My new Muscoveys!

Muscoveyman

Chirping
Jul 2, 2015
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2
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Got new Muscoveys today after my last ones were killed by a mink :( I got 6 hens and a drake and I've a few questions I hope a few people can answer! How many ducklings can I expect out of these in a year? What age do they start laying? They were born last spring and we're coming into a new spring next month. My drake is chocolate and white also one hen is to the rest are black and white what colours can I expect the ducklings to be? There not to afraid of me but wouldn't walk up to me how can I make them tamer? Will the drake be able to cover this many ducks? How long before there due to lay should I offer oyster shell? I'll upload pics in a minute!
 
Here they are!!
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700
 
Got new Muscoveys today after my last ones were killed by a mink
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I got 6 hens and a drake and I've a few questions I hope a few people can answer! How many ducklings can I expect out of these in a year? What age do they start laying? They were born last spring and we're coming into a new spring next month. My drake is chocolate and white also one hen is to the rest are black and white what colours can I expect the ducklings to be? There not to afraid of me but wouldn't walk up to me how can I make them tamer? Will the drake be able to cover this many ducks? How long before there due to lay should I offer oyster shell? I'll upload pics in a minute!


Here they are!!
Congrats. Pretty ducks! Well if each hen has two clutches a year (Which they usually do) and lays around 20 eggs (Give or take some) That'd be somewhere in the area of 240 ducklings a year. They usually start laying the spring after they hatch, so they'll be ready to lay in just a little while. So if your drake is chocolate and one hen is then you'd get pretty much all chocolate from them. Now a chocolate drake over black hens will produce sex linked offspring. I don't remember which color goes with which gender but you'll get black and chocolate from that cross and the males will all be one color and the females will be the other. You're new to them and they're in a new environment they'll be skittish for awhile but they should come round in a few weeks. One drake should be able to cover that many females. I don't know about the oyster shells though. Hope that helps!
 
Sorry about the loses, but congrats on the new ones! look lovely. Laying age varies.. anywhere from as young as 4mths right up to 6/7mths.. i have had all over.

As for ducklings, completely depends, i have had clutches as small as 1 and as big as almost 20, and everywhere in between. Some ducks are just broody monsters, while other are not.. Muscovy in general are capable of large clutches but i have found this varies by the females.

My one this past year had two nests and between those had almost 30 survive.

One drake to that many should be fine.. though expect he may choose favorites.. i have a huge flock here of the breed, dozens and they do pair and triple off.

I will provide this genetic page to aid with colors.

http://www.muscovyduckcentral.com/genetics.html

Friendliness? food.. food and more food.. did i mention FOOD?? mine pull on my pants, trip me and give little give me a poke they are so underfoot... i can call duckies and they come, all achieved by food, years ago when my flock was smaller and i could keep food out 24/7 they were not so under foot, now with so many it's a several times a day feeding so they relate me to food. So i special now.
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Enjoy! they are a quirky breed but still my favorite, overall great foragers, healthy and massively great at reducing bugs.
 
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Another few questions! My muscoveys don't have there caruncles yet there coming through but are not anywhere near a mature ducks,will they still lay before the caruncles are completely present? Also will the ducklings still be sex linked even though there is white present on both the hens and drake? What colour will the ducklings down be? Will I need to separate the drake when the ducklings hatch or does it depend on the drake? He's already protective of the females he'll hiss and walk up to me if I pick one of them up!
 
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Another few questions! My muscoveys don't have there caruncles yet there coming through but are not anywhere near a mature ducks,will they still lay before the caruncles are completely present? Also will the ducklings still be sex linked even though there is white present on both the hens and drake? What colour will the ducklings down be? Will I need to separate the drake when the ducklings hatch or does it depend on the drake? He's already protective of the females he'll hiss and walk up to me if I pick one of them up!

Facial fleshing varies some come on fast and hard, others slowly get it.. females typically are slower... I had a female here lay at 4mths others older and everywhere in between the 4-8mth range, depends on the weather and the bird.

White is dominate and does muddy the water, i am no good at colors and don't pretend to be lol. I bought my sex linked chocolate ducks.. i have all colors here and don't separate so my range is massively varied... sorry i cannot provide better info on this.

As for drakes, they are known baby killers.. so i must forward that caution, around here most of my ladies keep heavy guard of their young and i have yet to have a drake be an issue but i run a huge free range flock, you also have to watch females some can be nasty with young. The best advice i have is separate for the start then slowly intro back and WATCH and be prepared to separate again...

Good luck!
 
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