Has anyone had Muscovy ducks?

Homesteading & Country Living Forum

Help Support Homesteading & Country Living Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
The duck that does not quack ... (and has claws) We had them for a number of years.
Yes, a kiddie pool will work but they will breed on land also. I have also heard they tastes like beef but "I" never tried it.
All around cool bird.
 
Have raised and ate them. Yes they are beef like, more like roast beef but mainly a stronger duck taste. And like *Andi said kiddy pool works very well. They are the only duck that doesn't descend from the mallard. You might want to look into local laws because here we are supposed to register them with the state because they are an invasive species. The state came out and made sure we had them in adequate fencing. I never bothered to tell them about them again. My favorite duck breed is the appleyard. Wonderful tasting duck! My favorite by far.
 
Silver appleyard is their full name. Very good dual purpose breed. So many critters to choose from, im at a point now where i choose what we raise by how good they taste, so maybe get a couple of each, mascovy and appleyard and decide that way. But i will warn you mascovy's can be pretty aggressive.
 
The duck that does not quack ... (and has claws) We had them for a number of years.
Yes, a kiddie pool will work but they will breed on land also. I have also heard they tastes like beef but "I" never tried it.
All around cool bird.

I had to look that up. A duck with claws. Crazy.

Muscovy.jpg
 
Have any of you had Muscovy ducks? I would like to try them in the spring but we don't have a pond. Would a kiddie pool work? I've also heard the meat tastes beef like is that true?

We had two Muscovy ducks,Heckle and Jeckle. Very nice ducks and they always came back home. First time they got out I told Hubby " there goes your ducks".:eek: . They just flew around the for a few minutes and came right back to yard. So we never put them in pen again. We had them a kids swimming pool to play in. :thumbs up:
 
We had two Muscovy ducks,Heckle and Jeckle. Very nice ducks and they always came back home. First time they got out I told Hubby " there goes your ducks".:eek: . They just flew around the for a few minutes and came right back to yard. So we never put them in pen again. We had them a kids swimming pool to play in. :thumbs up:


Correction. We did pen them at night along with chickens that were free range all day. Coons and foxes will get them at night.
 
We had Ducks when I was a Kid, Muscovy, and Mallards. Muscovy Ducks are great Layers, and will give you large, rich tasting Eggs. I think my Brothers and I ate more Duck Eggs than Chicken Eggs. We used them for Meat as well, but I found them to be a little Greasy.
 
They are greasy thats why i cook them on a rack and rap them in bacon so the bacon grease pushes the duck grease out. Makes them way less greasy. When it comes to aggression they can be, more so then other ducks. They are more territorial then than the average duck. Of course there are exceptions to every rule. The experience i have had with them is i couldn't put them with my appleyards because the mascovy's would beat the crap out of them. Im not saying every one of them is aggressive, but they are prone to it so it is good to look out for.
 
I had a couple for a few months but they kept pecking the other ducks and grabbing the other ducks wing feathers when they were coming in and just hold on to them and pull,I think that's why 1 of them got Angel Wing. So I gave them to my neighbor. They are great flyers,the females anyway,and they like perching on tops of building,trees etc. to be look outs. They don't want to be kept in small quarters either because that causes them to be more aggressive towards other ducks.
 
They are greasy thats why i cook them on a rack and rap them in bacon so the bacon grease pushes the duck grease out. Makes them way less greasy. When it comes to aggression they can be, more so then other ducks. They are more territorial then than the average duck. Of course there are exceptions to every rule. The experience i have had with them is i couldn't put them with my appleyards because the mascovy's would beat the crap out of them. Im not saying every one of them is aggressive, but they are prone to it so it is good to look out for.

Hey Redbeard, if you got claws and the other guy does not, you can afford to be a bit pushy. LOL.
 
I have a nice pond that would be great for ducks as it's not proven itself useful for fish. But it does fill up with tons of frogs and tadpoles. Below is what the pond looks like when overflowing in the spring.
pond 3-6-17.jpg
So questions about having ducks of any kind.
1. Do they follow you like chicken do?
2. Can they roost outside in a pen so they're safe from predators?
3. What sort of feed do they eat? I know in nature they eat algae and insects mostly.
4. How often do they lay and are the eggs as good as they say?
5. What do you do in the winter? Allow them to migrate south or keep them in a heated building?

Thanks in advance!
 
...

1. Do they follow you like chicken do?
2. Can they roost outside in a pen so they're safe from predators?
3. What sort of feed do they eat? I know in nature they eat algae and insects mostly.
4. How often do they lay and are the eggs as good as they say?
5. What do you do in the winter? Allow them to migrate south or keep them in a heated building?

Thanks in advance!

1. Mine didn't, but I didn't cuddle them when they were young.

2. No, ducks don't roost...feet aren't good at grabbing branches. Their safety is floating in the middle of a body of water.

3. I fed mine high-ish protein poukty feed as they were growing and then moved on to standard chicken layer feed.

4. Depends on the breed. My buffs laid every 1-2 days in the summer. The eggs were bigger than chicken eggs, but I honestly couldn't tell a difference in flavor.

5. As long as your breed of duck isn't totally out of its natural climate, you're fine. They're made to float on near-frozen lakes with freezing rain pouring on top of them. Mine LOVED all the bad weather they could find and would avoid the rain/wind shelters available to them. No migration, no heated buildings.
 
2. No, ducks don't roost...feet aren't good at grabbing branches. Their safety is floating in the middle of a body of water.
I guess I mean nest like chickens do.
5. As long as your breed of duck isn't totally out of its natural climate, you're fine. They're made to float on near-frozen lakes with freezing rain pouring on top of them. Mine LOVED all the bad weather they could find and would avoid the rain/wind shelters available to them. No migration, no heated buildings.
Well, I'm in Ohio and we get hard winters where everything freezes hard. All of our ducks head south.
 
I guess I mean nest like chickens do.

Well, I'm in Ohio and we get hard winters where everything freezes hard. All of our ducks head south.

They will nest like chickens after they lay a pile of eggs and turn broody. All poultry does that to hatch their eggs.

I'm in Dayton, and my buff ducks loved this weather we've been having. That said, buff ducks are runners, so they don't exactly migrate.
 
Last edited:
They will best like chickens after they lay a pile of eggs and turn bloody. All poultry does that to hatch their eggs.

I'm in Dayton, and my buff ducks loved this weather we've been having. That said, buff ducks are runners, so they don't exactly migrate.
Good to know neighbor, I'm near Springfield. My neighbor down the road has a large back pond with lots of ducks and such so maybe I'll see what he's doing so I can figure out if raising ducks is actually something I wanna even try. If only fish would live in my pond. LOL
 
I have a nice po:rolleyes:nd that would be great for ducks as it's not proven itself useful for fish. But it does fill up with tons of frogs and tadpoles. Below is what the pond looks like when overflowing in the spring.
View attachment 2297
So questions about having ducks of any kind.
1. Do they follow you like chicken do?
2. Can they roost outside in a pen so they're safe from predators?
3. What sort of feed do they eat? I know in nature they eat algae and insects mostly.
4. How often do they lay and are the eggs as good as they say?
5. What do you do in the winter? Allow them to migrate south or keep them in a heated building?

Thanks in advance!
1. Mine don't.
2.No. Well Muscovy ducks like roosting and watching for predators,the females anyways,they're great flyers and have claws on their webbed feet. The males usually don't fly as much,I guess because of their added weight and size. All the other breeds can't fly very well,not even as good as chickens I don't think.
3.Chicken scratch feed or even cracked corn like I feed mine.
4.Depends on the breed but every 1-3 days on average and they taste great,I actually like them better than chicken eggs,they're a little richer.
5. They are fine in cold weather but when it gets below 0 I keep mine in a building that's not heated but I use heated water dishes since they need lots of water. I've got an aerator in my pond so parts of it never freeze. The ones I had before swam in it all winter because I had it situated so the part by the bank was the part that didn't freeze. This year I didn't get the diffusers close enough to the bank and there's about a foot of ice between the bank and unfrozen water which they won't walk across :rolleyes:
 
Last edited:
We do. Three white ones that were bought as ducklings through an Amish hatchery, and part of a meat duck order (We butchered 8 & kept 3 as pets & to breed). We also have a 'wilder' black variety, which we got locally (just a couple days old). The white ones are the best critters I have ever had the pleasure of living with. Lap ducks :) They lay more eggs than I thought they would, too. The black ones are less touchy feely, but still awesome. They are all quiet, full of personality, and a joy. In the past 12 months, we have butchered a total of 8 while ones, and 5 black ones. The white drakes were HUGE. the black ones smaller, but still delicious. The breast tastes like roast beef, as someone else said. I was going to explore different duck varieties, but after living with these for a year, I don't want to bother. They're that awesome.
 
So I stopped by and met my neighbor with ducks and he's excited to give me either Muscovy or geese if I want to raise them. I think I'll stick with the Muscovy ducks and enjoy a new neighbor to hang with.
 
So I stopped by and met my neighbor with ducks and he's excited to give me either Muscovy or geese if I want to raise them.

As a kid I used to love going barefoot in the summer, until I got geese! They are pooping machines too. Geese can be very aggressive as well. They usually fixate on one person as their leader, usually the person who feeds them. Everyone else is fair game! God forbid a stranger stops at your house, the term “attack goose” comes to mind. They will terrorize a dog or a cat as well.

A bit of history… My dad has talked about an aunt who lived in Texas back in the 30’s and 40’s. She had a huge flock of geese and would rent them to cotton farmers. Just like bee keepers rent out hives for pollination to farmers this lady rented geese for grass control. The geese wouldn’t eat cotton but would eat the grass in the fields.

I’ve thought about getting a couple of geese and trying them out in the garden, see which plants they would eat. If I don’t have to plow or hoe a garden, great! I don’t remember what they did with the garden when I was a kid. I don’t remember any complaints though. If they ate vegetable plants I would have heard about it, and we would have been eating goose! :)
 
They will terrorize a dog or a cat as well.
That is what I worry about but in both directions. My dog must accept the goose or duck as part of our pack or it will be killed in short order. I also don't need my dog attacked by a suddenly aggressive goose who is normally friendly.
 
Back
Top