Muscovy keepers share your pics!

[poult]

  (can you tell me that your 8 year old drake can still do his job too????)

It was a chicken hen I should have clarified but I disagree with the whole ducks/chickens only lay for a couple years then don't lay at all.See actually it's how many egg cells they were originally born with so one hen may lay 209 eggs in her whole life but then another can lay up to 602(the #s are just random) so it's always going to be a luck of the draw kind of thing no matter the breed.Some breeds are bred to lay more eggs but some can only keep it up for so long some will lay an egg every other day but will lay eggs till she dies of old age.But I still think your girls can lay eggs for a few more years without any severe drop in production and your boys it depends i would keep breeding the males until you notice a lot of unfertile eggs then I would consider taking some action.I hope I made sense my mind is a bit scrambled today so I may have worded stuff weird.

 

[poult]

One more thing.....


Anyone else have a drake (or duck) that runs their own earthworm farm?

Our drake will get bill fulls of water and walk them all the way over to one of his two earthworm farms.  He wets the ground with the water.  He will then dig up the earth with his bill, push it out of the way with his feet, and then find the earthworms, usually lots.  He tosses them out to his ladies, and eats a few himself.  This last time that the kids watched, Kuhflecken wasn't with him, so he picked up the biggest fattest worm, and carried it all of the way into the coop to the back corner where her nest is, to feed it to her.


Oh, he puts all of the dirt back when he is done farming.  And he has two farms, one along the edge of a rock, and one in a more sunny spot.

Wow that's neat! My drakes just go around the coop and dig giant holes that I have to refill LOL!

 

[Miss Lydia]

I am just going to say this.I have an eight-year-old hen that lays an egg a day and is bred with some younger males and her eggs are still totally hatchable. Cute pictures to BTW.

My 8 yr old duck is still laying and has always been with an 11 yr old drake who isn't capable of breeding any more[although he still tries] but my duck now seeks out the companionship of the other drakes which are age 4 ,3 &2. A 4 yr old drake should still be very manly [so to speak] mine sure is.
Beautiful Scovy's Alaskan !

 

[Alaskan]

oh good!!! So, I do not yet have to panic!

 

[poult]

My 8 yr old duck is still laying and has always been with an 11 yr old drake who isn't capable of breeding any more[although he still tries] but my duck now seeks out the companionship of the other drakes  which are age 4 ,3 &2. A 4 yr old drake should still be very manly [so to speak]  mine sure is.
Beautiful Scovy's Alaskan !

That's very interesting!

 

[Miss Lydia]

One more thing.....


Anyone else have a drake (or duck) that runs their own earthworm farm?

Our drake will get bill fulls of water and walk them all the way over to one of his two earthworm farms. He wets the ground with the water. He will then dig up the earth with his bill, push it out of the way with his feet, and then find the earthworms, usually lots. He tosses them out to his ladies, and eats a few himself. This last time that the kids watched, Kuhflecken wasn't with him, so he picked up the biggest fattest worm, and carried it all of the way into the coop to the back corner where her nest is, to feed it to her.


Oh, he puts all of the dirt back when he is done farming. And he has two farms, one along the edge of a rock, and one in a more sunny spot.

Forgot to mention the worm farm, your drake is awesome mine and I have 4 counting my old man who is 11 would lay around expecting the ducks to tend to the worm farm dig the worms and waddle over and drop them one by one into their mouths. and also care for any ducklings she may have .While he just makes sure she gets mated 4-10 times a day.

 

[mymilliefleur]

Alaska, I was going to ask the same question since my drake is going on four years too, and I really don't want to get rid of him. Some of my hens are getting ready to sit, so we'll see what my hatch rate is like.

 

[Alaskan]

yep... I have one duck, Kuhflecken, our favorite, on a nest already. I am not sure exactly when she started..... maybe one week

 

[Miss Lydia]

Alaska, I was going to ask the same question since my drake is going on four years too, and I really don't want to get rid of him. Some of my hens are getting ready to sit, so we'll see what my hatch rate is like.

Why would you get rid of him, if he is a great drake? I have one that's 11 he will live out all his life here just like my dogs will.

Ernie is just in retirement he has been a wonderful part of our flock.

 

[mymilliefleur]

Why would you get rid of him, if he is a great drake? I have one that's 11 he will live out all his life here just like my dogs will.

Ernie is just in retirement he has been a wonderful part of our flock.

Just because I'm afraid he won't be fertile for much longer. I'll probably keep a son off of him, as well as my old drake, it's just that I have such a large flock that I can't afford to keep many pets. But there are always exceptions.