Broodys all over the place!

[~gd]

I just got my very first muscovy ducks EVER. Momma used to complain that they were ugly, but didn't care and DH heard her often enough and also heard his own grandmother cursing in French, "No good turkey duck," and he never wanted to consent to getting any. Well, I landed on a few ducklings, which I offered to sell for a local lady.....only I never even attempted to sell them (I knew I wouldn't). I know they supposed to be awesome mom's. I don't know what I will get out of them, but they are here. I started with 7 and I somehow lost one......like...gone, missing, vanished. I'll keep a drake and at least 2 females if I have enough to get that going and eat the rest. All my other ducklings have been sold off, so looks like that will be my only duck meat anyway, but hopefully a future incubation assistant.

They are fiesty and with the sharp claws they have you and other birds need to respect those claws. The drakes get quite large and can provide more meat than a smallish china goose. The meat is more like beef than anything else it usually isn't fatty or greasely like other ducks unless you confine them to fatten them up. Remember that the ducks fly very well even with their shorter wings Even a well fattened Drake can usually fly.
These ducks never migrated they were tree perching ducks that fished and gobbled plants in rivers in warm temperate climate therefore they never had the fatty layer just under the skin which act like fuel tanks for the birds that migrate.
The females are often only half the size of the males because tree nests were often holes in old trees, the smaller the duck the more nest spots that were available. Ours liked private nests with a curtain to provide privacy. The drakes were mating machines to the point that they would tear up a nest or kill ducklings to make his lady avaialllbe to him again.
Because they do not migrate they tend to start laying later but will keep it up untill it starts to get cold Here is the big thing it is fairly common for a duck to produce 12 ducklings per hatch with three hatches per year. And they also come in fancy colors from people that breed for colors

 

[piglett]

how much noise does a muscovy make?
maybe they would make good stealth foul?

 

[~gd]

how much noise does a muscovy make?
maybe they would make good stealth foul?

They hiss like a snake, do not quack. a very quiet duck indeed. What is a stealth foul? I know several people that keep a few muscovy out of sight where poultry is not allowed. Is that what you mean?

 

[piglett]

how much noise does a muscovy make?
maybe they would make good stealth foul?

They hiss like a snake, do not quack. a very quiet duck indeed. What is a stealth foul? I know several people that keep a few muscovy out of sight where poultry is not allowed. Is that what you mean?

yup that is what i was talking about
i may add a few to our little place for meat
people will think that i have snakes on the other side of the fence


thanks
piglett

 

[rhoda_bruce]

I''m a little late coming back. I never really noticed, but I've never heard my muscovies quacking. Just shared all this info with DH and he hasn't either. He claims he heard one of them hissing like the geese.
I'm glad I didn't sell those ducklings. They are getting big and I'm curious to see what they taste like. I might have a new favorite meat bird.
About the claws......yep. The children were in the pen with them, holding them and a few of the children were scratched. My DD10 got a slightly infected scratch on her hand. Its draining and we are treating with antibiotic ointment. The pen is now off limits to them. They would fight with me, when I'd move them, but I have a way of holding them to settle them, but the kids don't have my touch yet.
Regarding the drakes.......well to tell the truth, I find that drakes, in general, are rapists. I try to keep one drake to 5 or 6 ducks with most of my projects. I'm really fast to kill off my extra drakes because once mating starts, if I have too many, I know what violence will take place in the pen. Besides, I'm too cheap to play that game. If something is costing me money and not giving me anything, its gonna feed me and in not too long. But I will take what you said into consideration. It might be best if I have a bachelor pen for when the ducks go broody. I don't need a bunch of domestically abused/murdered ducklings.
If the muscovy isn't as fatty as other ducks, maybe DH can actually eat em. He was advised by his cardiologist, not to eat domestic ducks. Look at me....I'm always trying to bend the rules.

 

[rhoda_bruce]

Dose anyone know how well turkeys do with hatching chicks (chickens)? She has 3 eggs of her own but "the girls" have been laying eggs for her. I let her keep about 6 chicken eggs.

One chicken hen hatched a couple of days ago, and another hatched today, the other hen should hatch in a day or 2. Funny, the hen that goes broody at the drop of an egg, has not gone broody since I broke her in Feb.

I would think she should do fine, but I have a few concerns.....you see, I would want her secluded from other birds, because I pick up broodies to make sure no new eggs have been put in the nest. Not sure what a turkey hen would do if I'd pick her up. I have only had experience with a setting turkey hen once and it wasn't a good story. The Tom stood guard for a month and she hatched out 2 babies and for a day they all walked around and he was so proud of his family and the next day, I was going out and saw him jumping on something, so I went over and it was one of the babies......I lost it. What I did would have horrified an animal lover. Let me just say, he cut a partial flip in the yard. I called Daddy and said for him to come over NOW....the turkey has got to go. I actually enjoyed plucking him. I was super mad. I was never mad at an animal I was cleaning before. If I ever get turkeys again, I guarantee that kinda thing will never happen again. I can understand why some people don't have toms and order the sperm instead.

 

[piglett]

Dose anyone know how well turkeys do with hatching chicks (chickens)? She has 3 eggs of her own but "the girls" have been laying eggs for her. I let her keep about 6 chicken eggs.

One chicken hen hatched a couple of days ago, and another hatched today, the other hen should hatch in a day or 2. Funny, the hen that goes broody at the drop of an egg, has not gone broody since I broke her in Feb.

I would think she should do fine, but I have a few concerns.....you see, I would want her secluded from other birds, because I pick up broodies to make sure no new eggs have been put in the nest. Not sure what a turkey hen would do if I'd pick her up. I have only had experience with a setting turkey hen once and it wasn't a good story. The Tom stood guard for a month and she hatched out 2 babies and for a day they all walked around and he was so proud of his family and the next day, I was going out and saw him jumping on something, so I went over and it was one of the babies......I lost it. What I did would have horrified an animal lover. Let me just say, he cut a partial flip in the yard. I called Daddy and said for him to come over NOW....the turkey has got to go. I actually enjoyed plucking him. I was super mad. I was never mad at an animal I was cleaning before. If I ever get turkeys again, I guarantee that kinda thing will never happen again. I can understand why some people don't have toms and order the sperm instead.

well he DID sign up for the ride to freezer camp
glad you took care of that boy!

we have four day old turkey chicks on order from the local feed store
i wanted to raise them for a while (while they were still young)
along with our peeps (we hatch out a dozen or more every week)
well come to find out the chickens can get sick unless you put something into their water
so now what to do with just 4 turkey chicks.....?
i don't like the idea of 2 brooders but i may have to.

take care all
piglett

 

[~gd]

Dose anyone know how well turkeys do with hatching chicks (chickens)? She has 3 eggs of her own but "the girls" have been laying eggs for her. I let her keep about 6 chicken eggs.

One chicken hen hatched a couple of days ago, and another hatched today, the other hen should hatch in a day or 2. Funny, the hen that goes broody at the drop of an egg, has not gone broody since I broke her in Feb.

I would think she should do fine, but I have a few concerns.....you see, I would want her secluded from other birds, because I pick up broodies to make sure no new eggs have been put in the nest. Not sure what a turkey hen would do if I'd pick her up. I have only had experience with a setting turkey hen once and it wasn't a good story. The Tom stood guard for a month and she hatched out 2 babies and for a day they all walked around and he was so proud of his family and the next day, I was going out and saw him jumping on something, so I went over and it was one of the babies......I lost it. What I did would have horrified an animal lover. Let me just say, he cut a partial flip in the yard. I called Daddy and said for him to come over NOW....the turkey has got to go. I actually enjoyed plucking him. I was super mad. I was never mad at an animal I was cleaning before. If I ever get turkeys again, I guarantee that kinda thing will never happen again. I can understand why some people don't have toms and order the sperm instead.

I think that if you do a little research you will find that broad brested toms are so broad that they phycically are unable to mate naturally The same holds true for the heavy geese they are only able to mate in deep water where he dunks her whike servicing her. That is not a option for huge turkeys and they are usually produced by AI

 

[piglett]

which breeds are "broad brested"?


thanks

 

[~gd]

I''m a little late coming back. I never really noticed, but I've never heard my muscovies quacking. Just shared all this info with DH and he hasn't either. He claims he heard one of them hissing like the geese.
I'm glad I didn't sell those ducklings. They are getting big and I'm curious to see what they taste like. I might have a new favorite meat bird.
About the claws......yep. The children were in the pen with them, holding them and a few of the children were scratched. My DD10 got a slightly infected scratch on her hand. Its draining and we are treating with antibiotic ointment. The pen is now off limits to them. They would fight with me, when I'd move them, but I have a way of holding them to settle them, but the kids don't have my touch yet.
Regarding the drakes.......well to tell the truth, I find that drakes, in general, are rapists. I try to keep one drake to 5 or 6 ducks with most of my projects. I'm really fast to kill off my extra drakes because once mating starts, if I have too many, I know what violence will take place in the pen. Besides, I'm too cheap to play that game. If something is costing me money and not giving me anything, its gonna feed me and in not too long. But I will take what you said into consideration. It might be best if I have a bachelor pen for when the ducks go broody. I don't need a bunch of domestically abused/murdered ducklings.
If the muscovy isn't as fatty as other ducks, maybe DH can actually eat em. He was advised by his cardiologist, not to eat domestic ducks. Look at me....I'm always trying to bend the rules.

Well because this is supposed to be a family friendly place I didn't mention how horny the drakes tended to be. [I once caught one raping a wild rabbit] We used to maintain our flock at about 200 muscovies for both meat and eggs. Since the drakes are usually bigger than the ducks the drakes would be seperated early they were for meat.
We would carry only 2 drakes over the winter to breed replacements {the second drake was for insurance only in case one died} There were always a few ducks that were not productive at egg laying because they tended to go broody at the drop of an egg. These were our female breeding stock and if there were too many they became meat. The broodies would spend some quality time with the drake with someone watching so she wasn't injured by the drake Them she would go to the hatching area, That would be fun to watch as the ladies would try to steal each other's eggs for their own nest, If the hatch didn't go well they were usually given a second shot because they will breed anytime the weather was warm. The good mothers [uselly rare in ducks were used to raise the ducklings [I once saw a duck cover 20 ducklings with about half tucked under her wings] the bad mothers became meat. Yep we sold a bunch of eggs but there was more money in meat.