Muscovy keepers share your pics!

[Miss Lydia]

It's always a risk to let our flocks free range. Not only foxes but hawks and any number of other predators will be looking at them as a potential meal.. even more so in winter when the preds natural prey is hiding out till spring. We have to make the decision do we keep them inside a fence or let them roam around unprotected? I have half acre fenced for my flock but alot of days when I am home and about outside they can go out of the fence and forage if they want too. When I am not home they are inside the fence. In winter they are not allowed out of their half acre since with the windows closed i cannot hear what is going on, Just today my rooster began screeching not his normal sound so I went out to see what was going on, a huge red tail was sitting in a tree right above their area, All the chickens had went for cover, my Muscovy's? were all sitting out in the open [under leafless trees looking up.] I don't think Muscovy's would be able to escape a sly fox. If one was to get away he would just go after another. So again most of us who choose to let our flocks free range take a risk of losing some or all we have had members come in to say they were completely wiped out because they didn't want to lock their Scovy's up at night. thankfully in the over 11 yrs I have had Muscovy's I haven't lost any to a predator. Mine are locked up at night too. There are many kinds of predators and one of the worse is free roaming dogs. Not just wild animals.

 

[Miss Lydia]

I have 2 female pekins they are 7 months old. They are continually "mating". Someone on this forum said they are doing this for dominance. Go figure! It is usually when they get clean water in their pool, which is each day. I don't see them doing anything while they are out and about.

My girls are real layers, I get 2 eggs a day from them. Will they stop laying in the winter? Our winters are mild in Texas. Do they determine whether they lay or not by the number of daylight hours? Thanks for the information.

They may just lay over winter and take breaks in between. They have to rest their bodies periodically or they would lay out way too soon. So you may see them take 2-4 weeks off now and again and when they molt they won't lay either.
All female ducks will act out the mating ritual with another female they may even switch too where the one who was on bottom one day may be on top the next. Drakes will do it too.

 

[MandyJ]

It's always a risk to let our flocks free range. Not only foxes but hawks and any number of other predators will be looking at them as a potential meal.. even more so in winter when the preds natural prey is hiding out till spring. We have to make the decision do we keep them inside a fence or let them roam around unprotected? I have half acre fenced for my flock but alot of days when I am home and about outside they can go out of the fence and forage if they want too. When I am not home they are inside the fence. In winter they are not allowed out of their half acre since with the windows closed i cannot hear what is going on, Just today my rooster began screeching not his normal sound so I went out to see what was going on, a huge red tail was sitting in a tree right above their area, All the chickens had went for cover, my Muscovy's? were all sitting out in the open [under leafless trees looking up.] I don't think Muscovy's would be able to escape a sly fox. If one was to get away he would just go after another. So again most of us who choose to let our flocks free range take a risk of losing some or all we have had members come in to say they were completely wiped out because they didn't want to lock their Scovy's up at night. thankfully in the over 11 yrs I have had Muscovy's I haven't lost any to a predator. Mine are locked up at night too. There are many kinds of predators and one of the worse is free roaming dogs. Not just wild animals.

Thank you Miss Lydia for answering your answers are always helpful! I have talked to you a few times about ducks. So far we have lost our ducks to free roaming dogs and turtles!!! I never thought that turtles would kill ducks, how stupid I was!

I hear what you are saying about free ranging ducks but it is very nice that they are getting bugs. We are having a grasshopper explosion in Texas, they love them! So far the ducks stay pretty close to the house and MY dogs protect them. LOL The ducks are so excited in the morning, they know that at 8 they are let out of their pen, it is celebration time! The run to their kiddie pool jump in, splash around and then start hunting bugs.

Thanks again!

 

[Miss Lydia]

Thank you Miss Lydia for answering your answers are always helpful! I have talked to you a few times about ducks. So far we have lost our ducks to free roaming dogs and turtles!!! I never thought that turtles would kill ducks, how stupid I was!

I hear what you are saying about free ranging ducks but it is very nice that they are getting bugs. We are having a grasshopper explosion in Texas, they love them! So far the ducks stay pretty close to the house and MY dogs protect them. LOL The ducks are so excited in the morning, they know that at 8 they are let out of their pen, it is celebration time! The run to their kiddie pool jump in, splash around and then start hunting bugs.

Thanks again!

Mine would love living there all the bugs have gone south for the winter here. lol But if we warm up like they say we're going to they maybe back before spring. Are you talking about snapping turtles @MandyJ they are a gruesome pred of water fowl.

 

[chickengr]

Hello, When people say that scovies or ducks in general are messy what is meant by this? Is it food waste or eating habits etc? Thanks!

you cannot have clean water with scovies. they will have a bath even in a small dish, lol. I throw some sawdust in the run so the pooping problem is partly solved. I add some new from time to time so it is a kind of deep litter and mostly dry. at some point we have terrible storm that washes everything away.

 

[chickengr]

I have 2 female pekins they are 7 months old. They are continually "mating". Someone on this forum said they are doing this for dominance. Go figure! It is usually when they get clean water in their pool, which is each day. I don't see them doing anything while they are out and about.

My girls are real layers, I get 2 eggs a day from them. Will they stop laying in the winter? Our winters are mild in Texas. Do they determine whether they lay or not by the number of daylight hours? Thanks for the information.

I've heard that pekin ducks lay every day even in the winter. our winters are mild as well.

 

[MandyJ]

I've heard that pekin ducks lay every day even in the winter. our winters are mild as well.

Oh dear....guess we are going to have to find other people that want duck eggs. We already give them to a man down the street but he is tired of eating that many eggs. We can only eat so many eggs! LOL

So far the past few days only one of my ladies has been laying. We'll see. I'll keep you posted!

 

[MandyJ]

Mine would love living there all the bugs have gone south for the winter here. lol But if we warm up like they say we're going to they maybe back before spring. Are you talking about snapping turtles @MandyJ they are a gruesome pred of water fowl.

I don't know what kind of turtles we have, I have only seen them from across the tank sunning. But I did see that something was feeding on one of the ducks. It was too far out to get a net on the bird to see. Terrible! But now none of the ducks will go in our pond. They may have a foot in the water but the other foot is always on land!! They much prefer their little kiddie pool that I change the water in each day to play in. But I put a rock in the kiddie pool so that if a wild bird got in the water it could get out. Let me tell you the ducks would have no part of the pool till I took the rock out. I guess it looked like a turtle to them! LOL

 

[Miss Lydia]

I don't know what kind of turtles we have, I have only seen them from across the tank sunning. But I did see that something was feeding on one of the ducks. It was too far out to get a net on the bird to see. Terrible! But now none of the ducks will go in our pond. They may have a foot in the water but the other foot is always on land!! They much prefer their little kiddie pool that I change the water in each day to play in. But I put a rock in the kiddie pool so that if a wild bird got in the water it could get out. Let me tell you the ducks would have no part of the pool till I took the rock out. I guess it looked like a turtle to them! LOL

I bet a snapping turtle. They get huge too. I'm sorry your poor ducks had to go through that. But mine love their kiddy pools. that is funny they were afraid of the rock, poor babies..

 

[macgro7]

Updated picture of my drake: