Muscovy owners!

[TheBeardie]

*I will refer to female ducks as ducks, ducks as a whole as ducks and males as drakes.*
Muscovies are my favorite kind of duck! My first
muscovy was a huge black drake named big burt. Sadly burt passed away last year.
This was a early picture of burt.
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I only currently one adult duck, from my flock of mostly chickens and a khaki campbell drake, one white muscovy duck and two pied muscovy ducks that got mostly wiped out by an unknown animal. The remaining adult duck is a pied.
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She's starting to molt and she just recently got broken from being broody, so she does get even prettier than this. This lady needed some friends because I've had the khaki campbell drake run off to the neighbors flock of ducks after the duck he was with had passed way. This was before the group of three muscovy ducks previously mentioned. When I got my chicken hatching eggs I also picked up two muscovy ducklings! One is chocolate and I believe the other one is lavender.
I kinda want to name this one Hershey
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Look at wings on this guy!! The wings on a duckling are comical!
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Here's a frizzled cochin bantam of the same age. Chickens seem to pop out with the starts of feathers.
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Here's the lavender one. She's, hopefully she, is a few days younger than the chocolate one.
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I first got into ducks quite a few years ago. My first flock was made up of magpies and crested. They were some funny ducks! Then I had more crested, both of these ducks were kinda slow, I think it had a lot to do with how they were treated in their first few days. I got both of them at a farm swap where they got trampled by the bigger birds. Sweet little ducks though!

Next was big burt and the brown duck. Burt was my only really named duck, like I mentioned earlier he was my first muscovy. Burt was going to be a turducken, a chicken stuffed into a duck and then the chicken/duck gets stuffed in a turkey, if he wasn't bought that day. The khaki campbell drake came with burt. Although both being male they got along well.
This is burt more recently. He got whiter as he aged.
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Between Bert and now I've had many muscovies. I love the look of a muscovy over a more domesticated duck. Some 'socovies avoid you at all costs, some will tolerate you, some will eat out of your hands, some will come when called and some will be okay with getting picked up. It's really a guessing game on how any you get will act, the ducklings in the brooder would rather not be messed with and love giving me the side eye. Burt would come up to me and eat out of my hand, most of the ducks I've had were quite cautious of people in general. The duck I currently have, and the sisters she came with, would also eat out of your hand. Just like with chickens, some just don't like to be handled!

A muscovy does not quack like most ducks, the males hiss and the females kinda peep. You can find some videos on YouTube of the noises they make.
Most ducks I've had have tried to go broody. I've only let a couple hatch eggs.
Muscovy eggs are particularly thick. The yolks are much stronger than a chicken egg. Duck eggs are great in baked goods!
My brooder is just a large plastic tote with hardware cloth lid I made. The tote is next to a shelf that the light clamp is clamped on to. It has to be cleaned often, ducks are very messy drinkers.
Without a real mother duck ducklings don't get the oil that makes duck feathers water-proof. Some people don't let non-broody ducklings swim until they're 8-12 weeks old, that's when they start to produce they're own oils.I usually wait until the duckling is walking, eating, drinking and are overall over their long, hard hatch to give them a bath.
Some nice warm water in the sink or the tub will be heaven for duckings! Always have a towel on stand by for drying or a chill could kill them. If you end up with a drake he shouldn't really be around your chickens. Roosters don't have a penis, but drakes do! Males have a long corkscrew penis, and the females have a long corkscrew vagina, which spirals in the opposite direction. Chickens don't have any external 'love parts'. The drake could try to mate with your hens and really hurt them.
The ducks can fly really well. Burt could fly, but he always crash landed.
I have kiddy pools for my ducks. I do have a pond out back, but some how most of the ducks I've had haven't found it.
Don't let those claws get you! I've been cut quite badly by flailing duck legs.

In conclusion, Muscovies are awesome!

I just got three more muscovies! Two ducks and a drake. I'll get pictures tomorrow morning.

 

[hereorthere]

Yeah, they can get up almost any fence in my experience. They climb up it while flapping their wings, even if you clip them. I had one of my first hens get over a 10 foot fence and her wings were clipped.

Some can be escape artists when young!
We battled 5 out of our 15 for months, 1.8m fencing and wing clipping couldn't keep them in, they would climb it.
They've settled in now at 7 months old and stay where they are supposed to. I think we underestimated how smart and determined they can be.

So I knew they flew.....and then wondering if clipping the wings would deter the flying part, but wow! Guess it might be just a waste of time now.

But my question is... how destructive are your muscovies outside of the fence? Like tearing apart your vegetable garden? Eating up your potted flowers? The ones that get over (5'5" fence) just nibble on the grass. They haven't discovered the grapes (yet) or the tomatoes (yet) but I think it's just matter of time.

 

[Le Moth]

So I knew they flew.....and then wondering if clipping the wings would deter the flying part, but wow! Guess it might be just a waste of time now.

But my question is... how destructive are your muscovies outside of the fence? Like tearing apart your vegetable garden? Eating up your potted flowers? The ones that get over (5'5" fence) just nibble on the grass. They haven't discovered the grapes (yet) or the tomatoes (yet) but I think it's just matter of time.

Definately not a waste of time, don't let it deter you, the ones that got out did no damage to any parts of the garden, except for mud and poop.
Our old boy likes to raid the apple tree and the persimmons, we haven't had any trouble with pot plants. The escapes only lasted a few months and now everyone is content behind a waist high fence.

Edit: I forgot to add that they keep the grass down pretty well too c:

 

[TheBeardie]

Here are the new three! The white duck is a double pied lilac. She has one patch of lilac on the top of her head. The smaller one is the drake,chocolate pied, he's younger then the other two and then the mostly black duck.

 

[Miss Lydia]

Beautiful Scovy's @Thejperez

 

[SkyeT]

Hi Hi!

We have had our ducks since July 4th. We currently have two Muscovy, and three Mallard-types. Everyone gets along pretty well.

Cupcake, our male, is a big boy. He and his girlfriend, Confetti, are all white with their mohawks black and blue-green eyes. They tend to hang, sit and swim together. They are either leading the pack or lagging behind it, but usually not mixed in with the pack. It's kind of funny to see.

Both Cupcake and Confetti "twerdled" up until this week. I knew Cupcake was a boy, but he still sang just like Confetti. I heard his very quiet hiss yesterday for the first time and realized I hadn't heard him sing in about a week. Confetti, on the other hand, finally started singing. Cupcake also tried mounting the Rouen female yesterday as well after a rather energetic pool time when I refreshed their water. She was NOT thrilled to say the least.

Confetti started getting off the ground about a week ago, maybe. Just short flights here and there. But Wednesday, she flew the entire length of the backyard at about head height. She was rather proud of herself and caused an uproar of celebration with the others. Her flying has caused everyone ELSE to start flying. Cupcake is such a big boy that flying is comical right now, but he is getting better. We are actually clipping feathers on their right wings today to deter flight. I hate doing it, but we actually live in San Antonio, with neighbors on all sides. If someone hopped a fence, they would discover a very nicely manicured pool area (yikes), a gaggle of yorkies, a rather large dog, and two chihuahuas, depending on which fence is hopped. The ducks have already met the hyper chihuahuas, as they got into my yard. They weren't impressed with the yippee vibrating furballs and flat out ignored them and continued to munch on the wandering jew they are keeping tabs on in my yard.

All of our ducks hand feed, talk to me constantly, follow me around the yard, etc. They are lovable. Out of all of them, Cupcake is a teddy bear. He will stand on our feet, put his head in our laps and just eat from us until everything is gone. He waits his turn patiently, he doesn't push like the others. Confetti used to be this way, but in the last two weeks, has become snippy and standoffish. It's sad, since she used to be as personable as Cupcake. PMS?

I see people on here talk about how Muscovies aren't water birds. Mine are. Cupcake especially loves the pools and will spend 20-30 minutes soaking, bathing and splashing around several times a day. Confetti will take his place in the water and they will hog one of the pools for a while. They dive into the pool, head first like a submarine, and swim around. If no one else is in the second pool, Cupcake and Confetti will pool hop back and forth. Their bath time is the most thorough of all the ducks. They may not fall asleep in the pools like the other 3, but they love being around the water and being in it.

We should be getting three more females sometime soon. Since we have not had the opportunity to raise them like the others, I don't know what they will be like. Hopefully, they will learn to like us like the rest of the flock.

I love all of our ducks. Each type brings something special to the relationship, but the Muscovies are the ones who are most like the lap cat or the lovable dog.

This picture was taken last week. Confetti is on the left and Cupcake on the right.

 

[LoveScovies]

Hello! We have had muscovy ducks for about 2 years now. One day my boyfriend called me up and said I wanna get ducks so I said okay and we went to our local farmers market, a local farmer selling happen to have 2 left, we brought them home and our journey began. Never in my life did I think 2 ducks could become such a part of my family and I love them as I do all of my other pets (dogs, ferrets and a snake). We were unsure of what breed they were until they got a little older and started to develop the carnicles and we did some research and figured out they were muscovy ducks. We got lucky and got one male and one female.

Our female, Charlie is a sweetheart (unless shes broody, watch out) and she is an excellent mama, we have an indoor enclosure for them as we love in central new York and she lays all year round. She has hatched 3 sets of ducklings and we hatched one (as it was having difficulty getting out of the shell, Rooster is now our 2nd female). In my opinion letting her raise them is the easiest, we did have to separate our drake though and he was very aggressive with the babies (up on research it looks like some ste good fathers and some are not, guess we got a bad one haha) other than that our drake is not aggressive towards us, he greets us with shakes of his tail and hisses. He will even perch on your arm for some chest scratches. Ours are both pied but we hatched our first 2 completely yellow ducklings so I believe they will be white I hear they are hard to keep clean but I am so excited about them!

We currently have 15 ducklings she just hatched, we did separate them after and few days and now Mama Charlie wants nothing to do with them and has started her cycle of going back to laying (her beak is becoming red again. It gets orange when broody) so be warned if you do take them don't expect to give them back to her and her to mother, once they are done they are focused on starting a new clutch.

I find them so rewarding and love raising the ducklings, I hear the breed is also one of the best for duck meat (but I could never eat one now)! The eggs are rich and delicious, ours lays about 30 in a clutch.

Good luck with your new flock, hope you enjoythem as much as we do ours

Pictures below:

 

[MaxwellHouse]

The eggs have huge yolks. The whole thing is almost all yolk and much more delicious egg then chicken.

 

[mamamage]

i cant wait to get some of these guys! do you think i would have any luck finding them at tractor supply this coming spring?

 

[MaxwellHouse]

I live in Florida and the Tractor Supply here does not sell Muscovy but we have them all over South Florida on our canals. Someone on this site may know where to buy some.