Muscovies and Pekins

[Buttercup725]

My Pekins will be three weeks old this week and my husband and I are starting on their coop this weekend. Once they’re old enough, they’ll be sleeping in the coop at night and free ranging during the day.

We have a small lake in our backyard and after hurricane Ian, we had muscovies migrate to our lake from a retention pond down the street, and they’ve stayed put. After having this random thought just now, I’m wondering should I be worried about them noticing my ducks and possibly mating and/or being aggressive?

I do stay home so if anything were to happen I’d like to think I could hear it but ya never know.

 

[ruthhope]

Lovely little fluffies. One is crested. My son's original three were pekins and one of his is crested.

Your domestic ducks should be kept away from wild ducks that could transfer parasites and disease, including avian influenza to your ducks.

Muscovy are intelligent and adept scavengers. They may well be attracted over to your ducks when they realise you are feeding your ducks.

I think you need a run for your ducks, to keep them safe from wild ducks. The muscovy may well depart your pond, but the water and surrounding area might be contaminated.

 

[Miss Lydia]

Speaking of all of this, does anyone know what happened to all the feral Muscovy and domestic ducks that lived in Florida before the hurricane hit? This has been on my mind for quite a while. I know no one knows what happened to them all but maybe in your areas? Good to hear some Muscovy managed to survive.

 

[ruthhope]

Speaking of all of this, does anyone know what happened to all the feral Muscovy and domestic ducks that lived in Florida before the hurricane hit? This has been on my mind for quite a while. I know no one knows what happened to them all but maybe in your areas? Good to hear some Muscovy managed to survive.

The muscovy are unharmed in St Johns County and indeed there are lots of newly hatched fluffies following mama ducks around. I really wonder how some of these mamas have protected so many eggs under shrubs in public places. But there a some mamas tailed by 12 and 15 fluffies.

 

[Miss Lydia]

They are truly amazing arent they? I love them so much just the thought of them losing their lives to anything hurts my heart. We need many Duck havens.

 

[Buttercup725]

Speaking of all of this, does anyone know what happened to all the feral Muscovy and domestic ducks that lived in Florida before the hurricane hit? This has been on my mind for quite a while. I know no one knows what happened to them all but maybe in your areas? Good to hear some Muscovy managed to survive.

We’ve always had them around and they didn’t seem to be affected too much in our area, thankfully. I even saw some ducklings the other day!

 

[Buttercup725]

Lovely little fluffies. One is crested. My son's original three were pekins and one of his is crested.

Your domestic ducks should be kept away from wild ducks that could transfer parasites and disease, including avian influenza to your ducks.

Muscovy are intelligent and adept scavengers. They may well be attracted over to your ducks when they realise you are feeding your ducks.

I think you need a run for your ducks, to keep them safe from wild ducks. The muscovy may well depart your pond, but the water and surrounding area might be contaminated.

Thank you! I’m glad I thought of this before we started building!