Muscovy Ducks and a Question

[Luv2Game]

We are getting 10- 6 week old Muscovy Ducks on Friday. We have a horrid tick problem. I have heard and researched that they are little soilders and will search out ticks, spiders, mosquitos, any kind of bug, or anything that moves. We were going to get Guinea Hens, but I have been discouraged from getting them as they are loud and will get up on top of things to roost. So anyway, if any of you have Muscovy Ducks, I would love to hear your stories, and/or pictures.......

Also, We are going to re-do an old chicken coop for them, we had tore off one side so we could park lawnmowers and whatnot in there.......But we are going to frame it up, and do chicken wire and all, but my questions lies with the gate/door. Will they fly and get out of the gate is only 5 ft tall????? (My husband was thinking of getting a 4ft wide tube gate and putting the chicken wire on it.) Or do we just need to frame up a door the same height as the coop with the chicken wire obviously???????? My husband also had the idea of putting in an artificial pond for them. (Not inside the coop) So I am so excited for that too!!! I have always wanted an artifical pond. YEAH!!!!!!!!!! Anyway, Any advice, stories or ideas are welcome!!

[crittermom]

We had a white muscovy duck named Squeak'ems. Hope yours are as great as she was. I miss her......she lived many years.

[APHANutmeg]

Of my experience w/Muscovy ducks is that they are not really flyers. They sort of like to amble around and do their own thing. My neighbor has 2 that he has loose in his pasture with his sheep and horse. I don't have any experience with their eating habits though. I know that guinea hens eat 3 times their weight in bugs a day. They are also great watch dog and will let you know when anything is out of place on your property. And yes they are LOUD in letting you know.

[farmergal]

Originally Posted by APHANutmeg

Of my experience w/Muscovy ducks is that they are not really flyers. They sort of like to amble around and do their own thing. My neighbor has 2 that he has loose in his pasture with his sheep and horse. I don't have any experience with their eating habits though. I know that guinea hens eat 3 times their weight in bugs a day. They are also great watch dog and will let you know when anything is out of place on your property. And yes they are LOUD in letting you know.

Are you sure your talking Muscovy. Mine are excelent flyers. I'll find them on the roof of my barn. I have seen them take flight and round the corner to fly to the barn in hopes of getting there before the rest of the birds in hopes of getting the grain first.

They can't quack. They have the cutest whisper of a quack. Almost like they are hissing. I have noticed their eating habits are nothing like my Rouen ducks. I had 5 Muscovy ducks in the short time that I've had the pleasure of owning them and I am now down to one and she is a very dedicated hen. She has been setting her sterile eggs for close to two months now. I feel sorry for her as she is bound and determined they are going to hatch. I've begged her to please not break one as I'm sure it will stink. I caught her off the nest once so I thought that would be a good time to steal her eggs. She caught me and boy did I catch heck. I managed to get away with only three eggs and painfully well beaten fingers.

They like to roost at night. I'd find my hens sleeping on my feed barrels.

The only thing I can tell you is Do Not feed medicated chick starter it can kill them. My goats spilled a pelleted wormer and my ducks ate it. Soon after my ducks disappeared. I never found their bodies so I can't say if a predator got them or they died from eating the goat wormer.

I don't know if Muscovy are better at eradicating bugs better than the Rouen. I haven't had either one long enough to know. I do know the Rouen are good at eating land snails and worms. I'll find them working the pasture at dusk. I know the muscovy are a pleasure to own both for their personality and the fact they are quiet.

I like an artificial pond to but not if ducks are sharing it. My Rouens are very messy and can dirty the water quick.

[Luv2Game]

farmergal, You said your Muscovy's work the pasture in the evening?? Do they peck at the ground and look for bugs during the day?? The guy compared them to little soilders as far as looking for bugs. The only reason we are getting them is so that they can eat a lot of our ticks and we won't have such a bad tick problem. I certainly hope that this is true............

[fishing_trex]

Our muscovy ducks were not great tick eaters, although they did a number on our flies, deer flies, and grasshoppers (not to mention the 17 year locust hatch!) But they finally just flew away (they are great fliers!).

We finally broke down and bought guinea fowl. The females can be noisy (for three years we had no problems, but we have a new batch that has some females with what I can mental problems). The males are not nearly as noisy and only seem to make a racket when someone drives up or a fox, bobcat, or hawk is on the property. I think if we got rid of the females, it would be reasonably quiet around here. They do a fantastic job on insects, particularly ticks and bees/wasps (we couldn't use our hitching post due to the hornet population but the guineas have taken care of that -- in fact, the year we had 50+ guineas, we got very few peaches and apples -- they ate too many bees!).

When I mow, these guys line up and march across the pasture, eating whatever creepy crawly or flying insect they can find.

[Bandit]

My muscovies are great bug eaters, and that includes ticks. Now Lady doesn't eat that many ticks, but Tramp LOVES them. He will pick them off the dogs. Before we put the muscovies out in the yard I would get 2-4 ticks on me a day if I was walking around the yard. I've found only 2 on me so far this year, even with all the playing around in the weeds I've been doing with planting and such.

Mine also don't fly well. Lady can zoom around a bit, but she doesn't do it often. Tramp can't get more than a foot off the ground. Its probably been 6 months since I last saw Lady in the air. She flew more when she was younger, but now that she is a year old she seems to have no interset.

Now that we have some babies out there that are getting bigger, they will walk all 5 across marching across the field looking for bugs. They are so cute!

[barnbum2106]

We just got 10 today, they were free and have just got their primaries. They are some of the ugliest ducks i've seen. I like our pretty white ones that we have. But I guess I can't complain b/c they were FREE (my fav. 4 lettered word).

Also, heard today that duck poo can cause issues with horses, is this true? Something about how it is toxic or something?

[Dziggetai]

Yes horses can get salmonella from eating grass that has duck poo on it. :0

I love muscovies but they are pretty ugly, lol.

[Amrwmblds2]

Do NOT get guinea hens. We got 6 of them, they were AWESOME bug eaters but OHHH MY are they ever loud! It got so bad my kids could not hear me during their lessons!

THEN the straw that broke the camels back........the male ( I am assuming it was a male) starting going after my foals! They would be eating their hay without a care in the world and this thing would seek them out and ruffle up his feathers and jump up in their faces and peck at the foals.

You should have seen me chasing the darn thing around the farm with a pitchfork "ohhh If I get my hands on you!!"....I never could keep up with the bugger

Our farm is now guinea hen free!

We do have ducks though- want some Blue Swedish duckings- we just had 11 hatch the other day

[farmergal]

Originally Posted by Luv2Game

farmergal, You said your Muscovy's work the pasture in the evening?? Do they peck at the ground and look for bugs during the day?? The guy compared them to little soilders as far as looking for bugs. The only reason we are getting them is so that they can eat a lot of our ticks and we won't have such a bad tick problem. I certainly hope that this is true............

Sorry I didn't catch you asking me this till now. It's not my muscovy but my Rouen ducks that work my field at night. I'm thinking they are after worms and snails. During the day they retreat to the pond and hang out there.

I got my 5 muscovy last winter and I am now down to only one hen. I'm thinking a predator got them as my chickens are also disappearing. I know they rarely ever ventured far from the barn. My hen has been setting on infertile eggs up until a few days ago when I stole them. She will not fallow the other ducks (rouen), preferring to hang out at the barn. When my Aussie pups try to chase her she stands her ground and gives them the old what for. Not sure if it's because she's fresh off the nest or if it's because of her breed. I know she likes to roost at night. Flying up onto my grain barrel.

I'm sorry you are having trouble with ticks. If I had to choose between the guinea or the muscovy I'd choose the guinea despite the fact they are extremely noisy. But then I wouldn't discount the bantam chicken. I think they get overlooked as good buggers.

[farmergal]

Originally Posted by Amrwmblds2

Do NOT get guinea hens. We got 6 of them, they were AWESOME bug eaters but OHHH MY are they ever loud! It got so bad my kids could not hear me during their lessons!

Our farm is now guinea hen free!

You think 6 were bad I had 17 of them. No one can hold a conversation with them around. They do love to join in.
They litterly stopped traffic. I don't know how many times I had to shoo them out of the road. Hubby had his say and shot all but one when our neighbor complained cause they went to live at his house. You'd think he would be grateful that they were debugging his yard. But I guess he didn't appreciate them pooping on his antique car.

Luv2Game if you think you'd be interested in guinea this is were I ordered mine from. www.guineafarm.com