Muscovy keepers share your pics!

[Buck Oakes]

oh and i'm happy to report that those eggs did hatch and i got six beautiful babies from that clutch of twelve. and those six are now turning into a beautiful set, but i hope she never gives me that scare again because i thought she was egg bound and thank hod she wasn't

 

[Going Quackers]

I do tend to agree odd shaped eggs may not be as successful in their hatching, that said since i use ducks to incubate my birds are the ones who handle the process and rarely do i remove any..

 

[Going Quackers]

I would get an incubator if you really want babies incase she doesn't go broody

Now i won't say all because i am positive someone will step in and say ' so & so has never gone broody' but usually, typically, commonly with Muscovy females they will at some point go broody ... and some are insane and will NOT stop no matter what you do, certain breeds are well known for broodiness and Muscovy are one for sure.

It actually cost me a duck this year, so imo an incubator is not really needed with raising scovies... unless you do not want naturally raised babies.

 

[Going Quackers]

First off I never let my first time mamas have more than 4-8 eggs to sit, They need the experience before having to care for alot of babies. Just me though.

This is valid and well worth consideration. A good broody does not equate to a good mother and you will have to 'step in' one thing to say let a mama raise multitudes of babies and entirely different story if it's all on your shoulders.

I also know in the learning curve of motherhood some start bad and with age improve, i had a mama duck a few years ago, kill her babies.. i stopped her from sitting for some time, decided this year to try again, she did excellent this round, raising 7 babies... and dedicated to them well into 2mths of age.

so this is why i always like a test, my newest mama a barely 1yo raised some late this summer and did well but she only had 4 which was the max i would want to handle and i have raised scovies myself due to circumstances so i know from experience they are huge, messy ducks to raise yourself lol way more pleasant to let mama do it

 

[MsPoultry]

I was having golf ball size eggs but they we're infertile, some had yolks but didn't have a bulls eye or blood spot and some didn't have an air sac and like this happened in like June or July can't really remember, but those were just laid right before she laid a clutch of twelve in ine sitting,

My idea was that they were missing the parts that would contain fertilization and embryo stuff and that's why there infertile because any shaped eggs can be fertile unless there missing that part of the egg that would hold sperm that's why I asked if they had yolks or not because if there missing yolks they could be missing a lot more in the eggs that have yolks,make sense or stupid theory?

 

[houdiniduck]

Well the update for today is she moved and gathered the eggs into a pile! I am going to be taking the next three for eating, so hopefully she will be tolerant of that and still go broody. We all want to eat one duck egg to try them.... The egg today was slightly bigger than the egg yesterday... I wonder how much bigger they will get!

 

[Buck Oakes]

Quote:
makes sense )

 

[MsPoultry]

Cool

 

[Onlyducks]

We are expecting our first winter storm and cold temps—down to −10F. I was out adding wind protection to the pen, the muscovies were out and about when one decided to try flight. I had not clipped their wings after they molted, thinking if I put them in the garden, they might need to fly to escape predators. However, one look at how very adept the scovy was at flight lead to an immediate wing clipping party on all five females. I had visions of one them trying the flight thing in a blizzard and ending up dead. I didn't know if the five females would flock together and take off or not, but I really did not want to lose any due to unclipped wings.

One interesting thing—I usually net them to catch them, but the net gave out so my husband and I were cornering and catching (him more than me—faster reflexes, I guess). The final female, when caught, quacked!! A genuine duck quack. In eight months, I had never heard a quack out of any of them, just cooing. They are in the smallest pen now and we may move them to our greenhouse tomorrow when the temps start droppping.

 

[Pyxis]

We are expecting our first winter storm and cold temps—down to −10F.  I was out adding wind protection to the pen, the muscovies were out and about when one decided to try flight.  I had not clipped their wings after they molted, thinking if I put them in the garden, they might need to fly to escape predators.  However, one look at how very adept the scovy was at flight lead to an immediate wing clipping party on all five females.  I had visions of one them trying the flight thing in a blizzard and ending up dead.   I didn't know if the five females would flock together and take off or not, but I really did not want to lose any due to unclipped wings.

One interesting thing—I usually net them to catch them, but the net gave out so my husband and I were cornering and catching (him more than me—faster reflexes, I guess).  The final female, when caught, quacked!! A genuine duck quack.  In eight months, I had never heard a quack out of any of them, just cooing.  They are in the smallest pen now and we may move them to our greenhouse tomorrow when the temps start droppping.  

Same thing happened to me when I caught mine to clip her wings - she quacked a real quack. Hadn't heard that before. Guess she was voicing her displeasure, lol.