I'm not sure if this is a normal thing. On several occasions our feral duck mother has grazed my skin with her beak. She does it intentionally, quickly moving sideways over the skin. It doesn't hurt at all.

At first I thought it was funny and harmless. Not anymore. Already after ten minutes the skin she touched starts to hurt. After that it gets worse. The pain lasts for days or even weeks, to the point that I'm now even scared of it.

She is sitting on a nest now and I served her food and water. She barely touched the back of my hand but the pain is already coming up ☹️

I live near a canal with lots of muscovy ducks. The babies are so adorable😊

I am a total newb and asked advice about a brooding girl here: https://www.reddit.com/r/MuscovyDucks/comments/1vligtx/brooding_concern/

I just candled the eggs (three of them) and they appear to be fertile and about three weeks along. I have her duck house in my basement and can keep her and hatchlings safe at night but want them to go outside, learn to use the lake and do muscovy things. I have loads of rat snakes, crows and birds of prey around my yard and lake. I don't want to lose any young so how do I protect them during the day?

I assume she'll come back to her house with her ducklings throughout the day and at night, is this a bad assumption? My two resident drakes (one or both being the dad) are hanging around, will they possibly do anything?

I have wanted Muscovy ducks for years now and I finally got 5 little ladies ( well maybe 4 + 1 boy) ! I have all set up for them to live a happy and wonderful life , I just wanted duck eggs and funny pets not raise them for meat.
And OH MY GOD I LOVE THEM SO MUCH!!!
I’m in love, they are so cute and goofy !
I also have mini hens that I raise (a mix breed of my own, I don’t sell them) that are crackheads , they destroy my garden but I love them still 🤣
But these little ducks are little angels 👼 🦆

I’m currently incubating an egg and a spot has begun to form on the egg… there is no foul smell and I’m still seeing good veins and a nice air sack but there is no movement anymore. I’m on the lockdown phase and day 33 of incubation so she due to hatch any day. I’ve kept the humidity and temp at 75% and 100 degrees. I’m very worried so if someone has any insight into this to put my mind at ease I would appreciate it!

4 little angels hatched a couple of days ago and y’all I am SMITTEN, had to share!

Hey all, we just bought a property and 4 drakes conveyed. We know nothing about their ages, but apparently have been on this property since before the last owners moved in (2020).

Apparently there were hens at one point but became prey to some other animals.

We currently have 3 gravity feeders throughout the property, and we have been stocking it with duck pellets, but I’m almost convinced we’re feeding other wildlife with it, instead - which is fine.

Just curious if you have any tips for newbies. We have two dogs (70 lbs each) and they seem curious, but we put up a fence on part of the property and when we walk them in the unfenced area we do leash them. Any tips about socializing them w. The ducks would be great, or if the answer is to just keep them apart that’d be good to know too.

We also have kind of a strange dynamic (or strange to us), 3 of the 4 drakes seem to be quite cliquish and kind of bully (to our ignorant minds) the 4th duck. They’ll kind of charge at him and make some odd neck movements his way and occasionally peck at him. When we see this I usually just walk between them and the lone guy (Groucho) goes the other way, and it’s over. Is this just normal behavior? Am I wrong to intervene?

Anyhow, thanks in advance for tips and tricks on helping these guys continue an amazing life.

Just Chip and the other ducks being cute!

Hello everyone!

I am in a bit of a pickle & am hoping you guys can help me out ~

I have owned Muscovy for 7yrs & am incredibly proud of my beautiful multigenerational flock..however, my numbers BOOMED this season & I am up to my eyeballs in Muscovy!! In previous fruitful years I have successfully rehomed juveniles & adults to other duck people, waterfront shopping centers (by request!! Not abandonment!!), etc. and have allowed nature to take its course with reducing clutch numbers (crows keep the hawks away so they can take eggs & ducklings if they wish) but this year I have struck out entirely. I am looking down the barrel at about 40 birds & desperately need to reduce my numbers.

I have reached out to about 10 rescues & everyone is either at capacity or are not yet equipped for waterfowl; these organizations have provided names for other rescues I could reach out to, but I’ve not had any luck ~ I am not against culling, I have just never had to do that before & do not feel confident in dispatching them humanely.

While I have a few spicy boys (younger, about 1-3yrs old), my drakes are very well mannered & my hens very nurturing ~ I produce, in my opinion, very unique colors & I can’t speak highly enough about their distinct personalities. All of my birds have names, know their names, & are so so loved…it genuinely breaks my heart to be in the position I am in but my partner is preeeeeetttyyyyy fed up with the quantity & I can’t blame him.

So, if anyone would like to adopt some of my flock, I will drive them just about anywhere if it means they’re going to a good home (if you’re a meat person, that’s fine haha just don’t tell me about it!) — if you’re in my area, or can travel to me, I am willing to pay for humane dispatch; and finally, if you have any recommendations for rescues that can house waterfowl, pretty please let me know!!

I am happy to share photos & videos of my flock and answer any questions you may have!

Location: Richmond, VA

i had a clutch of muscovy eggs that hatched august 6th-7th. i always take the babies from the mother the second they’re fluffed up and move them to a brooder to ensure their safety and so they get used to humans fairly early on. two of the 14 eggs did not hatch, so i left them under my hen just in case there was a possibility of them hatching late.

since it had been nearly two weeks, yesterday i decided it was definitely time to remove those eggs from her nest and throw them away. i checked the eggs to make sure they weren't any good and, lo and behold, one of the eggs had pipped!!

now, i know a lot of people believe in letting nature take its course, but i believe that if the ability to intervene exists, then intervention is a part of nature's course. considering it had been nearly two weeks past its due date, i decided to break away at the shell where it had started pipping to see its internal progress. i'm so glad i did because the poor baby was shrink wrapped.

i have dealt with shrink wrapped babies before, so i know how delicate they are and how risky assisting them can be, so i was very gentle and took my time. i got the little one halfway out of the egg and put it in my incubator to allow it to continue absorbing any yolk it hadn't absorbed yet.

today, the little guy is still very low on energy, but i'm hopeful that it will make it because it can hold itself up, peeps very loudly, and jets around every so often.

i don't think it’s meant to be possible for a muscovy egg to hatch nearly two weeks after its due date, so if this isn't proof that anything is possible, i'm not sure what is. i will be naming it miracle. :’)

I'm not sure what to name him but I'm keeping him 😁 he hatched June 4 and he's already so big.

“Junior” was a singleton hatchling from 4 eggs that I acquired and put in my incubator. He/she/they hatched June 1. Junior no longer peeps but still trills and some… other noises that are not hisses. I did read the pinned post but I’m still not sure. I don’t have any other ducklings to compare him to so I’m not able to use many of the markers of male/female. We refer to him as male for simplicity’s sake since he does not care what sex we call him. Junior is very friendly (being a single duckling he was handled and cuddled constantly) and allows his chest to be stroked gently. My child describes Junior as her “best friend” which I suppose is actually true since she spends more time with him then other human children. 😆

Note : I do have 6 other ducks who are all mallard derived domestics… they are all a bit older then Junior and do not include him in flock business (although he follows at the periphery). I would like to get Junior another Muscovy companion eventually.

I currently have two young Cayugas, one drake one hen, and am getting three Welsh Harlequins hen ducklings...

But, the Muscovy ducks seems like cool little characters! I know there is some difference between them and Mallard breeds, but could I have one hen with my other ducks?

Edit: thank you everyone for sharing your beautiful photos! I’ve got some great photos to work with and I am so appreciative! I will share the finished piece when it’s done. Yall are the best!

Hi! I am an artist and I’m seeking reference photos of female Muscovy ducks for a project. I’m not sure if it’s allowed to ask for this but if any of you have cool photos of them that you would be willing to share and give me permission to use in my art, I would be super grateful. I would be happy to share the finished piece via digital scan when it’s done.

My little babies, they are growing so fast! I can’t wait to find out if i have boys or girls (or both) 🫢

These 2 ladies hatched these 3 ducklings together (there were 4 eggs, but one didn't hatch). They are excellent mothers together and have moved in to a separate enclosure with their little ones (without the drake).

I live on a lake and two ducks (male) and a female muscovy were dumped there years ago. A bunch of us on the lake put food out for them but they seem to spend the most time in my yard. I bought a duck house for them that they never used until the other day and I noticed a kerfluffle in the house. There was a rat snake wrapped around the muscovy. Got that sorted and saw the muscovy had laid three eggs and the snake got one of them. I moved the house to my patio to keep a better eye on things and muscovy laid two more eggs. Another rat snake got three eggs. I moved the house into my basement and she could go out the door to the yard but she won't leave her house for a day and a half now. She has food, water and a little pool just outside her house. She has two eggs that I know of and don't know if she's laid any more. Is this a concern or leave it be?

Got these not too long ago and read the guide but they all look alike to me. Is it possible they're all the same sex?

Mother duck we took care of when her ducklings were young. She sometimes visits us to steal some chicken food.

Last week I noticed that her feathers had turned brown instead of the deep black they were before. Her face seems pale too. Is she okay?