We used to raise muscovy ducks. Now, muscovies are not like regular ducks.

They are not closely related. Kind of like a donkey and a horse. They can mate with ducks, but the babies will be sterile.

Muscovies are pretty interesting birds.

They are native to south and central America, and Mexico. Being tropical birds, you might think they would have issues with cold weather, but nope, they adapt to northern life quite well. These birds are pretty good meat birds, males getting up to 15lbs and females weighing in at 8lbs. The males are too heavy to fly much, but those girls, well, you have to watch those boogers, they can fly around all over the place! We always had to keep their wings trimmed well. It doesn't hurt. Some people actually snip the entire end of the wing off when they are ducklings, which I personally find cruel, but we just cut the flight feathers, which is about as painful as a haircut.

Muscovy ducks are usually quite prolific. Well, during mating season, anyway. (Unless you end up with bad mothers, or didn't they bother mating before their egg-laying season.) They have ducklings willy-nilly all over the place!

You may be wondering why I speak of them in the past tense.

Well, for multiple reasons, we decided raising them wasn't for us anymore. I'll outline them for you.

First of all, they are large, extremely poopy, animals.

And this isn't dry, small, chicken poop kind of poops. No... these are HUGE nasty splats! Disgusting. Their favorite thing to do was perch on the porch railing and poop on everything.

Look at him. He's not even sorry.

So yeah, poop.

Second of all, they only lay seasonally.

Meaning they lay eggs for a short period of time each year. If you want duck eggs for eating, you don't get many. If you want meat ducks, you better hope you hatch out some of those eggs, or you have to wait until next season... I know I said they were prolific, and they can be, if they get it right... We found that over a period of a couple years, the amount of feed and poop just didn't justify the amount of eggs and ducklings.

Not to mention, it takes a LONG time before they are big enough to eat.

My research says the ideal butchering age is 13 weeks, but they never seemed big enough that young. This may have something to do with the fact that they free-range. All that exercise keeps them slim and trim. My chickens also don't get large fast. By the time the ducks were big enough, they were pretty difficult for me to butcher. I tried plucking one once, but that was a massive failure. I normally skin my chickens, but a friend wanted an entire duck with skin. Perhaps with practice, it would be easier, but from what I understand, plucking ducks is a chore and a half on a good day. Skinning was also difficult since, being older, their skin was more firmly attached. You guys who have butchered many birds before know what I'm talking about...

Some young, teenager ducks.

They are rapey. Yes, you read that right.

The drakes will chase down and mate with anything they can catch. I have heard stories of unfortunate cats and even legs...
In my experience, they will force themselves on female AND male ducks, which isn't good, but the main trouble is they will also force themselves on chickens. This IS a problem, because, without going into graphic detail, ducks penetrate, and chickens are NOT built for penetration.
I'll leave it at that.

Now, some of you may be thinking, silly her, animal 'love' doesn't look like people 'love', she just doesn't expect it to be so rough. Not so. I know how mating usually is. I can tell if the female is ready or not, and generally, the male animal will back down after a few tries if the female resists. Not with these ducks. Not at all.

Last thing is ducks like water.

Duh. Of course they do, they're ducks!! If you don't have a pond, (we don't), you should put up a kiddie pool or two for them to wash out their beaks and clean their feathers in. Doesn't sound too bad, right? Well, imagine having to dump and refill a kiddie pool or two of NASTY POOP SOUP every day! Every. Single. Day. It gets old. Trust me. And it stinks. Literally.

We raised these birds for several years. They free-ranged and WERE good for some things.

First of all, they are great fly control!

They will sit there and catch fly after fly and eat them. If you live on a farm, you know flies are the devils minions. Fly control is good.

The eggs are delicious!

I loved eating duck eggs and I wish they had laid them more often!

The meat is also delicious!

It was not like chicken at all, it was more like a red meat. I would filet out the breasts and get nice, large, tasty chunks of meat. Duck burger is also pretty stinkin' good. I would use it as ground beef, and no one could tell it wasn't beef!

Overall, I think muscovies are a pretty good bird for homesteads.

They WERE worth trying out, but for us, the work outweighed the benefits. We decided that chickens gave us more eggs and meat for our money and time, so we ultimately decided to get rid of the ducks for good. We gave away a few, and ate the rest.

Have you raised or are currently raising muscovy ducks? What do you think about them?

Thanks for reading and have a blessed day! ♥