Muscovy owners!

[mamamage]

hello everyone! im looking for some info and some stories (good and bad), from some people that own muscovy ducks! i want to see your brooder set ups, and also hear about their behavior and any other info you would like to share about them! im stocking up on all my research now in hopes to raise some in a couple months. i now have 10 chickens and two turkeys. next month ill be getting 8 more chicks. so after that i would love to try my hand at raising a couple of ducklings! thanks so much in advance and i cant wait to hear about your muscovy ducks! pictures are sooo welcome

 

[Quacking Pigeon]

I don't use a brooder of incubate any Muscovy eggs as they are a very and I mean very broody breed.

Recently I had 10 scovy ducklings hatch, their mom (maybe the Mum to like 7 of them) is taking good care of them. So far this is my 3rd batch this year of Muscovies, my first batch were whites (2 drakes), second batch were black & whites (1 duck, 1 drake), and now the third batch which are black, black & white. In a few weeks I'll have my forth batch as long as Snowbell (original white Muscovy duck) doesn't abandon the nest.

Anyways the little scovy ducks are going well. I find that Muscovies take forever to get fully feathered, but as soon as they are, they seem to all a suddenly mature fast (I probably loose track).

Here's some photos of the latest batch:

 

[TheBeardie]

*I will refer to female ducks as ducks, ducks as a whole as ducks and males as drakes.*
Muscovies are my favorite kind of duck! My first
muscovy was a huge black drake named big burt. Sadly burt passed away last year.
This was a early picture of burt.

I only currently one adult duck, from my flock of mostly chickens and a khaki campbell drake, one white muscovy duck and two pied muscovy ducks that got mostly wiped out by an unknown animal. The remaining adult duck is a pied.

She's starting to molt and she just recently got broken from being broody, so she does get even prettier than this. This lady needed some friends because I've had the khaki campbell drake run off to the neighbors flock of ducks after the duck he was with had passed way. This was before the group of three muscovy ducks previously mentioned. When I got my chicken hatching eggs I also picked up two muscovy ducklings! One is chocolate and I believe the other one is lavender.
I kinda want to name this one Hershey

Look at wings on this guy!! The wings on a duckling are comical!

Here's a frizzled cochin bantam of the same age. Chickens seem to pop out with the starts of feathers.

Here's the lavender one. She's, hopefully she, is a few days younger than the chocolate one.

I first got into ducks quite a few years ago. My first flock was made up of magpies and crested. They were some funny ducks! Then I had more crested, both of these ducks were kinda slow, I think it had a lot to do with how they were treated in their first few days. I got both of them at a farm swap where they got trampled by the bigger birds. Sweet little ducks though!

Next was big burt and the brown duck. Burt was my only really named duck, like I mentioned earlier he was my first muscovy. Burt was going to be a turducken, a chicken stuffed into a duck and then the chicken/duck gets stuffed in a turkey, if he wasn't bought that day. The khaki campbell drake came with burt. Although both being male they got along well.
This is burt more recently. He got whiter as he aged.

Between Bert and now I've had many muscovies. I love the look of a muscovy over a more domesticated duck. Some 'socovies avoid you at all costs, some will tolerate you, some will eat out of your hands, some will come when called and some will be okay with getting picked up. It's really a guessing game on how any you get will act, the ducklings in the brooder would rather not be messed with and love giving me the side eye. Burt would come up to me and eat out of my hand, most of the ducks I've had were quite cautious of people in general. The duck I currently have, and the sisters she came with, would also eat out of your hand. Just like with chickens, some just don't like to be handled!

A muscovy does not quack like most ducks, the males hiss and the females kinda peep. You can find some videos on YouTube of the noises they make.
Most ducks I've had have tried to go broody. I've only let a couple hatch eggs.
Muscovy eggs are particularly thick. The yolks are much stronger than a chicken egg. Duck eggs are great in baked goods!
My brooder is just a large plastic tote with hardware cloth lid I made. The tote is next to a shelf that the light clamp is clamped on to. It has to be cleaned often, ducks are very messy drinkers.
Without a real mother duck ducklings don't get the oil that makes duck feathers water-proof. Some people don't let non-broody ducklings swim until they're 8-12 weeks old, that's when they start to produce they're own oils.I usually wait until the duckling is walking, eating, drinking and are overall over their long, hard hatch to give them a bath.
Some nice warm water in the sink or the tub will be heaven for duckings! Always have a towel on stand by for drying or a chill could kill them. If you end up with a drake he shouldn't really be around your chickens. Roosters don't have a penis, but drakes do! Males have a long corkscrew penis, and the females have a long corkscrew vagina, which spirals in the opposite direction. Chickens don't have any external 'love parts'. The drake could try to mate with your hens and really hurt them.
The ducks can fly really well. Burt could fly, but he always crash landed.
I have kiddy pools for my ducks. I do have a pond out back, but some how most of the ducks I've had haven't found it.
Don't let those claws get you! I've been cut quite badly by flailing duck legs.

In conclusion, Muscovies are awesome!

 

[Daphne_loves_mealworms]

I have two ‘Scovy teenagers that are approaching 4 months. 1 is a pure white drake with blue eyes, the other is still questionable (thinking/hoping duck) and is piebald. Both get along well with our 2 and 1/2 yr. old Rouen duck, although it took a while. They are great ducks.

My one word of caution is that they seem to be harder to sex when young if they weren’t vent-sexed. If you have a lot of them together, you can compare foot size and how they stand and overall body size, but if there are just a couple or a few where there are not many differences, you may end up with more drakes thank you intended.

They also fly, females better than males, or so I’ve heard. Goon 2, my probable female, is now quite skillful, although she refuses to abandon her buddies for more than a quick flight around the barn. Wing trimming or an enclosed pen is highly recommended.

But personality-wise, they are great!

 

[mamamage]

these replies are awesome. thank you guys so much!

 

[Heather-nikole]

I have 5. Two male three females. This summer is the first time having ducks. I love them!! Raised them all since a couple weeks old. They have great personality. I have 9 mallards with them and they do fine.
And muscovys dont quack they hiss!

 

[Kessel23]

Muscovy ducks are one of my favorite poultry species to own. Here is some information about them.
The plural of Muscovy is Muscovies, The muscovy duck is a duck (I know it's hard to believe but you will be told otherwise by some people on here)
Although the Muscovy duck is a duck that does not mean it is the same as the Mallard derived ducks, they are genetically different and completely different species, the Muscovy comes from the genus Cairina, while the mallard comes from the genus Anas.
The Muscovy is way more quiet than mallard derived ducks, drakes make hissing sounds and you will not hear them if you are not out by them, hens chirp. Muscovy ducks and wood ducks are the only two species of perching ducks. Muscovy ducks are less aquatic than mallards and usually only bathe a few times a week, they do still need water that they can dunk their heads in available at all times though. Muscovy ducks also do not drill holes like the mallard derived ducks. Muscovy ducks sit around a lot more than mallards do and are not very active birds for most of the day. Another difference between the two is what they eat when free ranging, muscovy ducks like to hunt bugs, mainly flies and other easy to catch bugs, they do still eat greens though, and they like to strip the seeds off of tall grass. They are pretty hardy birds, they don't lay much though. Their eggs are big and expensive, they taste great too. Muscovy duck eggs take 35 days to incubate and will have a much higher hatch rate if they are set under a Muscovy hen. Overall, they are awesome birds, they are very quiet and nice birds to be around, they get along well with chickens, much better than mallard derived drakes.

 

[Le Moth]

Some can be escape artists when young!
We battled 5 out of our 15 for months, 1.8m fencing and wing clipping couldn't keep them in, they would climb it.
They've settled in now at 7 months old and stay where they are supposed to. I think we underestimated how smart and determined they can be.

 

[Kessel23]

Yeah, they can get up almost any fence in my experience. They climb up it while flapping their wings, even if you clip them. I had one of my first hens get over a 10 foot fence and her wings were clipped.

 

[Le Moth]

And muscovys dont quack they hiss!

Females makes the cutest little sounds.
Except my hand raised girls... they scream at me O.O