Week by week photos of a Muscovy duckling...weeks 5, 6 and now week 7 included

[Miss Lydia]

Hmmm can't seem to edit my original posts with new pics...or edit the thread title.
She's now 8 weeks and 2 days old.
Still peeping like a duckling but for the last week she's being making a high pitched trill when she's happy to see you or knows she's going to get a treat or when she meets up with her Sablepoot best friend when she hasn't seen her for an hr or so. She sounds like the high pitched one from this vid (about 10 seconds in)

She makes this noise constantly when you put one of Netties duck harnesses on her and allow her free roam of the house.

She is by far our tamest, friendliest, playful and not phased by anything duck. She is just so laid back and full of beans at the same time.
Her back is still fluffy ducking down and her flight feathers are well over an 2 inches long.

I keep saying "her" ....but still not 100% sure.

Week 8:

If she is making noise like those ducks on the video, then I'd say female . my 24 week old makes low sounds ruffs but nothing like hissing yet as adult drakes do. But he's never sounded like those ducks do

 

[Wokawidget]

10.5 week old photos

I haven't posted any photos in the last 2 weeks as she hasn't really changed physically.
She's a little bigger...around the size of my runner.

She trills constantly...more so when happy and does an amusing honk when startled.

I'm almost 100% sure she's female.
Her flight feathers are almost fully grown and cross on her back now. They're easy to see because they're white and her body is black.
Her body has grown into her legs, which look very thin now.

What color would you classify her as?

Her face is starting to get redder now.






cheers,

Woka

 

[petjem]

It looks like she is a "magpie" . Have a look at these ducks here, she looks like one doesn't she?

 

[Miss Lydia]

10.5 week old photos

I haven't posted any photos in the last 2 weeks as she hasn't really changed physically.
She's a little bigger...around the size of my runner.

She trills constantly...more so when happy and does an amusing honk when startled.

I'm almost 100% sure she's female.
Her flight feathers are almost fully grown and cross on her back now. They're easy to see because they're white and her body is black.
Her body has grown into her legs, which look very thin now.

What color would you classify her as?

Her face is starting to get redder now.






cheers,

Woka

She has grown into a beautiful duck. I diff say duck now.

 

[tsaenz]

My muscovies are almost 5 weeks

[/IMG]any guesses on gender ?

 

[muscovymomma]

Adorable! well, the hissing wouldn't be there it's too young, you should hear my 3mth olds.. they can barely.. get a hiss out, and yeah they are most definitely drakes. The height of the leg leans me to drakelet... i'll see if i can find a pic of the single baby we had back in may.. isn't he cute? sadly, somebody killed him(likely a loose dog, not ours) but he most certainly grew into a drake.. Here is my June hatch, i got one! duck the rest are drakes see the height of those legs? The duck in the middle is obviously an adult, and the little chocolate one in the back is the lone ducklet. Just looked it up, these guys were 7wks in this pic give or take..

Do your drakes fight? I am afraid that I have 8-9 drakes and 1-2 females. I'm not for sure, they are all about the same size and they are all getting flight feathers at 6 weeks. I just don't want all the guys fighting!

 

[Amiga]

Do your drakes fight? I am afraid that I have 8-9 drakes and 1-2 females. I'm not for sure, they are all about the same size and they are all getting flight feathers at 6 weeks. I just don't want all the guys fighting!

Please remember that your girls depend upon you for their safety, as well. They will need to be separated from the boys, I think, because that would be too much for them.

@Miss Lydia

do you have some advice?

@Scovy Momma

 

[Miss Lydia]

Please remember that your girls depend upon you for their safety, as well. They will need to be separated from the boys, I think, because that would be too much for them.

@Miss Lydia

do you have some advice?

@Scovy Momma

In my experience Muscovy drakes are fighters, some worse than others. Separating the drakes from your females would be one solution but isn't ideal to me unless your in a breeding program and have some you want to breed, I like the idea of letting my ducks be ducks and be able to mingle together just like in the wild so I had to make the hard decision to re home some of my drakes to keep peace in the flock,and keep me sane. My drakes had at least 2 females that hung out with them and there wasn't over breeding but the fighting was not nice and having to keep them separated was a pain for me. I had done the separating for about 9 yrs so it was getting tiresome. I was heartbroken because all my drakes have wonderful personalities but they just cannot live together. At 6 weeks old i don't think you have to worry too much about fighting my scovy's don't even mate till next spring after they hatch. Might get some mild pushing and shoving. Just keep an eye on things. If they are getting in their flight feathers though you might want to clip on wing to keep them home.

 

[tmorgan46]

In my experience Muscovy drakes are fighters, some worse than others. Separating the drakes from your females would be one solution but isn't ideal to me unless your in a breeding program and have some you want to breed, I like the idea of letting my ducks be ducks and be able to mingle together just like in the wild so I had to make the hard decision to re home some of my drakes to keep peace in the flock,and keep me sane. My drakes had at least 2 females that hung out with them and there wasn't over breeding but the fighting was not nice and having to keep them separated was a pain for me. I had done the separating for about 9 yrs so it was getting tiresome. I was heartbroken because all my drakes have wonderful personalities but they just cannot live together. At 6 weeks old i don't think you have to worry too much about fighting my scovy's don't even mate till next spring after they hatch. Might get some mild pushing and shoving. Just keep an eye on things. If they are getting in their flight feathers though you might want to clip on wing to keep them home.

X2 on Miss Lydia's post and I'd like to add - that although the drakes are fighters, we have 4 adult drakes (Muscovies) right now and there is a definite pecking order and as the summer has come around, the fighting has lessened but still have the occasional skirmish. The one redeeming trait all of our drakes exhibit, is they do a very good job of protecting the little ones running around. Even our least favorite drake yesterday got between a duck and a group of ducklings, basically telling her to "take it somewhere else! not on my watch!" She ducked her head a bit and scampered away. And if you have plenty of room for them to spread out, that really helps keep the peace. Less space, then more of a problem in our experience.

 

[muscovymomma]

X2 on Miss Lydia's post and I'd like to add - that although the drakes are fighters, we have 4 adult drakes (Muscovies) right now and there is a definite pecking order and as the summer has come around, the fighting has lessened but still have the occasional skirmish. The one redeeming trait all of our drakes exhibit, is they do a very good job of protecting the little ones running around. Even our least favorite drake yesterday got between a duck and a group of ducklings, basically telling her to "take it somewhere else! not on my watch!" She ducked her head a bit and scampered away. And if you have plenty of room for them to spread out, that really helps keep the peace. Less space, then more of a problem in our experience.

Well.. I know its going to sound crazy but these will be working ducks. We have a pond about an hour and half away from where we live. My husband and his family have built a bunkhouse/cabin and we go up there at least every other weekend. The pond doesn't hold water well but has a well that pumps water to it 24/7. Because of this the water weeds and algae have taken over and the fish are getting over populated due to the fact that the water weeds are making it hard to fish. I had read somewhere that duck feces could help create a seal for the pond to hold water better and that they would eat the fish, algae, and hundreds of bugs. Cattle are ran behind our property, but the ducks will have about 10 acres to roam, forage, and live. I dont want to clip their wings since I want them to be able to fly away if a fox or coyote gets close. They will have plenty of buildings to fly up on to get up high, as well as trees, and we are also building them a fly in roost that would protect them from the weather/predators. I do worry about leaving them down there when we are not there but this is why we bought them and from everything that I have read and researched, they are extremely hardy. I just didnt think in my wildest dreams that I would have ended up with so many drakes!