Moody not Broody: to breed or not to breed? THAT is the question.

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In contrast to the noisy quacking of other ducks, Muscovies are extremely quiet. Chickens are noisy, geese are noisy, guineas are noisy, and female Mallard-derived ducks are noisy, but the Muscovy is, overall, quiet. Unlike other ducks, Muscovies perch. In the wild, they slept in trees. Some of mine sleep on top of their nest box. They also enjoy sitting on concrete blocks, old piles of wood, tractors, wheelbarrows, or any raised object. Even if their wings are clipped, they can jump well. Females fly extraordinarily well and may have to be clipped, although in many modern strains, the males are too heavy to be airborne.

Others say they lay up to My own ducks lay on the higher end of the scale. The difference comes from your climate. Muscovies are excellent mothers. They frequently go broody and set on their eggs for 35 days, which is longer than for most ducks. Muscovies cannot be crossed with other breeds to produce a fertile duck. Muscovy meat is prized. Others declare they are ferocious and aggressive. If you have an aggressive drake, he CAN be cured. Some say they have more personality than other breeds of ducks.

Muscovies were the first animals I ever raised. They are quiet, sweet, lay enough eggs for a family, have excellent meat, are good mothers, and make good pets. Most animals spend a lot of time eating. As you probably know, factory-farmed chickens are constrained in battery cages and not allowed to find their own food. Question, I have several wild Muscovy that live in the neighborhood more specifically my yard and I absolutely adore them.

One of the females had babies a couple months ago so they are pretty big now almost the same size as mama. I just wanted to know when will they start to fly? Muscovy wings are fully developed around four months of age about sixteen weeks. Many males in modern strains are too heavy to fly, but wild males should be able to. Also, I realize wild ducks may not be under your jurisdiction, but two females to five males is generally too much and can often result in males injuring each other through fighting or accidentally killing the females.

They may be okay, at least for now, but please do keep an eye on them! Hi, I have a single male Muscovy. Found him abandoned on the street of all places. Question is, does he need a female? Muscovy drake aggression is almost always because the drake is either trying to dominate you or mate you. Please get more than one, if possible, because having one male and one female can sometimes result in the lone female being mated too much and thus injured.

Many drake owners have had success doing this. Other people have tried using a broom to push him away and fend off all his attacks, and some drakes give up when they are repeatedly treated like this every time they try to bite. I am designing a barn-stall-turned-into-a-coop for a mixed flock of chickens and muscovies. I am having a hard time finding out much about nest boxes.

The chickens and muscovies are not here yet, and it will be several weeks before they are coop-ready. Ducks have no problem sharing nest boxes. The only possible problem is that Muscovies are pickier about where they lay their eggs than most chickens and may not like a box that chickens are perfectly happy with. I wrote an article about ducks who hide their eggs and how to get them to lay in nest boxes here: I intend to write more about nest boxes in the near future, but I think that article will have enough information to help you. It is dangerous to house drakes with chickens.

Drakes are horn dogs that will mate anything relatively close to the shape of a duck. If a drake mates a chicken it will kill her. Chickens are not made to take the corkscrew penis of a drake, it will literally rip her inside out. Yes, it would be a good idea. They may have been okay so far, but something could happen anytime. Better safe than sorry. I moved the eggs to fill in the hole with dirt so she could rotate them.

Is there something I can do or is it to late? I live on the coast of Ga. Most ducks do not like if their nest is changed or moved and will stop being broody. There are a number of possible explanations, however. When did they lay — December, August…? Have they laid this year yet? Duck will take a break from laying once a year for approximately one to two months, while they molt.

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Stress is one possible reason a duck might not lay. An improper diet or not receiving enough calcium could also prevent a duck from laying normally. What are you feeding them? Do you give them a calcium supplement such as oyster shell or eggshells?

Parasites and disease are another possible cause. You may want to read about the symptoms of parasites and diseases to rule this out. Did you buy these three ducks as adults from someone else? Sometimes, even the ducks themselves start eating the eggs, a habit that is difficult to break. Thanks for bringing this up. And I hoped this helped you or gave you a clue as to why your ducks might not be laying normally. I think next time I will but the eggs under my hen. I will add calcium to there diet. I do for my chickens but never thought of it for the ducks.

Thank you so much for the response!! I live in Hawaii. I have one female one male Muscovy duck. Recently the male is attacking me. He continues to attack even after I push him down.

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I love him but need help. Please help what should I do? I do not want to get more female ducks. Considering getting rid of him but it breaks my heart. I love him so much. When I whack him he keeps jumping on me again and again. This aggression is just in last week.

Kathryn Player

Before he was loving came to me followed me. Let me pet him lots. It still needs some refinement, and I want to add videos and pictures, but I wanted to send it to you as soon as I could. I want to make this as complete and informative as possible. It would also be really nice you can give me additional feedback such as how you understood it and how well it works for you. I have 2 muscovy drakes and 2 females, they are all around 5 months old. They do it sometimes when my dog approaches them, or even when I am close to them. This does not always happen, but they are very tame and one even climbes onto my lap when I have snacks for them.

Do you know why they make this sound? Thanks Hannah, I found a video on YouTube where a muscovy makes that specific sound. Thanks for the video.

Mine make that sound too, in certain situations. One of mine who was aggressive in the past and is still bold and fearless will sometimes do it if I kneel near him.

They also do it when challenging other drakes to a fight. The drake in that video is being slightly threatening. So it could be a precursor to aggression. Your drakes definitely sound bold. Tame, friendly drakes tend to see you as a part of their pecking order and social structure and often try to test people. Hope that makes sense! Thank you so much Hannah! My female Muscovy is drinking but not eating.

Have tried meal worms and everything else under the sun. She is bathing with the tub we have for her. We love her soooo much…any suggestions? They have a lot of extremely helpful people with a lot of medical experience. There are a lot of duck people on there too. Great site and really appreciate all the learning! Is it possible to know if a pair of Muscovies have mated without seeing it? Please any insight would be fantastic. If this happens, you need to add a couple more females. I got the 2 males and one of the females when they were about 3 weeks old. I got the other female a few weeks ago from a guy who said she was about 5 months old about the same age as the other muscovies now.

Do you maybe know what causes these marks? I could send you photos if it would help? But it sounds normal. Some have completely dark or gray legs, some have orange feet and legs with dark splotches, some have almost completely orange legs. It could just be the color that the Muscovy is. Another thing I forgot to mention is that some of the marks seem to go away, but most of them are still there.

Do muscovy females lay bigger eggs the older they get? The first eggs are usually small, but they quickly reach their normal size. I have some ducks that regularly lay large eggs, and others that always lay small eggs. It depends more on the individual duck than the age. Same with the nests. I have one duck who always wants to lay above the ground, in wheelbarrows, raised nest boxes, flowerpots, and things like that.

She always makes really nice nests. Her sister, on the other hand, sticks her eggs in random holes. Weight is a better way to find out how big an egg is. Muscovy eggs are usually 65 to 85 grams. Mine, for some reason, are usually smaller than that. I think it might be because my ducks are closer to the wild version of Muscovies. Thank you for the info. There is not much out there on Muscovies. I need your advise. Next paragraph is my story, which you can skip if your time is limited.

My question is at the bottom.

I live close to Tampa Florida. I have several ducks, chickens and one PB Pig. I do rescue, at times. Fast Forward, three hatched. I was ignorant to the breed so i read everything i could find. Most of it negative. I even called State of Fl Wildlife. I want to know the best protocol for release.

I admit I was prejudice. To say that the muscovy are hated here, is an understatement. So I decided to use my best Judgment. First time I let them out to stretch their legs and clean there box, they came straight for me and attacked me!!.. They are the sweetest No comparison to ducks or chickens! I have not found feathers anywhere to indicate this. Its now been five days? FYI, they are about six months old. A couple months ago the two I have paired up and the one that is missing was with them but always a little distant.

Perching in a tree does not guarantee safety from predators. She could have come at any time of day or night. However, then two of them flew away.

Moody not Broody: to breed or not to breed? THAT is the question.

We found one, and the other returned the next day. Not long after that, a third duck flew away and never returned.

They just fly for fun and then get lost. A domestic Muscovy flew into our yard a few weeks ago. We had no idea where she came from, so we kept her and clipped her wings, but there is someone, somewhere, who is now wondering what happened to one of their ducks. There are 5 muscovy ducks that have been coming to my house for a couple months. One of the females recently laid eggs under a Bush on the side of my house. She leaves during day and returns in morning and lays more. Will she eventually sit on the eggs all day? Instead, Emma wishes to pursue her teaching career and help children with Special Educational Needs, but her plans are thwarted and she has to make a decision which will affect her and her husband, Mike, forever.

This was a good story. To buy Moody Not Broody , or not… That is a silly question!

Kathryn Player was a teacher for ten years before she decided to have a career break and become a stay-at-home Mum. It is about two sisters who work in a charity shop and is based on real life stories. Like Liked by 1 person. You are very welcome! You are commenting using your WordPress. You are commenting using your Twitter account. You are commenting using your Facebook account.

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