When did your muscovies fly?

[Miss Lydia]

I've read many heartbreaking stories on here of Muscovy flying off and not coming home.

 

[Daphne_loves_mealworms]

My two female Muscovies started flying at 12 weeks of age. One never gained proficiency (to put it nicely), so she decided it was safer to stick to the ground and she now only uses her wings to get up to her perch and down again. My pied Muscovy is fully capable of flight. However, she is my only flight-capable duck. Last year, she was startled by something and took off deep into the woods. I followed her from tree top to tree top for hours, then sadly gave up to go get ready for work. As I was getting ready to leave, she re-appeared at the duckio. I was lucky!

The only reason I do not clip her wings is that my ducks no longer free-range (supervised walks only) and otherwise stay in a covered run or in the barn. She’s also so used to having the ability to fly if in danger that I don’t think I could take that away from her at 4+ years of age. She’s also very bonded to her three flightless sisters.

If my situation was different (safer for free-ranging, more flight-capable ducks) I would definitely clip wings!

 

[Luv Ducks]

Years ago I had one Muscovy Drake and two females. The one female hatched out about 8 ducklings. They all stayed together in a pen with no top and were fine. Then one day when they were still young they figured out they could fly and all of the young ones flew way off to a yard where I saw them but not close to my house. I had to go and get them and bring them all back. After that I rehomed them as I did not want to have to clip them all of the time or chase them down. The two that I have now I pinioned. It was done when they were three days old with no nerve endings in the end of the wing so they felt no pain. My next door neighbor has a pitt bull and they would be dinner if they flew over the fence. Their pen has netting over it but I do let them free range where there is grass while I am tending to their daily needs. That area has no netting as it is larger and I am right there where I can see them. They are quite happy getting fed and well cared for along with the rest of the flock.