Muscovys

[Miss Lydia]

I’ve never had one of my Muscovy fly after clipping feathers.

 

[Miss Lydia]

I had one climb out after though

 

[CindyinSD]

Thanks everyone! I like the idea that with clipped wings they can fly a bit from predators but not long distance. Hopefully that and regular meals will give them an incentive to stay home. I really want them for sustainable meat, though surplus yummy eggs are always easy to find a home for. We live far out in the woods and our pond is the only nearby body of water. It’s small so I’ll have to keep the duck population fairly low in any case.

 

[FortCluck]

Gross I’ve seen what my dogs will eat

Can't be any worse than what my ducks eat sometimes!

 

[Miss Lydia]

I’ve never seen my ducks eat each other’s poop

 

[CindyinSD]

I’ve never seen my ducks eat each other’s poop

Seriously? Dogs eating dog/coyote poop? I’ve never seen my dogs do more than sniff, but I’ve got one that’ll sure dip into a nice steamy cow pie if I don’t catch her looking at it first. Angus, too—not my nice Scottish Highlands’ poop. Did you know Angus poo smells WAY worse than Scottish Highland poo?

 

[bluemerle]

Even more unfortunate is that killing contests often do not even hinder populations because of compensatory rebound. Muscovies, especially - one hen can have over a dozen babies in one clutch, who then grow up to have more babies and so on.

If killing things en masse actually controlled populations, we wouldn't have invasive species.

 

[Ratchnick]

Interestingly I heard about a long study on coyotes that showed when hunting pressure increased so did the average number of kits in a litter.

 

[Miss Lydia]

Even more unfortunate is that killing contests often do not even hinder populations because of compensatory rebound. Muscovies, especially - one hen can have over a dozen babies in one clutch, who then grow up to have more babies and so on.

If killing things en masse actually controlled populations, we wouldn't have invasive species.

 

[Miss Lydia]

They know how to survive.