Magnificent Marvelous Muscovies!

[Claires Poultry]

I got a big surprise last Saturday morning!

Y'all want to take a guess on what it is?
I'll give you a clue.....

 

[Muscovy Wunda]

I got a big surprise last Saturday morning!

Y'all want to take a guess on what it is?
I'll give you a clue.....

a bucket of KFC or a bunch of sweet little scovy ducklings?

 

[Claires Poultry]

a bucket of KFC or a bunch of sweet little scovy ducklings?

You got it - some sweet little scovy ducklings!

I had 2 broody Muscovy hens (Zara and young Lilach) sitting together on 22 eggs. I thought their eggs were going to hatch July 1st through 5th, but sometimes it's hard to tell the exact day they start sitting.

The hens tend to do this thing I call "fake sitting", which is when they sit on their eggs off and on until they go into full sitting mode.

Anyways they hatched last Saturday, June 29th.

ALL 22 of the eggs hatched into cute fuzzy fluffballs! I'm so glad to have another 100% hatch rate! That's my Muscovies, great, adorable, wonderful, REALLY fertile ducks.
I ❤❤❤❤❤ my Muscovies!!!

I will try to get some pics very soon!

 

[CindyinSD]

Thank you for joining us here at the Magnificent Marvelous Muscovies thread! We're so glad to have you here! That's so cool you are "nearby" according to Dakota standards!

Looking forward to seeing pics of your Muscovies if you end up getting some next year!

I usually butcher my Muscovies at 15 weeks old. I find that they are nice and tender and are a pretty good size at that age.

The only breed of ducks I currently have are Muscovies and I have never had or eaten any Mulard ducks.

Thanks for the info! I’ve heard them referred to the beef of the poultry world.

I was wondering whether Muskovies could breed with Mallard-derived species and that’s how I happened to hear of Mulards. The Mulards sound cool, but then I’m always interested in anything different.

For waterfowl, I’ve got four Buff geese and I have four wee Welshies that I hatched. I would have bought Muscovy eggs but I’m new to hatching and I just kept reading how tricky they are to incubate. I also got some Cochin chicks. Lucky me, it looks like I got three pullets and a cockerel. They’re really good as broodies, I’m told, so maybe I can have them hatch some Muskovie babies for me in the spring... if we get a spring next year. (Or even if not.)

Thanks for the welcome! I look forward to all y’all’s Muskovie tales and photos, wisdom and lore.

 

[Claires Poultry]

In the meantime, while you are waiting for pics of the new ducklings, here is a video of Yasmin's ducklings (at 2 weeks, 4 days old). Today they are 3 weeks old.

 

[Claires Poultry]

Thanks for the info! I’ve heard them referred to the beef of the poultry world.

I was wondering whether Muskovies could breed with Mallard-derived species and that’s how I happened to hear of Mulards. The Mulards sound cool, but then I’m always interested in anything different.

For waterfowl, I’ve got four Buff geese and I have four wee Welshies that I hatched. I would have bought Muscovy eggs but I’m new to hatching and I just kept reading how tricky they are to incubate. I also got some Cochin chicks. Lucky me, it looks like I got three pullets and a cockerel. They’re really good as broodies, I’m told, so maybe I can have them hatch some Muskovie babies for me in the spring... if we get a spring next year. (Or even if not.)

Thanks for the welcome! I look forward to all y’all’s Muskovie tales and photos, wisdom and lore.

Sounds like you have a very nice flock of poultry! That would be great if your Cochins could hatch some Muscovies for you!
I have hatched Muscovy eggs with broody chickens before and it worked out just fine - they had a great hatch rate!

Happy Poultry-ing to you!

 

[Muscovy Wunda]

Here's an update of my three chickadees. Thought I'd give them some grass time in puppy pen (I've made sure to cover it, wedge tails have been pinching lambs close to house) I always thought the girls got their feathers first but this makes me second guess. They hatched 22nd-23rd april. I've gone off size for gender, whats everyone elses thoughts?

 

[Claires Poultry]

Here's an update of my three chickadees. Thought I'd give them some grass time in puppy pen (I've made sure to cover it, wedge tails have been pinching lambs close to house) I always thought the girls got their feathers first but this makes me second guess. They hatched 22nd-23rd april. I've gone off size for gender, whats everyone elses thoughts?View attachment 1830811 View attachment 1830816 View attachment 1830811 View attachment 1830816

I've never payed any attention to who gets their feathers in first when trying to determine the gender. I always look at the size - the drakes are bigger. Just recently I saw that someone had said the hens grow their feathers in faster than the drakes. Very interesting though, because in the pics you're showing, I think the ones with more feathers look bigger which would lead me to believe the ones with more feathers are the drakes.

 

[Miss Lydia]

Looks like 2 drakes 1 female?

 

[Anime2lover]

My muscovy mix, oreo is enjoying his days.