Hi! I have two indian runners, and 4 muscovies. The runners are a male & female pair. and I'm 99% sure the muscovies are all girls as they have very little red in their faces. just at the edge of the beak, no where else. I have found some duck eggs recently, and put them in the incubator cause I figured - heck, why not? They are developing, and i saw the runner mount a scovy a couple days ago.. will the cross be born without the ability to be bred later? I heard that because scovys are claw toed, they cant be bred with other ducks or the offspring are infertile.
Wow, I would love to see the end result of that mating, for sure. Please keep us updated. As far as I know, the offspring will be sterile, but I think the female offspring may be able to lay eggs, but I'm not sure. The reason they can't breed fertile offspring has more to do with genetics than whether they have claw-toes. They are just too divergent from their common ancestor, just like horses and donkeys.
I saw some about a year ago - they werent particularly nice looking birds at all in my opinion. Crossbred mutts - that dont look like either a muscovy or a Runner. I fellow thought breeding some for an auction would be a great way to make some money- He had about 30 there- and took almost all of them home. People didnt want them as a pet- farmbird or a meat bird. Poor Duckies. I guess they could be alright as layers- but the drakes will all be freeloaders if they cant produce offspring or eggs. Im sure they would still be cute when just hatched...All duckies are at that stage.
I didn't think they were fertile! I only have 3 in the bator, so if any hatch they'll just be my pets My Runners are brown/white and the male has a dark brown patch over his eye. he's on the left of this photo and the scovies are all a black with hints of green and have white heads. except one is 95% white.. with some grey feathers on her back. Will be interesting to see the babies
We once had a Cayuga/Silver Muscovy mule. Very pretty! (I'll try to find a pic but it was a long time ago, might not have one)
To answer your question, mule ducks (muscovy crossed with mallard-drived breed) are infertile. A lot of people raise mule ducks for meat and eggs.
Due to differences in chromosome #, either sex muscovy X mallard derived cross is sterile. In my experience the hens did not lay eggs. Due to hybrid vigor, they are healthy, fast growing, good tasting ducks.
