Live in Suburbia/City area??

[Bananarose24]

We live in a Suburb just outside of a City.. literally 1 mile out of the city.
Technically we are Not allowed to have any Fowl of any kind--that is what the ordinance for our county says (it requires a minimum of 1 acre of land, we only have .14 acres).

But, alas, we have 2 Muscovy Ducks, and are getting 3 more tomorrow.
So, I was just wondering, does anyone else live in a Suburb or in a City with a small piece of land, and still manage to keep Ducks?? Whether you're supposed to or not?

Also, has anyone ever had an issue with a neighbor reporting your ducks and then having the city or whoever try to take them away or make you get rid of them?
This is one thing I worry about often and was just wondering whether anyone has been there....

So far, all of the neighbors who know are Great about it. They think it is neat, a bit strange, but still neat. And they actually have been keeping an eye out for us for any predators (one neighbor spotted a fox last night and called us).

But, we do have one horrible neighbor.. actually lives next door. She has not seen them, and should not know anything about them yet.. we have a tall fence with trees so she cannot see them, and we have Muscovies--they rarely Quack (which is why we got them). She is really the only person I'm worried about reporting us to someone..

Also, is there anyway to change this ordinance? Any advice would be great!

 

[Danaus29]

I recently went through the Muscovy fiasco. If you are not aware of the Fish and Wildlife service regulations concerning Muscovy ducks you need to get familiar with it very fast. According to the legislation you cannot legally acquire new Muscovies after March 31, this year. Your small flock is illegal. It also is not legal to keep them as pets or for breeding purposes. Your local zoning or animal control can have them removed and destroyed.

Supposedly changes in the legislation are underway but don't hold your breath. After all the double speak and back peddaling they have done I seriously doubt the regs will be changed. And because the regs prohibiting keeping of Muscovy ducks are federal regs your local authorities will not try to work with you. It has been claimed that enforcement of the new regulations is on hold, but since Fish and Wildlife did not officially place a hold on the regs your local authorities have no choice but to veiw Muscovies as an invasive species and any new flocks or any breeding is strictly prohibited.

You can write to George Allen with Fish and Wildlife and he will assure you that you can keep your ducks and the regulations will be changed to allow private owners to keep and breed their ducks but until that happens Muscovies are prohibited. Local authorities can have them removed and destroyed and Fish and Wildlife will do nothing about it.

I'm sorry. I wish I had better news. I wish you the best of luck.

 

[Rozzie]

You are much more likely to have problems result from illegally keeping 5 very visible, large, noisy birds (ducks) than 5 small, quiet birds (hens or Japanese Quail) that you could keep out of sight in a building of some sort.

 

[Bananarose24]

Danaus===I will look into that.


Rozzie---This breed rarely Quacks.. just fyi. Only one of our ducks Quacks.. so no noise. And they are in an enclosure, so they arent very visible.

 

[Bananarose24]

Quote:
Well, I'm glad you pointed this out.. I just found the information on the fish/wildlifes website.. I will be calling my husband in a minute to talk about this... he is the one who convinced me to get these ducks after doing a bunch of research...

 

[Danaus29]

How many drakes do you have? Drakes when fighting in the spring do make quite a bit of noise. And unless you are very good at taking all the eggs and finding every hiding spot where the females are laying you will end up with babies. The females are quiet, not silent but very very quiet.

Here's the Mother Earth News article about them. The Fish and Wildlife link is in the article. I am having trouble getting the site to load so I'm not posting that direct link.
http://www.motherearthnews.com/Happy-Homesteader/Muscovy-ducks-illegal.aspx

I had one female that was an escape artist. She was able to get out of every enclosure I ever penned her in. She also got good at hiding her nests. She laid one clutch under a riding lawn mower and hatched 5 babies. The day before they hatched something got into the nest and ate 5 ducklings in the shell. I sent her to a home where she would have 10 acres to roam. Last I heard she was wandering most of the new home and still climbing fences.

 

[nonseq]

Danaus - The ducks at Slate Run Historical Farm are Muscovies........I thought that was curious.

 

[Danaus29]

As I was recently told by a board of health official (another matter, related but not concerning my former flock) one government entity has little to no authority to regulate another government entity. Zoning isn't going to tell a metro park that they can't have those ducks. Just like the board of health has no authority to require the parks to keep their property mowed.

Thanks for the info about Slate Run. I've got some info to find.

 

[Bananarose24]

Quote:
Out of curiosity, were your Muscovies taken from you? If so, do you know what happened to them?

 

[Danaus29]

No they weren't taken because I was able to rehome all except 4 before the final hearing. I was given 30 days to remove the last 4 or they would have been confiscated. Some friends have most of my girls, I sold the best mama's at an incredibly cheap price to a young man who wanted to get into Muscovies. He got a clutch of babies too. The last 4 are now living in temporary quarters on my mom's 8 acre mini-farm. They need a new home before winter hits. I don't know where to send them though. I had 35 named pet ducks. Unless I buy a larger plot of land somewhere outside this county I can't bring my last 4 home. Purchasing another property is out of the question right now.