Laying Habits of Muscovies?

[Newbie6789]

I am new to ducks and muscovies in particular. Just got a hen and drake to add with my pekin and 4 YO Muscovy hen. Questions:
1. My Pekin lays an egg/day for 3 days, 1 day off
2. Do muscovies lay the whole nest in one sitting?
3. I would LOVE my drake to cross with my Pekin - how will I know if she was bred?
4. are ducks social? The pekin (Thelma) talked up a storm when it was her and another pekin female. lost one, got her Muscovy buddies, now she seems content
Thanks for insights

 

[Isaac 0]

I am new to ducks and muscovies in particular. Just got a hen and drake to add with my pekin and 4 YO Muscovy hen. Questions:
1. My Pekin lays an egg/day for 3 days, 1 day off
2. Do muscovies lay the whole nest in one sitting?
3. I would LOVE my drake to cross with my Pekin - how will I know if she was bred?
4. are ducks social? The pekin (Thelma) talked up a storm when it was her and another pekin female. lost one, got her Muscovy buddies, now she seems content
Thanks for insights

1. That seems normal to me, each bird has its own laying routine.

2. No, they will lay one egg a day until they have around 10 eggs or so and then they will sit.

3. If she lays any eggs, you can crack one open and check for a bullseye on the yolk indicating its fertile.

4. Yes, ducks are very social birds.

 

[SkyeT]

My girls lay 1 egg per day for about 10 days. Take a break and repeat. They will lay on the same spot until I take enough of their eggs that they get mad and move. We don't let them hatch, as we eat the eggs, and gather every day. They get broody and start yelling at you, and they don't even have to be on their nest to yell at you. Our alpha has a serious attitude right now and chirpyells at us if we look at her funny.

Mine usually lay by lunch, but it is never a guarantee with Salt. She has her own clock. She is also the broodiest.

Ducks are very social and love company. Ours considers us part of the flock and forage and sit next to us when we are outside. They respond to simple voice commands and sayings. When we talk to them, they stop and listen, though we probably make no sense to them.

Pekin and Muscovy will cross, but my understanding is that it is rare and the offspring will be infertile. You are going to want to get the make a few more girls. Boys are mate happy and will overmate your female, which can cause damage or even death.

If your male is anything like the one male pekin we had at sexual maturity, he will be relentless with the females. Ours got so bad we had to rehome him to a farm where he was surrounded by females all day.

 

[Newbie6789]

1. That seems normal to me, each bird has its own laying routine.

2. No, they will lay one egg a day until they have around 10 eggs or so and then they will sit.

3. If she lays any eggs, you can crack one open and check for a bullseye on the yolk indicating its fertile.

4. Yes, ducks are very social birds.

My girls lay 1 egg per day for about 10 days. Take a break and repeat. They will lay on the same spot until I take enough of their eggs that they get mad and move. We don't let them hatch, as we eat the eggs, and gather every day. They get broody and start yelling at you, and they don't even have to be on their nest to yell at you. Our alpha has a serious attitude right now and chirpyells at us if we look at her funny.

Mine usually lay by lunch, but it is never a guarantee with Salt. She has her own clock. She is also the broodiest.

Ducks are very social and love company. Ours considers us part of the flock and forage and sit next to us when we are outside. They respond to simple voice commands and sayings. When we talk to them, they stop and listen, though we probably make no sense to them.

Pekin and Muscovy will cross, but my understanding is that it is rare and the offspring will be infertile. You are going to want to get the make a few more girls. Boys are mate happy and will overmate your female, which can cause damage or even death.

If your male is anything like the one male pekin we had at sexual maturity, he will be relentless with the females. Ours got so bad we had to rehome him to a farm where he was surrounded by females all day.

 

[Newbie6789]

Thanks both. a few more questions.
The older Muscovy hen (4-5 YO) hasn't started to lay. The people we got her from said she has in the past.
Could she be done or too old, or is it still to early in southern WI?
The new younger Muscovy hen is getting her fill of "boy time". How long are ducks in heat for breeding?
We are getting 4 khaki campbell ducklings (hens) in early May. if I keep them in the same hut, walled off from the older ones, will that work or will the older ones kill them?
This duck thing is fun!!! I grew up on a farm in SD with cattle, sheep, hogs, horses but no fowl. I had no idea how personable they could be!

 

[Miss Lydia]

I have 2 almost 9 yr old Muscovy an almost 8 yr old all 3 just started laying for this season. Ducks don’t go in heat they have breeding season which usually starts in spring March here and with Muscovy ends in October. Other domestics breed and will lay year round depending on the breed. You’ll need to set up a meet an greet area so your KC once old enough to be outside can meet your adults with fencing in between. It takes time an patience but they will get use to one another

 

[SkyeT]

Our girls started laying New Years day, but I also live in south Texas, so I have 1 up on many people in terms of laying season. Last year, our first eggs came Dec 25, 2018 and the last one was gathered Nov 2, 2019.

We got 3 runner chicks in the first week of Feb. They lived completely indoors for 6 weeks. Then, we began taking them outside for a few hours everyday for 1 week, to meet and explore. Last week, we set up a temporary pen so they could be outside all day, and sleep inside at night. This week, they began sleeping in the big pen, with a fence between them and the adult ducks. Everyone sleeps together safely.

Our alpha female, Pepa, has taken a few swipes at them to say she is the boss. Salt, her sister has taken one, way at the beginning, but seems to now want to hang out when she isnt being miss broodypants. Sunshine, our Rouen, is not so sure about the newbies, especially since Brownie has taken to chasing her around.

We sit outside with the newbies when they are out of the pen because we still dont want the male Muscovy, Cupcake, to get friendly with the new ones. He is at least 3 times their size and we are afraid he will squish the girls. He refuses to mount in the water, the dork. He pretty much refuses to get in the water period. We took it slow, and it is paying off. It seems everyone is getting along and wanting to hang out. Hopefully in a couple of weeks we will be confident enough for some unsupervised time outside.