Question - do your muscovy slow down on flying in winter?

[RebinNH]

Hi Miss Lydia, Being that mine seem not interested in flying, I don't think flying off is an issue at all. My drake is only interested in staying near the 2 hens. Before I got the girls (early Sept.) he spent a lot of time on my side stoop and roaming the driveway. Currently none of them are interested in leaving the back yard. I expect that to change with less snow and ice but it is interesting how uninterested in roaming they are. When they do walk across the yard, they are along the brook bank for many hours, preening and looking over the water flowing in the brook. I assume winter is not their best time of year!

 

[Miss Lydia]

No mine aren’t keen on winter. Today I got to fill the small kiddy pool for them and my
Muscovy drake was the first one in. But they aren’t not that interested in getting wet either especially if it rains hard. I think once you begin to get better weather yours will begin to forage and getting into the brook which could be a problem if it Carrie’s them down stream.

 

[RebinNH]

Well my drake seems even in good weather to be most interested in actually going into the brook. He has long wing flapping baths in the deeper area. That said, even he seems to know not to go into it when it (rarely) flows hard. If they were carried, they would end up inside the culvert that goes under my neighbor's driveway and it think that would be a natural stop. The next stop is the swamp!

 

[ruthhope]

Two of my muscovy drakes -- coming up to 1 year and coming up to 2 years old -- have started running up and down flapping their wings when they first get out of the coop, in the morning. They used to do this previously but stopped over the summer. I don't think either will have useful flight, though, as they are too heavy. The third muscovy drake, coming up to 2 years old, doesn't bother to try and fly at the moment but has just had a long and debilitating molt. He has now got all his new feathers and is regaining his moxy, so perhaps he, too, will start the wing flapping game soon. I had assumed that the two that are wing flapping while tearing up and down the backyard were thinking of taking off in search of females. As the older of the two never flew away last year when he was younger and lighter, I don't think he will have any useful [ie ability to escape] flight. The younger boy had a wing clipped by a prior owner and so he won't be able to attempt to fly until after he has molted.

In contrast my son has three pekins that all -- 2 females and one male -- run up and down flapping their wings at 2 years old. His smallest -- a crested pekin -- can fly across the back yard but doesn't gain altitude. She just flies over her mates when trying to get to the mealworms being offered as a treat! His larger female and even larger drake have never had any flight, unless coming down hill off the top step into the garden!