The Muscovy Duck

Breed: The Muscovy
Temperament: females make the best pets
Cost: $15 - 25 for adult female, $30 for drakes, $100 for stud Muscovies
Lifespan: 7 to 8 years
Recommended for: anyone wishing to keep ducks
Maintenance: low

Muscovy Ducks are Easy to Raise and they Control Flies
Content: Muscovy ducks are a good choice for farmers because they are easy to care for, and they control flies. They forage for most of their own food, resist disease, and reproduce easily.

If you are looking for poultry that is easy to care for, resists disease, and controls flies at the same time, then Muscovy ducks are a good choice for you. They are healthy and hardy, they forage well for their own food, and reproduce easily. And they do a great job controlling flies. Muscovy meat is tasty and low in fat. Its flavour goes well with fruit and rice, and it requires less cooking time than other duck meat. What more could you ask?

You can tell a Muscovy duck from other types of ducks because Muscovies have large patches of puffy red skin around their eyes and over their bill. Muscovies can be white, greenish black, chocolate, or blue, or a combination of these colours.

Insect control
Muscovy ducks control flies and other insects the natural way. They are particularly helpful controlling flies, grasshoppers and locusts. In areas where rice is grown, Muscovies eat snails and slugs. If you put them in a pen with cows or calves they will eat most of the flies. In one experiment where two year old Muscovy ducks were put in cow pens, the fly population was reduced by 80 to 90 percent.

Care
Muscovy ducks are easy to care for. They don't need a pond nearby; just make sure they have clean water to drink. They need special attention only in the first few weeks of their lives. For example, ducklings need a dry shelter and warmth until they get feathers at about two weeks of age. Usually the mother provides these things, but a small shelter where the ducks can go during heavy rains is helpful. The ducklings should not get wet or go swimming until they are at least three weeks old and have feathers. So during this time, keep them away from streams and ponds in a small area with plenty of green weeds, grass, and insects. Leave small dishes of water for the ducklings for drinking and for cleaning out the breathing holes on their bill. Make sure the water in the dishes isn't too deep so the ducklings don't drown.

Muscovies eat grass and other vegetation. They can forage for all their own food. However, they grow much faster if you give them extra protein foods for the first two to three weeks. You can use broiler starter mash or chicken growing mash, cooked eggs chopped into small pieces, or cooked soybean meal. You can also feed them kitchen waste. These ducks may get sick if you give them medicated feed.

Muscovy ducks are great mothers and do a good job raising their young. Don't worry if the Muscovy seems to be sitting on the eggs a long time. Muscovies take longer to hatch than other poultry. A Muscovy egg takes 33 35 days to hatch. A chicken, for example, hatches in 21 days.

Muscovies will lay up to 80 eggs a year and hatch about four sets of ducklings if they get lots of high protein feed. If the ducks forage for all their own food they will lay fewer eggs, probably 20 to 30 eggs a year, and hatch one or two batches of ducklings. Muscovies are the all time versatile pet -they are interesting looking, cheap to run and are also edible. If you have enough of these birds you can make a quilt!

Appearance
Muscovies are easily distinguished from other breeds by their faces which are devoid of feathers, bright red, flashy and carnunculated (lumpy). The male, when alarmed, excited or angry, will erect the feathers on the top of his head and appear quite leery and wicked.

Male Muscovies are considerably larger than females. Large males weigh as much as eight kilos and females weigh approximately half as much.

Colours
White, black and white, blue (a light grey colour) and white, and bronze and white. A fawn and white colour also occurs but is much less common.

Temperament
Muscovies are docile, placid and slow moving if unthreatened. They do not enjoy being caught and picked up and will squirt their droppings as a form of defense.

Drakes can be bad tempered and aggressive and are not suitable as pets. Drakes will fight together and have been known to kill and even eat ducklings.

Flight
Drakes are too heavy to fly but ducks (unlike other domestic breeds) are perfectly capable of flying and perching. Confining them to your own backyard may be achieved either by keeping them in a fully enclosed pen or by clipping the flight feathers on one wing.

History
The Muscovy is a native South American duck and appears to be the only domestic duck breed which is not a descendant of the Mallard. Muscovy drakes lack the curly tail feathers characteristic of drakes of all other breeds.

The Muscovy belongs to a separate species to other domestic ducks and geese (Cairina moschata). Consequently the progeny which result from crosses between the two groups are sterile.

The name Muscovy is said to be derived from an odour of musk which pervades the skin but which disappears when cooked. Other sources say the Muscovy was named after the Muscovite Trading Company which plied its trade on the South American Coast.

Housing
Predators such as foxes and dogs will often make a meal of a duck and so some form of protective fencing or night time housing is essential. If the ducks muddy their pen it may be necessary to place the drinker on wire over a shallow pit.

It is advisable to stay close-by when letting very young ducklings away from shelter as they are susceptible to attack from predators, even during the day.

Health & Lifespan
Muscovies have very few ailments and are hardier than other domestic duck breeds. Care must be taken to provide ducklings with shallow water troughs to prevent them from drowning. Ducklings must also be warm and dry before nightfall or in very cold weather as they have limited ability to restore lost body heat.

Muscovies have a lifespan of 7 to 8 years.

Feeding
Muscovies should have access to a high quality well balanced feed, specifically formulated for ducks. The nutrient requirements of the Muscovy differ significantly from those of chickens. Duck feed is available from produce stores.

Muscovies are not noticeably enthusiastic about searching for snails but are quite proficient at snapping up insects which come near them. Kitchen scraps and grass clippings should be included in the diet. Ducklings especially, enjoy cabbage leaves, watermelon shells, raw meat and bread and also like to fossick for insects and fresh grass.

Drinking water should be cool and clean - the ducks will quickly muddy their water and, if uncleaned, this can be a source of infection.

Breeding/laying ability
A Muscovy duck will lay a clutch of 15 -18 eggs (one per day) and then sit if allowed. Otherwise she will take a break and lay another clutch. The eggs are about one and a half times the size of hen eggs and are equally edible - duck eggs are said to make perfect pavlovas.

Space and exercise
Muscovy ducklings, handfed in a domestic situation are not active birds but drakelets if not confined may destroy your garden. Muscovies will graze the lawn a little and will sample succulent greens but two or three ducks in the average backyard are unlikely to cause much damage. Small barriers can be used to protect plants if necessary. Muscovies do not swim much because their oil glands are under developed compared to most ducks.

Noise
Drakes do not quack but hiss instead. The duck (female) squeaks with different emphases for different occasions.

Uses
Females are useful for egg production. Males are usually fattened for the table - they have more meat on them than other duck breeds. They are ideal for the table around the age of 10 or 12 weeks.