Hello All!
My husband and I started with a small flock of chickens several years back. We decided we wanted to have our own free range eggs and got about 7 young chickens and 2 adult “auntie” chickens. We were very new to the backyard chicken raising and didn’t know how many predators were lurking. We ended up losing all sporadically and took a break from chickens for a year or two.
We started over and did a better job at predator proofing our coop but would still end up losing some by a fox in the early evenings as they free ranged. We had that flock for quite some time until the last one died off from apparently heat stroke.
April 2019 we took in 8 Muscovy ducks and one mix breed of, I’m just guessing, a Khaki Campbell and a Silver Appleyard. There was 1 male Muscovy and 7 females. They weren’t very domesticated and just liked to be left to do their thing in our pond. We put food out for them and they did their own thing and we put a wooden box on our island so they’d have a shelter. Three of the females ended up hatching eggs and at one point in June/July we had about 20 babies wandering around. Of those 20 babies we currently still have 5 plus 3 of the original 8.
October 2019 we rescued 3 jumbo white Pekin from unfavorable living environment. One of them is extremely pigeon footed and believe to have a neurological disorder. May 2020 we rescued 3 abandoned newborn baby Mallards and took in 5 Khaki Campbell’s that were displaced from their owner moving from the country to the city.
At the end of April 2020, I received a Janoel 24 as a gift and decided to try my hand at hatching eggs. I absolutely adore our Muscovy and feel that breed of duck is just amazing. They are so docile, social, compassionate, and fairly quiet. I kept a few of their eggs and a few Pekin eggs and set them in the incubator on May 9th (6 Pekin and 8 Muscovy). Most of the Pekin eggs weren’t fertile and the couple that started to develop stopped. Only 3 of the Muscovy eggs actually seemed to fully develop and its 6/11/20 and they have still not hatched.
I also recently had o e of the younger Muscovy hatching eggs but she wasn’t a very attentive mother. A few of them died and I brought the rest in the house to raise so they didn’t die. I ended up purchasing two Cayuga ducks at the same time.
That is my story past to present! I’m hoping to find guidance on our journey and probably ask a few questions along the way.
Thank you for reading!
Added some pics of younglings.
My husband and I started with a small flock of chickens several years back. We decided we wanted to have our own free range eggs and got about 7 young chickens and 2 adult “auntie” chickens. We were very new to the backyard chicken raising and didn’t know how many predators were lurking. We ended up losing all sporadically and took a break from chickens for a year or two.
We started over and did a better job at predator proofing our coop but would still end up losing some by a fox in the early evenings as they free ranged. We had that flock for quite some time until the last one died off from apparently heat stroke.
April 2019 we took in 8 Muscovy ducks and one mix breed of, I’m just guessing, a Khaki Campbell and a Silver Appleyard. There was 1 male Muscovy and 7 females. They weren’t very domesticated and just liked to be left to do their thing in our pond. We put food out for them and they did their own thing and we put a wooden box on our island so they’d have a shelter. Three of the females ended up hatching eggs and at one point in June/July we had about 20 babies wandering around. Of those 20 babies we currently still have 5 plus 3 of the original 8.
October 2019 we rescued 3 jumbo white Pekin from unfavorable living environment. One of them is extremely pigeon footed and believe to have a neurological disorder. May 2020 we rescued 3 abandoned newborn baby Mallards and took in 5 Khaki Campbell’s that were displaced from their owner moving from the country to the city.
At the end of April 2020, I received a Janoel 24 as a gift and decided to try my hand at hatching eggs. I absolutely adore our Muscovy and feel that breed of duck is just amazing. They are so docile, social, compassionate, and fairly quiet. I kept a few of their eggs and a few Pekin eggs and set them in the incubator on May 9th (6 Pekin and 8 Muscovy). Most of the Pekin eggs weren’t fertile and the couple that started to develop stopped. Only 3 of the Muscovy eggs actually seemed to fully develop and its 6/11/20 and they have still not hatched.
I also recently had o e of the younger Muscovy hatching eggs but she wasn’t a very attentive mother. A few of them died and I brought the rest in the house to raise so they didn’t die. I ended up purchasing two Cayuga ducks at the same time.
That is my story past to present! I’m hoping to find guidance on our journey and probably ask a few questions along the way.
Thank you for reading!
Added some pics of younglings.
Glad you joined.
You really do, " have all your ducks in a row" !
