground.. not sure there is any other way to twll them apart.

 

[sourland]

If you have pekin hens, the pekin drake may prefer them to the muscovies and mate with them only.

 

[The Yakima Kid]

I have/had both Pekins and Khakis, and they stayed on the ground. Neither would walk up the ramp into the coop, and even slept on the bare ground.

Two weekends ago I adopted 4 female muscovy..

I've seen a Muscovy on a roost, and tonight 3 of 4 are in the coop with the chickens. Can I expect them to lay their eggs in the same nests in the coop?

Also I have a Pekin Drake, I would assume he can fertilize the muscovy females too? Is there a way to tell the difference between Pekin and Muscovy? How abput Khaki? Don't have any Khakis at the moment but have 7 baking in the incubator now.

The French cross Muscovy ducks and regular ducks to produce what they call a "mule duck." I don't know which kind they use for which gender in the cross.

 

[itsbob]

If you have pekin hens, the pekin drake may prefer them to the muscovies and mate with them only.

Thanks,

When I adopted the Muscovies I also adopted another female Pekin.. so one male Pekin, 2 female Pekins, amd 4 Muscovies

 

[The Yakima Kid]

OK. I did some looking around:

~~The Mulard (or Moulard) is a domestic duck hybrid of Pekin and Muscovy ducks. The mulard, therefore, is not just a hybrid between different species, but between different genera: the Muscovy is (Cairina moschata) whereas the Pekin is descended from the Mallard (Anas platyrhynchos). Like many inter-specific F1 hybrids, mulards are sterile and are commonly called "mule ducks". They can be propagated by mating male muscovies with female pekins, but most are produced by artificial insemination. Strictly speaking, by analogy to hybrids between horses and donkeys, the term Mulard or Moulard should be reserved for offspring where the parental drake is the Muscovy, and the duck the pekin. When the drake is the pekin, the offspring tend to be smaller and are called hinnies.

~~The incubation period of the hybrid eggs is between the Mallard and Muscovy, with an average of 32 days. About half of the eggs hatch into mulard ducks.[citation needed] Mulards tend to combine certain traits of the parent breeds. Due to their Muscovy heritage, they produce leaner meat than Pekins; females tend to be raised for meat while males are used for foie gras. Like Muscovy ducks, mulards have claws on their feet, but do not fly and perch; instead, they prefer to stay on water, as Pekins do.[2]

~~Traditionally, foie gras was primarily produced with geese, but in the 1960s the majority of farmers began to use mulards. Geese are more expensive to maintain than ducks (they are larger and more aggressive), and the more temperamental Muscovies did not accept the process of gavage (force feeding) as readily as Pekins, causing the quality of the foie gras to suffer.[2] This problem was avoided by the introduction of mulards. These hybrids have also become extremely common in countries where foie gras is not produced.[3] Today in France, the leading foie gras producer and consumer, the use of hybrid ducks outnumbers the use of geese. In 2007, there were 35 million mulard ducks raised in the country, compared with only 800,000 geese.[1] In addition to Europe and the United States, mulards are widely raised throughout Southeast Asia.[3]

 

[The Yakima Kid]

According to Metzer Farms:

~~Mule Ducks or Moulards Muscovy and domestic ducks (such as the Pekin - which were developed from Mallards) are very different as they have been genetically isolated for over 50 million years. They can be crossed but you get some very interesting results. If you cross a Muscovy male with a Pekin female you will hatch moulards (or mule ducks); if you cross a Pekin male with a Muscovy female the progeny are called hinnies. In Europe and in Asia many mule ducks are produced because of their large size, quality liver and reduced fat content in the carcass. Artificial insemination has been developed in ducks due to the desire to produce mule ducks. If left to mate naturally, the fertility is only 20-30%. Artificial insemination brings the fertility up to 80%. Whereas a Pekin takes 28 days to hatch and a Muscovy takes 35 days, a mule or hinny takes 32 days to hatch. Approximately 60% of mule ducks are males. Some of their characteristics are like the Muscovy as they are large, quiet, slow moving and have long claws but are also like Pekin as they swim well, the males and females are much the same size and they do not fly. Hinnies are not grown commercially. Males hinnies are much larger than female hinnies, like the muscovy, yet the females look like Pekins but fly quite well. Mules and hinnies cannot reproduce. Both males are sterile and only the hinny females lay eggs (though they cannot hatch). If you have Muscovy and Pekin together, the chances are poor that they will cross but if they do, a hinny will probably be the result as Pekin males can catch Muscovy females easier than Muscovy males can catch Pekin females. We do not produce mules or hinnies but thought you might enjoy this material on this interesting aspect of duck production and genetics.