Muscovy Questions

[LuckyDuck1296]

I just bought a few six month old Muscovy ducks a few days ago. We have a few questions.

1. Is there any real way to tell sex until maturity? I mean other than flipping them over and looking for the sex. They are all really close in size right now but two have slightly larger crests on top of their heads.
2. Should I be closing them in at night? I have a pole barn that is sectioned off into a nice coop that used to be used for chickens, I put some improvised boxes in there for them, but they have no interest in them. They came from a place where they weren't cooped at all and just kind of went wherever. I just looked outside and it looks like the four of them are snuggled together swimming in the middle of our mostly frozen pond.. is that ok for them to do? They fall asleep on the edge of the pond and I'm pretty sure a fox or something is chasing them into the water
3. I can just leave as much feed in their feeder as it will hold, right? Like, they won't over eat?
4. Does it make sense to make a run off of my coop and allow them to just go wherever through the day? Would they just sleep in the run?

 

[laughingdog]

Sexing when young done by looking at stance and size of feet (wider stance and larger feet set more forward looking on boys). Males get easy whisper like mumble n hiss sorta starting. Redness thickening and bump on top of nose.

 

[LuckyDuck1296]

Thanks. Hopefully I will be able to tell the difference soon. I honestly think they're all male, though. No real differences in size or stance now.

I know the other questions probably seem pretty obvious, but we are new to ducks, and have never had any livestock of any kind. Any help would be greatly appreciated.