Author Topic: Ducks, Geese and Turkey Setups (Read 16364 times)

Machias · « **on:** June 19, 2020, 10:56:30 AM »

Anyone mind sharing how you house and protect your Ducks? Geese? Turkeys? I've had chickens and know how to safeguard them and house them. Not sure on the other three. Photos would be GREAT! Any recommendations on breeds of ducks, some you really like and some to steer clear of? Same with Geese. I'm good on the turkey breeds. Thanks!

Oh and I don't/won't have a pond.

Machias · « **Reply #1 on:** June 22, 2020, 08:21:40 AM »

Well, I have 4 Muscovy Ducks coming this weekend, 2 that are a year old, a drake and a hen and 2 hens that are three weeks old. The 2 young ones are the dark spotted one and the spotted one next to her. I'll have to keep them separated for a while until the young ones get a bit bigger. For some reason I'm having trouble posting photos this morning.

Machias · « **Reply #2 on:** June 29, 2020, 12:02:39 PM »

Brought home the three in front on Saturday.

Justhunt · « **Reply #3 on:** July 04, 2020, 09:51:26 AM »

My wife really likes muscovy ducks. I think she has thirty or more. She said the ones with spots are called wild type. She said you have two black base birds and the others are chocolate based birds. When you have a hen that is broody take advantage of it they are hard to hatch in an incubator. I think there is a way to tell if they are going to have a barred pattern when they are fully feathered but ripple pattern you have to wait and see.

Justhunt · « **Reply #4 on:** July 04, 2020, 10:50:38 AM »

We don't have a pond. When it gets hot we just put out a kid pool to let them have fun. She always leaves out a few large water dishes for them. Ours also use buckets with water nipples hanging from the fence for drinking. They like to forage and they like to get bugs. We let ours out as much as possible but they are very quiet birds and you will not hear if something is getting them. We have two livestock guardian dogs we have trained to be bird safe that take care of all the yotes, Bobcats, raccoons and stuff away. They also fly very well so you need to cover them or clip wings. You will know they can fly when they are standing on top of your house and sleep there for a week before you can catch them. We have three separate enclosures for them and have good ventilation in the coops. They are perching ducks so we have stumps and logs in the enclosures for them to stand on. She has two breeding males that she rotates females in with to check genetics and get the colors and patterns she wants. When the young males get bigger she will separate from the breeding females. They are good eating and the eggs are good also.

Justhunt · « **Reply #5 on:** July 04, 2020, 11:01:25 AM »

If you are getting them for egg production they are not the best for that. They have a short laying season.

Machias · « **Reply #6 on:** July 06, 2020, 09:00:32 AM »

Thanks for all of that Justhunt!! I picked up two more hens on Friday, I think my lone hen was really happy to see them so the Drake could share his attention!!

I like them a lot and did not get them just for the eggs, although the eggs I have gotten are really nice and a bonus, they do not mess with my stomach like chicken eggs do! Thanks again!!!

Machias · « **Reply #7 on:** July 06, 2020, 12:43:05 PM »

Here's the two hens I picked up on Friday, the top one and the bottom one.

Justhunt · « **Reply #8 on:** July 06, 2020, 08:00:39 PM »

Those are black magpie muscovies

Justhunt · « **Reply #9 on:** July 06, 2020, 08:38:28 PM »

Here are some of my wife's birds. She likes the solids and is breeding out the white heads. The first pic are the predator patrol. First pic is Freya, second is Oden and third is them checking on the new ducklings.

Justhunt · « **Reply #10 on:** July 06, 2020, 08:47:59 PM »

First pic is a buff hen, second is a blue hen with barring, third is a blue drake with ripple pattern, forth is a dark chocolate hen, fifth has some of them grazing but the one with the silver head is a silver hen, sixth is a blue drake and a black drake.

Justhunt · « **Reply #11 on:** July 06, 2020, 08:53:30 PM »

Oops here is the silver hen with some of the flock and a couple of randoms the wife sent me

Justhunt · « **Reply #12 on:** July 06, 2020, 09:49:49 PM »

Not the best picture but you can see the blue water buckets with water nipples hanging from the fence. She just likes to have fresh water for them because they make a mess of the open ones on the ground when they bathe and clean their nostrils.

Justhunt · « **Reply #13 on:** July 06, 2020, 09:56:04 PM »

We have a bunch of stumps and logs in the enclosures for them. They all like them but hens will also use them to get away from the drakes. These are some of the nesting boxes in the coops (they are stacked for storage). They are cheap and have a lid so you can open the top and check on hen and not pull them out. In the coops we also like to put rounds of wood they really like them at night. They will not use the 2x4 perches at all.

Justhunt · « **Reply #14 on:** July 06, 2020, 10:14:04 PM »

Here is the front of the breeding pens coops. I need to finish building covers over the doors. The covers now are just temporary. The new ones will be bigger and it helps to keep the native birds from going inside. We had problems with that before. Also when it snows it keeps the front door open better and helps keep the western Washington rain from blowing in. The last pic is the drake grow out pen. Future dinner if someone doesn't buy them before they end up in the freezer.

Justhunt · « **Reply #15 on:** July 06, 2020, 10:50:05 PM »

Also a lot of our hens will not sit on eggs until they have 10 or more. After the hen has a bunch and starts setting my wife will mark the eggs. They like to steal other eggs and my wife likes to have them all hatch within a few days of each other. They have a long incubation period of 35 days. If they do crossbreed with other duck species the offspring will be a mule. Hopefully this is all helpful info.

Machias · « **Reply #16 on:** July 07, 2020, 10:01:14 AM »

Wow, you guys have the prettiest Muscovy's I've seen!! Ever sell any? Thanks for all the helpful suggestions!!!

Machias · « **Reply #17 on:** July 07, 2020, 10:07:09 AM »

Are the buckets with the nipples homemade or do you buy them that way, if so, where? Any chance when you have time you could take a close up of those? Thanks again!!

Justhunt · « **Reply #18 on:** July 07, 2020, 12:01:24 PM »

When I get home from work I will talk to the wife about the buckets. She does sell birds. I think she has sold 6 or more hens this year and she had another person get ahold of her last night about buying more. I know she has 4 eggs in the incubator and another hen setting on I think 8 more right now. There are some others (I think 12) that have not feathered out yet. She will not sell them until they are feathered out because she has a good amount of ripple and barring patterns and I know she sells them for more. She even got a drake last year if I remember correctly that was a blue looney. He expressed both the ripple and barring patterns at the same time. People were bidding on that drake because it is really hard to get one like that. I know some of the drakes in the one pic are for sale I just don't know which ones.

Machias · « **Reply #19 on:** July 07, 2020, 02:07:19 PM »

Justhunt · « **Reply #20 on:** July 07, 2020, 06:36:36 PM »

Can't read the label on the buckets anymore so my wife looked them up on her phone. We got them at our local feed store. She didn't give me the link because she has never bought them online.

Machias · « **Reply #21 on:** July 08, 2020, 11:09:04 AM »

Awesome, thanks!

Machias · « **Reply #22 on:** July 19, 2020, 09:58:36 PM »

The ducklings are growing fast, getting quite a few feathers. Love the colors on these three.

Machias · « **Reply #23 on:** July 19, 2020, 10:00:01 PM »

Put a roost in and the one hen really likes hanging out up there.

Machias · « **Reply #24 on:** July 19, 2020, 10:00:56 PM »

Got 8 new chicks

Machias · « **Reply #25 on:** August 03, 2020, 03:47:42 PM »

@Justhunt is your wife able to look at these and tell if they are hens or drakes? If she needs better photos or different angles let me know. They are 8 weeks old. Supposed to be all hens, but I got them when they were 2 weeks old and have since learned there is no way to tell at that age. I think the lightest one is a drake, but not sure about the slate colored one or the dark brown one. Thanks!

Justhunt · « **Reply #26 on:** August 04, 2020, 07:40:33 AM »

I will talk to her and see what she says. I know she will want to see the legs and feet in comparison to the others of the same age (drakes will be thicker legs and have bigger feet than hens). Also the primary feathers of the three birds, if I remember correctly the hens will grow them first. With that info it is still a guess.

Machias · « **Reply #27 on:** August 04, 2020, 09:06:54 AM »

That's my problem, they all seem about the same.

Justhunt · « **Reply #28 on:** August 04, 2020, 09:06:33 PM »

Are all the wing primary feathers about the same? I see one pic of the dark chocolate that you can see the primary feathers starting to grow, are others the same? A hen will grow those feathers before a drake. The drake is only trying to put one body size. My wife said at 8 weeks old you will see a big difference between the leg and foot size between a drake and a hen. She said the pics are hard to tell that. She also said a drake at 8 weeks will have legs that are as thick as a full grown hen.

Machias · « **Reply #29 on:** August 05, 2020, 09:39:26 AM »

I'll try and take some better photos. They all three look very similar to me in size and growth. I joined a Muscovy Facebook group. Several there thought they were all three drakes, but a few thought the slate colored one might be a hen. Thanks for checking them out.

Justhunt · « **Reply #30 on:** August 30, 2020, 06:44:47 AM »

Did you get any hens out of the last three? We are butchering some drakes today. Wife is picking up more ducklings today (I think they are coming from eastern Oregon) so we need to make more room. We also have 4 hens starting to hatch some eggs.

bearpaw · « **Reply #31 on:** August 30, 2020, 06:58:05 AM »

When our kids were small we got them some ducks, the ones that look like Mallards, don't know what they are called? We started with three, within two years we had 27 running around. We just let them free range, they were self supporting except during winter we did feed them. We built no special housing and had no water for them to get in, yet they did great. I was surprised how well they did on their own. The biggest detriment was when we got a Jahg Terrier, when she got to be about 6 months she was deadly on those ducks, we finally gave away what was left of the ducks because she would have eventually killed every duck. I wanted to eat some of them but they were the kids pets and they wanted to give them away.

Justhunt · « **Reply #32 on:** August 30, 2020, 08:45:30 AM »

Doesn't take long to multiply that is for sure. I think 4 of our hens are sitting on 36 eggs. Makes for good eating in a few months.

Justhunt · « **Reply #33 on:** August 30, 2020, 08:48:13 AM »

Here are a couple breast we had last week. Very good eating.

Machias · « **Reply #34 on:** August 30, 2020, 09:51:23 AM »

Mmmmm that looks good. Nope, all three turned out to be drakes. We have decided to keep two of them and butcher the other two. I also went and bought 4 more hens, so I have 7 hens about a year old. Three of my hens are molting pretty good right now. They all seem to have stopped laying eggs. So everything I have read on my Muscovy Facebook page folks try plucking once and then all swear they will skin from now on. Looks like you have it down with the plucking.

Justhunt · « **Reply #35 on:** August 30, 2020, 10:49:33 PM »

This video helped a lot on the scolding the birds. We are still working on keeping the temperature of the water steady throughout the process. We just got to use the large potato masher today and it helped to keep the bird in the water moving without burning our hands. If some of the birds have a lot of pin features still we will skin then.

Justhunt · « **Reply #36 on:** August 30, 2020, 10:54:17 PM »

Our hens have pretty much stopped laying also and most are molting. Butchered the last 8 drakes today. We got just under 23 pounds of legs, thighs and breasts out of them. We feed the carcasses to the dogs to supplement their food and the feet for treats.

Machias · « **Reply #37 on:** August 31, 2020, 11:01:34 AM »

Man that looks like really nice meat! Thanks!!

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Author Topic: Ducks, Geese and Turkey Setups (Read 16364 times)

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