Muscovy keepers share your pics!

[muskuslove]

Oops, and another one... It was cold back then.

 

[EdenCamp]

Lol that they have! Im just excited for baby muscovies!

And think safe to say we're excited for you! It's awesome stuff. BUT..people new to the miracle often get themselves all wound up in knots - What should I do? When should I do it? The plain and simple truth is..for the most part the best thing you can do is not-a-darn-thing! Oh they need us to provide a safe place to lay, hatch and grow to help circumvent the natural occurences of contributing to the food chain. By altering nature with confinement it's required to boost food sources available to them, maintain a level of sanitation and keep inbreeding levels from becoming too close. With confinement, diseases and parasites can more easily spread and flourish - so we need to treat those and employ preventatives. For the rest, nature and instinct is usually far better than our attempts to control things. Not all eggs are going to hatch, not all hatchlings are going to live and even our favorites are not going to live forever.

Well intentioned human involvment, being curious, impatient, interferring with well honed instincts that have got them this far, can do more harm than good. Yes, those first few eggs laid are often infertile and don't hatch. A good mom will push bad eggs out. Those that don't have good instincts may have rotten eggs explode and the bacteria prevent other of her offspring from hatching to perpetrate those faulty instincts...natures way. Not good enough for many of us and because of our interferrence, more involvment to circumvent natural selection becomes necessary and so on. Because of this, I tend to be a minimalist.

Duck (and sly friends making contributions) will lay eggs until she done laying eggs (usually 6-24) before she hunkers down and gets serious about the business of cooking the batch. About 10 days after she has clamped down on that nest, refusing to get up except for a brief period to tend to her own needs (note the day she clamped and countdown for hatchday), absolutely candle those eggs and pitch the non-starters. This does more good than harm by pretty much avoiding egg exploders later on and not tying her up on an infertile nest . Not all the eggs left will hatch, the embryos may yet die, but it's those eggs that never really get started that are most likely to get rotten and build up enough bacteria to go boom. Other than this, our poking around is just curiosity and the interferrence may be more detrimental to the broody's efforts than a help.

Dosen't mean you can't satisfy your curiousity, they are your birds after all. Dosen't mean you can't be impatient and torture yourself wondering if "everything is going ok" waiting for those little miracles of new life to appear. Just remind yourself you really aren't a part of this other than an observer - mom's got it, really. LOL, we all tortured ourselves the first couple of times. Just trying to help you realize it's gonna be OK.

Enjoy those babies when they come....and take pictures!

 

[EdenCamp]

Lol that they have! Im just excited for baby muscovies!

And think safe to say we're excited for you! It's awesome stuff. BUT..people new to the miracle often get themselves all wound up in knots - What should I do? When should I do it? The plain and simple truth is..for the most part the best thing you can do is not-a-darn-thing! Oh they need us to provide a safe place to lay, hatch and grow to help circumvent the natural occurences of contributing to the food chain. By altering nature with confinement it's required to boost food sources available to them, maintain a level of sanitation and keep inbreeding levels from becoming too close. With confinement, diseases and parasites can more easily spread and flourish - so we need to treat those and employ preventatives. For the rest, nature and instinct is usually far better than our attempts to control things. Not all eggs are going to hatch, not all hatchlings are going to live and even our favorites are not going to live forever.

Well intentioned human involvment, being curious, impatient, interferring with well honed instincts that have got them this far, can do more harm than good. Yes, those first few eggs laid are often infertile and don't hatch. A good mom will push bad eggs out. Those that don't have good instincts may have rotten eggs explode and the bacteria prevent other of her offspring from hatching to perpetrate those faulty instincts...natures way. Not good enough for many of us and because of our interferrence, more involvment to circumvent natural selection becomes necessary and so on. Because of this, I tend to be a minimalist.

Duck (and sly friends making contributions) will lay eggs until she done laying eggs (usually 6-24) before she hunkers down and gets serious about the business of cooking the batch. About 10 days after she has clamped down on that nest, refusing to get up except for a brief period to tend to her own needs (note the day she clamped and countdown for hatchday), absolutely candle those eggs and pitch the non-starters. This does more good than harm by pretty much avoiding egg exploders later on and not tying her up on an infertile nest . Not all the eggs left will hatch, the embryos may yet die, but it's those eggs that never really get started that are most likely to get rotten and build up enough bacteria to go boom. Other than this, our poking around is just curiosity and the interferrence may be more detrimental to the broody's efforts than a help.

Dosen't mean you can't satisfy your curiousity, they are your birds after all. Dosen't mean you can't be impatient and torture yourself wondering if "everything is going ok" waiting for those little miracles of new life to appear. Just remind yourself you really aren't a part of this other than an observer - mom's got it, really. LOL, we all tortured ourselves the first couple of times. Just trying to help you realize it's gonna be OK.

Enjoy those babies when they come....and take pictures!

 

[Miss Lydia]

Oops, and another one... It was cold back then.

 

[Miss Lydia]

Ooh, i forgot... This one is so cute!!!

Oh my gosh those pics are so precious, brought tears to my eyes, yep I'm a big softy. But look how that baby is looking at her mama.

your adults are lovely too.

 

[muskuslove]

Hahaha, yes, my thoughts exactly!! Looks like she's saying "Mammie.."... And i'm a big softy too when it comes to my sweethearts..

 

[Coupe]

And think safe to say we're excited for you! It's awesome stuff. BUT..people new to the miracle often get themselves all wound up in knots - What should I do? When should I do it? The plain and simple truth is..for the most part the best thing you can do is not-a-darn-thing! Oh they need us to provide a safe place to lay, hatch and grow to help circumvent the natural occurences of contributing to the food chain. By altering nature with confinement it's required to boost food sources available to them, maintain a level of sanitation and keep inbreeding levels from becoming too close. With confinement, diseases and parasites can more easily spread and flourish - so we need to treat those and employ preventatives. For the rest, nature and instinct is usually far better than our attempts to control things. Not all eggs are going to hatch, not all hatchlings are going to live and even our favorites are not going to live forever. Well intentioned human involvment, being curious, impatient, interferring with well honed instincts that have got them this far, can do more harm than good. Yes, those first few eggs laid are often infertile and don't hatch. A good mom will push bad eggs out. Those that don't have good instincts may have rotten eggs explode and the bacteria prevent other of her offspring from hatching to perpetrate those faulty instincts...natures way. Not good enough for many of us and because of our interferrence, more involvment to circumvent natural selection becomes necessary and so on. Because of this, I tend to be a minimalist. Duck (and sly friends making contributions) will lay eggs until she done laying eggs (usually 6-24) before she hunkers down and gets serious about the business of cooking the batch. About 10 days after she has clamped down on that nest, refusing to get up except for a brief period to tend to her own needs (note the day she clamped and countdown for hatchday), absolutely candle those eggs and pitch the non-starters. This does more good than harm by pretty much avoiding egg exploders later on and not tying her up on an infertile nest . Not all the eggs left will hatch, the embryos may yet die, but it's those eggs that never really get started that are most likely to get rotten and build up enough bacteria to go boom. Other than this, our poking around is just curiosity and the interferrence may be more detrimental to the broody's efforts than a help. Dosen't mean you can't satisfy your curiousity, they are your birds after all. Dosen't mean you can't be impatient and torture yourself wondering if "everything is going ok" waiting for those little miracles of new life to appear. Just remind yourself you really aren't a part of this other than an observer - mom's got it, really. LOL, we all tortured ourselves the first couple of times. Just trying to help you realize it's gonna be OK. Enjoy those babies when they come....and take pictures!

After that, I feel so much better now. Thank you so much! I needed that lol

 

[misschickenlittle]

Still so new to this duck that I don't k ow what I have!!!

Help!!! Boys or girls? Only have a fee good pics...

 

[jelly beeny]

Hey everyone.
I have a strange question.
Iv got a muscovy called Lola (he is a boy) and for some reason he has become really aggressive towards me and everyone else but mostly me. Iv had him since he was three days old he is now 16 weeks and huge and he was always a lovely friendly duck till a few weeks ago and now ever time I go out he attacks me. Does anyone have any ideas why he has suddenly changed?
I have one female Campbell duck and two chickens and they are all friendly i know ducks are not like dogs and arent really pet pets. I did have another muscovy but he to was a male so sadly I had to give him to a new lovely home.
If someone could give me some information about what I could do that would be fab

 

[Miss Lydia]

Hey everyone.
I have a strange question.
Iv got a muscovy called Lola (he is a boy) and for some reason he has become really aggressive towards me and everyone else but mostly me. Iv had him since he was three days old he is now 16 weeks and huge and he was always a lovely friendly duck till a few weeks ago and now ever time I go out he attacks me. Does anyone have any ideas why he has suddenly changed?
I have one female Campbell duck and two chickens and they are all friendly i know ducks are not like dogs and arent really pet pets. I did have another muscovy but he to was a male so sadly I had to give him to a new lovely home.
If someone could give me some information about what I could do that would be fab

He sounds like one of my drakes, he was pushed aside by his mama when first hatched so I had to bring him inside to raise. He [and we didn't know at the time] was the sweetest thing followed us around like a puppy, actually I think he thought he was one since he lived inside with our 4 dogs, but when he got about the same age as yours oh my gosh he turned into a holy terror, attacking me jumping on my leg and if I turned my back he would jump me from behind, I had never had this kind of response from my other drakes, but didn't raise them away from their mamas either, well I came in here in a panic some said kill him others were a bit more sympathetic and told me to treat him like another drake would, when he started with me I would lay him down flat to the ground and hold him there till he stopped fighting to get up, sometimes he would waddle off other times he would come right back so I'd have to do it again. But the main thing is to be consistant with what you do. Sometimes when he would come towards me I would put my foot out and lift him back wards with the top of my foot and I also carried the broom and would push him away, It took a bit of work but he is a really good boy now, but he also has 3 ducks to keep him company and gives them all his attention now, He still likes to spend time with me but does not try to jump me anymore. He is now 2 years old. Be careful not to hurt him but honestly you will have to be rough or he won't get the message. I had watched his Daddy go after him a time or two put him in his place and he would catch him and just pen him to the ground for a few minutes then let him up. To me that was the best way to teach him some manners.