Why are Muscovy ducks ignore or forgotten?

[Germaine_11.20]

Can you tell me how Muscovies fare against predators?

 

[Germaine_11.20]

Awww come on, someone has to know???

 

[keeperofthehearth]

Ooooo, I want to answer you but am in a time crunch right now. Will get back later..........

 

[lauralou]

Quote:
I keep mine penned. I don't have much hope that they could survive an attack from our many predators. Foxes, Coyotes... It's too risky here.

Maybe someone else knows for sure.

 

[Rare Feathers Farm]

Quote:
Mine are kept penned unless I'm home & outside to supervise them. Because mine are all hand-raised & imprinted and used to dogs, they really have no fear of coyotes! My mother-in-law lost 11 to coyotes in 3 months, last fall.

 

[sred98]

Quote:
I just visited CWR and the place is incredible. Jennifer told me about all the muscovies that were coming in. All of the birds there seemed very happy and healthy and well taken care of. But everyone still needs to visit and adopt!!!!

I saw your post on Travis! He is gorgeous!!

I wish I could just "pop over" to NC and visit. I can't believe they are getting so many at once. Sounds like a great place!

I wouldn't be eligible to adopt, since I am looking for dual purpose birds, but that is a wonderful thing that they are doing there. I hope they find lots of happy homes for them and get even more donations to help keep it running as nicely as it is!

Shelly

 

[keeperofthehearth]

Can you tell me how Muscovies fare against predators?

Sorry, this is a long post ....

don't mean to hijack...
We have coyote, fox and coons as well as the occasional loose dog. My neighbor lost her Scovies some years back to a coon who got into the coop one night. It does happen. Scovy are big ducks w/claws, wings and biting bills but still........all said and done, Ducks.

That said, we free range our Scovies all day and close those up we can (broodies, ducklings and boys who cooperate

)in the duck house and shed at night. We have 3 girls who roost in a white pine and 13 who roost on our house at night. One adult hen who has a hidey hole in amongst a ton of stuff in our carport. I'd rather her not be there but gave up rousting her out after a few days. I have on occasion left one or two big boys/drakes out when I got tired of chasing them in the dark when they WOULD NOT go into the shed w/the rest of the Scovies. We have only lost one girl and we don't know exactly what happened to her. She just vanished one day but a neighbor thought she saw her fly over her head so she may have gotten herself lost. We were having some trouble w/coons early on when the Scovies were all young but for some reason since they got big the coons seem to avoid our property. ONCE, when we were having trouble with the coons coming in, I mistakenly left the duck house pop door open one night and woke to the horrible thought that I'd go down and see nothing but carnage. I found our head drake, Duke, standing in the doorway of the duckhouse on guard. A coon had come through and gotten ahold of the food bucket (which I usually put away) and tore it apart, took an empty food tray and drug it off down the hill and generally made a mess of things. All ducks were accounted for.

I've noticed my Scovies listen very carefully to the other birds and critters around them & run/fly for cover for critters I wouldn't think would worry them, like deer. They're smart and watchful.....except around our cars.....

 

[Germaine_11.20]

Thank you everyone. That is what I needed to know. I will be hatching some and was not sure if they could fend for themselves.

I will pen them at night. Hope they aren't as hard as the geese!

 

[Birch Run Farm]

I make it a habit to honk the horn when driving into the drive every day. They learn pretty quick to 'move it' due to the noise.

 

[MDC]

Quote:
If you would like, write me up a short bio and Email a 'pretty' photo or two and I can put something up on my home page to try to help you find homes for some of these birds. Basically what I have in mind is where the birds come from, a few of the more important guidelines for adopting (such as if they're not allowed to go for slaughter, etc.) and any other info. you think is important. I will link your website as well. If you're interested, that is! (of course!)