# Basic Muscovy duck questions.



## ciwheeles (Apr 5, 2013)

There's a guy near me selling full grown Muscovy ducks for $10. I've heard ducks are good for eating bugs but I would like some more info from people that have ducks. 

Can they stay with my chickens at night or will they make a huge mess? If I have to I have blueprints for a pen/house I can make.

Do I need a male duck for eggs? 

Do Muscovy ducks need a pond? 

Do ducks have tendency to fly over fences? Do I have to trim their feathers? 

Lastly, are ducks kind of mean or does it depend on the duck itself?


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## ksalvagno (Oct 6, 2009)

Are these ducks friendly? I have heard that Muscovy will fly so you would have to clip their wings. Not good to keep with chickens since they are so messy with water. Don't need a male for eggs, just fertilization. You can just give them a kiddie swimming pool for water.


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## AmyBoogie (May 20, 2013)

My ducks are really friendly but we handle them constantly from the time we get them. I do hear that Muscovies tend to be the meaner of the breeds of ducks. 

If you chicken pen is big enough, you can house them together. Ducks make a big mess with water and chickens don't like to be that wet. So the chickens need a good corner to be dry while the ducks need a corner to make their mess in. We made a big rubber tub for our ducks with a waterer inside of that. All the water mess stays in that area and the rest of the pen is dry. 

Ducks are good at eating bugs but so are guinea hens. Guinea hens should have absolutely no problem being with your chickens and in some respects are better at bug eating than the ducks (as in they eat ticks).


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## ciwheeles (Apr 5, 2013)

Thanks! 

Yea, I usually let my chickens out during the day and I figured if we got ducks we would do the same, but I guess it would just be better for me to make them a small pen if I do decide to get some. We've heard their eggs are good for baking so my mom really wants some but I'm not to keen on the wing trimming and pond keeping part. Although I do like the baby pool idea.


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## AmyBoogie (May 20, 2013)

We have kiddie pools for our ducks and they do go out for the day. We got rid of our chickens and now just have ducks because we like them better. We don't trim the wings on ours, most of ours breeds that are too heavy for their wings to be more effective than just a short hop. The 4 that have effective wings stick around because the other 8 do. Trimming wings isn't hard though.


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## Jessica84 (Oct 27, 2011)

Yes have a pen.....omg have a pen. I have some right now that are running wild and free and am trying to figure out how to catch. They crap on my car the roof of the house and I don't know if I will ever get the kids trampoline clean. I have to dump the goats water about 20 times a day because they will get in it and not use the pond and I have a male that's about ready go get his head cut off because he will attack the goats. Yes have a pen!!! Lol


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## ciwheeles (Apr 5, 2013)

Thanks for the help everyone! I think at this time I may just pick up some juvenile guinea keets, but the person I'm getting them from also has some Muscovy ducks she's claiming act just like chickens so I'll prob take a look at them.  As long as they're friendly and healthy it sounds like they could help with pest control and give us eggs.


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## SpruceCreek (Mar 27, 2013)

We have Guineas and Moscovy, as well as Pekins, Peafowl, Turkeys, Chickens and Geese. So I guess I can't really complain about the ducks mess. 

Our Moscovy free range around the property. We do lose some to predators and the babies at times to horse hooves. We have not tried to tame them. That said, we have also lost Guineas to predation, etc. The Moscovy do not roam as far as the Guineas. The Guineas required a lengthy period locked up in the coop to learn where home is. Neither the Moscovy nor the Guineas choose to roost in the coop at night. 

My daughter who moved away from the farm said she definitely noticed a difference in the bug population when she came back to visit her horse.

We have a kiddie pool for all the water fowl and a vernal pond on the property. The ducks were quite unhappy with us when that dried up this year. They figured it was poor management on our parts I guess.

Both breeds are entertaining, Moscovy are silent mostly whereas Guineas are VERY loud. But again, they are all fun. The Moscovy will fly from the coop on one side of the property to the vernal pond at a low trajectory so we are always looking out for low flying objects. 

We have had no problems with ducks fowling our cars, but the do help dirty all the water buckets. The peafowl on the property are much more apt to poop on a car and attack a chrome bumper.

We have had no problems with bird to human aggression.


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## ciwheeles (Apr 5, 2013)

SpruceCreek, thanks for the input! Most of our cars are out of our "barnyard" area so I'm not to worried about them near the cars, but I can't have something scratching my horse trailer or truck! 

The ones I'm looking at supposedly both the ducks and the guineas roost too.. I guess I'll find out whether that's true or not. 

I like that you said they helped with the bugs.. With 5 horses and 3 goats we need all the help we can get. We use fly predators but they just help a little.


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