Ok. Debate time.

[Miss Lydia]

Main reason I clip my Muscovy's wings other than keeping them safe is the fact that there is a feral flock here on our mountain river because so many have flown away from home. I hate that they are called a nuisance they are an awesome breed it's not their fault they are so prolific another thing I do is practice birth control with mine. [take up eggs]

 

[Miss Lydia]

There was a thread a few days ago where a members Mallard flew and the neighbors shot at it [duck season] didn't know it was the members duck thankfully he made it home is okay but it was a close one.

 

[Shadrach]

Main reason I clip my Muscovy's wings other than keeping them safe is the fact that there is a feral flock here on our mountain river because so many have flown away from home. I hate that they are called a nuisance they are an awesome breed it's not their fault they are so prolific another thing I do is practice birth control with mine. [take up eggs]

One of the most painful beak strikes I've had was from one of the Muscovy females here who I was practicing the above mentioned birth control on.
She got some tremendous power in a strike. I just couldn't move my hand away and it got trapped between her beak and the door opening.

 

[Miss Lydia]

Ouch yep they really can pack a wallop lol.

 

[happy duck]

I think the OP should make his/her own mind up.

Oh yes I forgot to say that it was for OP to decide/get some ideas where people stand...not us making up OP's mind for them. But I see what you are saying.

 

[gilbert2]

This is one of the very most interesting threads I have read! Thank you, BYC duck people, for your valuable opinions.

 

[shawluvsbirds]

Seems a very reasonable point of view. I still don't agree.
There is a valid 'responsible care' argument though which I don't really have an answer to.
I hope the OP can find a way of letting them fly because he/she seems to love watching them, which I completely understand. It's like any free ranging I guess, sometimes you lose one.

That's ok we don't all have to agree. . that's the point of a good debate
I love to see my call ducks fly too and wish I had acreage where I could let them. Where I live I don't think my neighbors would be happy for my ducks to fly over and take a dip in their coy pond. And if they ever found their way down to the city lagoon I might not want them to come home!

 

[Brahmb]

Hi. OP here.

I’m reading strong arguments for both sides. I do not intend to release them into the wild, therefore it is not illegal. If they happen to like it better out there, I think they would survive fine...these two. Louie, however, I’m sure did not fare so well alone. These two left her. They don’t seem to have the hardiness bred out of them. They have never let me pick them up willingly. Now that they fly, they take off when they feel I’m getting too close too quickly.

They must be finding somewhere to survive in the cold for a couple of days at least. There are small farms nearby they might go to. Or they might just forage up and down the river - it hasn’t completely frozen over yet. I did look for Louie thinking she might have hidden in the neighborhood, but no luck. No sign either. I’m a bit of a hunter and didn’t find anything in the usual spots.

I was hoping for this type of debate and BYC duck community hasn’t let me down. I do have a mostly predator-proof enclosure for them, but these ducks absolutely refused to use it the two nights before Louie took off. I’d go after one and they’d avoid me long enough for the others to go back to the 300 gallon tank I have set up for them. If I leave their food in the enclosure, they wander in at their leisure - usually when I’m not home - their food keeps disappearing, and not from other critters.

If I do manage to catch them in their enclosure, they complain about it loudly in the morning. They do seem to settle down at night, though. I simply don’t know whether or not I’m doing the right thing by letting them keep flying. If I was being selfish, I’d clip their wings in a heartbeat. If I do clip their wings, I can’t help but think they’d still be able to escape the yard at some point anyway. Then they’d be in more trouble from predators without the ability of full flight. I had hoped to resolve this all in the spring by installing a taller fence around their enclosure. Their ability to fly and willingness to take off for days took me by surprise. I don’t have a good solution. I’m limited by the weather and daylight hours. And frozen ground.

Thanks for listening.

 

[shawluvsbirds]

Hi. OP here.

I’m reading strong arguments for both sides. I do not intend to release them into the wild, therefore it is not illegal. If they happen to like it better out there, I think they would survive fine...these two. Louie, however, I’m sure did not fare so well alone. These two left her. They don’t seem to have the hardiness bred out of them. They have never let me pick them up willingly. Now that they fly, they take off when they feel I’m getting too close too quickly.

They must be finding somewhere to survive in the cold for a couple of days at least. There are small farms nearby they might go to. Or they might just forage up and down the river - it hasn’t completely frozen over yet. I did look for Louie thinking she might have hidden in the neighborhood, but no luck. No sign either. I’m a bit of a hunter and didn’t find anything in the usual spots.

I was hoping for this type of debate and BYC duck community hasn’t let me down. I do have a mostly predator-proof enclosure for them, but these ducks absolutely refused to use it the two nights before Louie took off. I’d go after one and they’d avoid me long enough for the others to go back to the 300 gallon tank I have set up for them. If I leave their food in the enclosure, they wander in at their leisure - usually when I’m not home - their food keeps disappearing, and not from other critters.

If I do manage to catch them in their enclosure, they complain about it loudly in the morning. They do seem to settle down at night, though. I simply don’t know whether or not I’m doing the right thing by letting them keep flying. If I was being selfish, I’d clip their wings in a heartbeat. If I do clip their wings, I can’t help but think they’d still be able to escape the yard at some point anyway. Then they’d be in more trouble from predators without the ability of full flight. I had hoped to resolve this all in the spring by installing a taller fence around their enclosure. Their ability to fly and willingness to take off for days took me by surprise. I don’t have a good solution. I’m limited by the weather and daylight hours. And frozen ground.

Thanks for listening.

I've yet to have a duck that didn't have to be trained to go inside at night. They definitely prefer to be "free"
I sympathise with your dilemma for sure.
If you do choose wing clipping remember it's not permanent and those feathers will molt out and regrow. Possibly if you have them grounded for a while they might stop trying to leave cause they will not realise they can.
Some of my calls that used to have their wings clipped that have now grown rarely even try to fly. It's like they forgot they can. But if they get spooked they fly a little bit.
Also, if you clip an even amount of flights on both sides, but leave one or two long primaries at the tip they will still be able to fly some but won't be able to get as much lift so they can at least have a little bit of advantage to help them escape when needed.

 

[bluemerle]

I have no answer to your dilemma, but I have a similar situation.

One day an entire litter (?) of ducklings showed up in my yard, eating out of my ground-level birdfeeder. I live close-ish to a river, but far too far (& predator-filled) for a mama duck to walk from. I knew nothing about ducks at this time, and thought - oh no, someone lost their ducklings. I managed to catch three of them. One died (he got stuck in the fence, unfortunately) but two survived. I named them Thelma & Louise.

They are definitely Mallards. At this point, I figure some neighborhood kids (who have since moved away) scooped them up from the river and brought them home, only to be told they couldn't keep them - so they just dumped them. Even though they are likely wild Mallards, I don't feel bad about keeping them - it rained that night, and I'm sure the rest of the litter I didn't catch died.

The drake - Thelma - has always been content to be in captivity. He does not attempt to fly away. He knows where his food & bed is. The female - Louise - has always acted "wild". Where Thelma would snuggle if you picked him up, Louise will attempt to chew a finger off. She likes to fly, and I allowed it (inside their pen) - until she started hurting herself with her bad decisions, and then I started putting up more bird netting to curb high flight.

One night Louise got out of the pen. Tore through the bird netting and flew off into the sky. Thelma did not try to follow her, even though her absence clearly scared him. I thought - Louise is going to find the local flock by the river, and I'll never see her again.

Nope. The neighbor - barely a couple hundred yards away - called me and asked if I'd lost a duck. She had flown towards them as they were walking their kids home from the bus, just the weirdest sight they'd ever seen. The problem, as Louise was quickly finding out, is that flying "runs out" when you're not used to flying distances. She wasn't able to keep herself in the air and eventually ended up crash landing into a bush. The neighbor scooped her up and brought her back to me.

This situation clearly traumatized her, because for a long, long time, Louise stopped trying to fly. Went from "always flying as much as the pen allowed" to "feet never leaving the ground."

Now it seems like she's forgotten - or simply willing to give it another go. She's still an escape artist. But my perspective on her has changed - before, I thought, well, if she gets out she can choose her own life. But now I know if she gets out, she'll die. She does not have the skills - or the muscle - to survive, flighted or not. It is my responsibility to balance her mental wellness - the ability to engage in natural behaviors, which is an important & well-documented aspect of animal care - with her safety.

Ultimately, I want to build a flight cage for her. A big hoop coop with some serious security. And some beefy predator protection, so if she wants to sit her dumb feathery butt outside at night she can do so.