pekins vs. muscovys

[metalgal72]

Hi there. I am a veteran chicken keeper and want to try my hand at ducks. We do not have a pond but can provide water in troughs, pools, etc.... I am looking for 3-4. Here are my questions:
Which breed is friendliest?
Which gender of that breed is the friendliest?
If I get a trio, and the ducks lay eggs, can I eat a fertilized egg like I would a chicken egg? What happens when you take a mama duck's eggs away?
Help!

 

[Twistedfeather]

Hi welcome to BYC! I've got to say you've picked two of the fun duck breeds there are. But they are so similar that some of these questions are hard. Pekin's ducklings are known to imprint on people if you work with them at a young age, if you look around you might find people tell stories about their ducks following them. Muscovies probably work the same but it's possible that you need them at a young age or they won't be as tame. If you want to know more between the two breeds then you can go over to the review section here.

I really don't think there is on gender more tamer as long as you work with them you might need to worry about broody hens being a little mean.

If you were to get a trio you probably can eat fertilized eggs because chances are if you have a drake there's a chance you'll have fertile eggs, I just wouldn't eat if it has an embryo in it (Same with chickens) When a duck is broody and you don't want it to be use the same methods you would use to break broodiness in a chicken.

 

[Onlyducks]

Of the ducks I've had, Rouens were the friendliest. Too friendly for my taste, actually. They followed me EVERYWHERE! They sat outside the garden gate and watched me weed. I had three females and three males and all seemed equally friendly.
I eat fertilized ducks eggs as I have always had males and females. No problems. The Pekins I had did not care if I took the eggs. They never went broody. My muscovies go broody frequently and they do not want the eggs taken. I've had to "fight" them for the eggs. I do let them try sitting, but so far, none have managed to hatch babies. As Twistedfeather said, you can break the broodiness in much the same way as you do with chickens.
When I started with ducks, I thought if I got ducklings, they would be imprint. That seemed to work with the Rouens and one batch of Pekins. I don't handle my ducks, so I'm not sure which handles easiest. While getting ducklings improves the chance of imprinting, it is not fool-proof. The Pekins I had this year were awful. They did not like me or my husband, ran if we got near, etc. They were raised exactly the same way the previous five I had were, but they never did get tame.
I like Muscovies best. They are quiet and very easily trained. Kind of homely but you get used to it. They have claws, you so have to handle them carefully. They are not as good for laying eggs as the Pekins were. It really depends on what you want in a duck—friendly, quiet, noisy, lays eggs, etc.

 

[metalgal72]

Wow - this is a lot of information!!!!! Now for one more question......can ducks and chickens live next to each other?

 

[Miss Lydia]

Wow - this is a lot of information!!!!! Now for one more question......can ducks and chickens live next to each other?

My Muscovy's and Chickens and geese all stay together on a half acre fenced property but each has separate housing they actually tolerate each others presence.