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16 Reasons Why Muscovy Ducks are the Perfect Homestead Bird – Epi-3017

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After a 3 year absence I have brought Muscovy Ducks back to Nine Mile Farm.  And there is a reason; well, at least 16 reasons they are back.  I can sum it up this way though, they are the perfect bird for homesteading and for permaculture systems.

Doubt me?  Well tune in today for a fun episode where we completely ignore the news cycle, politics, bad news, etc and dig into why the Marvelous Muscovy is such a great choice in small livestock for food production systems from small to large.

Join Me Today to Discuss…

  • Sixteen Reasons Muscovies are the Perfect Homestead Bird
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    1. Long Lived (avg 12-20 years)
    2. Good Volume of Eggs (120-150 a year, seasonally)
    3. Egg Production is solid for 8-10 years
    4. Very Hardy
    5. Require Minimal Shelter
    6. Very Little Mess
    7. Exceptional Meat
    8. Easy to Train
    9. Very Broody
    10. Good Foragers on Herbage
    11. Very good predators of pests
    12. Great feed utilization
    13. Quite Cute Noises
    14. Easy to Sell Surplus if you Don’t want to Harvest
    15. Get Along with Other Animals
    16. Suspicious of “New Things”
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  • A  Few Negatives
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    1. Need Annual Wing Clipping
    2. Seasonal on Egg Production
    3. Can be difficult to handle (claws)
    4. Can easily become “your friends”
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  • The basics of care
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    • Water – they need to be able to bathe I use 21 gallon mixing trays
    • Shelter –  a coup is best with at least a 3 sided shelter
    • Feed – us any good quality poultry feed, here is why I never feed soy though
    • Forage – turn them out on good forage and let them do their thing
    • Wing Clipping – if you don’t you will wish you did
    • Sourcing Birds – I’ve always gotten them from CL but Metzer Farm is adding them this year
    • Brooding – If you must you must but momma ducks will do a better job if it is an option
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  • Final Thoughts – May not be for everyone but likely the best fit for most small to large homesteads

 

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Comments

16 Reasons Why Muscovy Ducks are the Perfect Homestead Bird – Epi-3017 — 8 Comments

  1. Once again Jack, I love the current event shows. You have 3000 shows archived should someone want to refer back to the various topics. Current events now is a survivalist topics. Attracting more listeners is win win. They may be interested in your item of the day, a membership or sponsors. Possible prepares and not even know it. You are so well versed on any topic when speaking, very refreshing. Maybe this email reflects what thousands of people think but never took time to tell you.

  2. Do you have any issues with the ducks and them leaving messes on porches and concrete patios. Would a raised bed have any issues?
    Also do you have any good links/books for the proper way to clip the wings ?

  3. Ducks, at least our Peking ducks, had a great love of snapping off geranium stems. You came out to a pile of stems. Are Moscovy ducks when free-ranging are as damaging to flower gardens? My chickens tend to leave most of my flowers alone.

    • I don’t know for sure, we don’t have much issue with this, I am sure it will come to a preference for somethings. My gut is what a Pekin will eat, a muscovy will eat.

      The key is training though, again a week or so of yelling at them anytime they go into an area you don’t want them in will generally result in them avoiding it, though “refresher training” will be needed from time to time. This is the same with the ducks you have BTW.

  4. Hi Jack,

    Muscovy Ducks do just fine in colder weather.

    I live in NS, Canada (zone 5b) with 3 hens and a drake. The ducks live in the chicken coop. They have been outside in temps as low as -5F (-20C). At temps below around 14F(-10C) they don’t like wind and will stay inside if it is breezy. They have no issue with ice and snow. They will root in the snow, I am not sure what they might be finding. We have a broader lamp in the coop we turn on when the temps get down around 23F (-5C), they seem largely indifferent to the lamp until around 5F(-15C) when they will be under it.

    This is late as I just listened to the episode.

  5. Jack,
    We are building our home on a 500 acre lake that has year-round populations of ducks and geese. Would I be able to train the Muscovys to come home off of the lake and go to bed in the coop every night and leave eggs there, or would they leave us for the wild ducks and just live on the lake when mature? Will the feed be enough to keep them?

  6. I always thought the Muscovy crosses were sterile as well but this last summer I had a couple of Muscovy/hen – Peking/drake cross hens that managed to hatch a dozen ducklings each. The they were bred to a Muscovy drake. Those offspring look fully Muscovy and I’ll be breeding them this summer as well.

    • Are you 100% sure as you said they look fully muscovy. Any muscovy hens on the property? Because unless you isolated the layer, they all incubate everything.

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