Today I invited three breeding Muscovy Ducks to the homestead, Lil Wheezy, Stormy and Eos. After a lot of research, I decided these where the ducks for me. They are my number one pick for livestock on a small urban homestead. Let me tell you why!
Noise is a huge concern when you are an urban homesteader. Loud roosters are not ideal with neighbors all around. Muscovy ducks are silent, or very close to it. The males make a soft wheezing noise, and the females a cute chirp that is also very soft. The loudest part about them is their wings when they flap in the bath. They have rich, creamy eggs and are wonderful mothers. It's a win-win whether I eat the eggs or let the hens hatch them. They are very large birds and their meat is delicious. Its different parts have been compared to top sirloin, ham or veal. It is very lean and one of the healthiest meats on the market. The males weigh up to 20 pounds. A single bird can feed a lot of people.
What amazed me when reading about these birds is that they hunt the flies that swarm around their droppings. I was looking forward to seeing if it was true. Today I got to see them in action. They ate every fly that came into their temporary enclosure. Muscovys are amazing foragers and will eat flies, small slugs, snails, worms and even frogs. They caught most of their own food today. I am going to let them roam the garden during the day to rid it of bugs and to let them eat the grass. I am also looking forward to feeding them kitchen scraps.
Interesting fact on Muscovy ducks, they are the only duck in captivity that is not related to a Mallard duck. You can breed other ducks with Muscovys but you will get a sterile duck. The same way a horse and donkey make a mule. Their History is what got my attention.
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Muscovy ducks have been domesticated for centuries, first by the Native Americans. When Columbus arrived in the Bahamas he brought some back to Europe on the ship Santa Maria. They are favored for their distinctive tasting meat, that is reminiscent of roast beef, making it quite popular.
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Stormy bathing in her new home.
Muscovys are easy to breed, multipurpose and very quiet. That makes them the perfect Urban Homestead duck. I am excited to have a great start with good breeding stock, and to see for myself what raising them is like. I already enjoy being around them and hope that taming them goes well.
Every plant and animal I add to my homestead brings me one step closer to being independent and free of the system. I am passionate about finding alternative ways to live in this world. To make my own way by my own hands. I want to consciously evolve to be a more intentional human and connected being.
Big Love.
Ren
lol
Nyc post please follow me
Your writing adds to my knowledge of ducks, because I have some poultry the house, thanks for the information.
greetings
@najmifajar
Thank you! Have a great day.
Your ducks are ace!!
Thank you, I think they are pretty rad too!
very nice post :)
Thank you for reading my blog! Hope you are having a wonderful day!
I knew a bit about Muscovy ducks already but learned a fair bit from your post. Especially the history of them. Thanks!
Thank you for reading, Muscovy ducks are great.
Congratulations @lifemovedbysteem!
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Thank you so much! I am really excited about writing on steemit.
It's amazing they are silent, forage their own food, mow grass, have great meat, and lay big eggs.
This may be a good step into meat production also. I'm so happy to see you earn a little more freedom every day!
Thank you so much @happymoneyman! With every step I gain more confidence. The are wonderful, useful birds.
I keep contemplating muscovies, but unless I get rid of one of the chicken flocks we don't really have the room for them. Thanks for sharing their history. I didn't know any of that. Meat like beef!
I know! I decided on ducks instead of chickens for the same reason, I have room for one. I will vicariously live through your chicken keeping and you can through my ducks :) Thanks for reading!
Deal! Lol!
I think I will get ducks too.. Either some duck houses or build/buy a chicken tractor!
Muscovy ducks are excellent, and certainly no where near as noisy as some breeds. They are one of my favorites, and the only duck kind that we have at the moment!
Yay for Muscovy's! I am so excited to join you as a Muscovy duck caretaker. Have you had yours for long?
Very beautiful ducks Upvoted & Resteemed
Steem oN ;)
Thank you very much! I am glad you read my blog.
I thought your farm was in a pretty isolated area, do you live close to an urban center? The ducks look really interesting, I'm looking forward to see how they perform. You talked only about their advantages but nothing is perfect in life. ( though I hope they are perfect for you :) ). Have a great evening
I am a mile away from a downtown in a highly regulated town. We are living on a property that we take care of that is a little under 3 arcers. I farm a little under one acre in the back, it was just a weedy forest with overgrown grass and old trash and I have been slowly developing it over the last year. The thick forest around us makes it fee really rural, but the trees hide all the housed. Without them we would be in a crowded suburban neighborhood in the foothills.
In the pictures, where you live looked kind of wild.
Forests are great camouflage :)
What a fine specie @lifemovedbysteem, please do follow your heart and that which makes you fulfilled. Nice post
Thank you very much, I hope you do the same :)
I will
What the Duck is this!?? :D love it
ha ha
Muscovy Ducks, thank you.
See, now it's muscovy. I personally think they are the ugliest of the ducks and would not have considered keeping them until now. I don't have space, and I still think they are ugly but still this is super information. Thanks again.
I used to think they were ugly, I have changed my mind. They are the only practical urban duck I have found because they are silent. We have noisy animals in our neighborhood, so our quail and Muscovy's are so nice being so peaceful and quite. Thanks for reading!
They look like a crossing between the common ducks and chickens! Very informative post. I've been thinking a lot about starting a farm and living independently from the world.
Yay! Do it! Its the best thing, it feels so real. If you have a chance to create an independent life for your self I encourage you to do it. It is a very empowering life change. Thank you so much for reading.
Amazing
hahaahaha.......
lol
do they also catch mosquitos? would be great :)
As a matter of fact they do! Eat the larvae as well.
Packed with great information. Have never considered ducks before, but these Muscovy's are very curious to me. Very large birds and the eggs . I also love seeing a female with a trail of babies swimming behind her. Thanks. 🐓🐓
Thanks for looking @mother2chicks! I also love seeing the little ducklings swimming behind the mother duck. I hope we are blessed with some babies this spring, it will be may favorite part. So far I will only have Muscovy's after them, they are so different than any other duck.
Super, SUPER post. Firstly, I LOVE Muscovy's; they are my go-to duck and I can't wait to keep them. Your new three friends are just wonderful. But I didn't realise about the fly thing either. I have SUCH an issue with flies and chickens - I wonder if Muscovy's could help solve that?
Do they need a pond or are they happy with just a tub? I'm seriously considering how I might be able to squeeze these into my urban homestead too.
Thanks for the post Ren.
Thank you so much @brimwoodfarms! I think that they attract flies so I don't know if it would balance out, their droppings are a lot bigger that chickens. Although the ducks hunt a lot. The are very happy with a tub, although I am going to get these guys a kiddy pool for when they roam the garden. The tub I gave then is only a few inches deep but the gleefully fling water everywhere and take nice bathes in it. Thanks for reading!
I will keep contemplating then. I'm wondering whether if they were with or near the chickens, their poop might draw the flies in and then they could snack on them. The chickens are quite crap at catching flies!
That could work really well. I love your setup at your homestead, they could be a wonderful addition. And they are fly catching ninjas!
My only slight issue is that when we had the avian flu outbreak last winter, our governing body (DEFRA) said that chickens and ducks were NOT allowed to be kept together during the lockdown period. As a result, I need to make sure that should that happen again, I'd have somewhere separate to house my ducks.
Wow, that is scary! That does complicate things.
I guess it's because waterfowl are more susceptible? I'm not sure. Fingers crossed it doesn't happen again this year as my girls DID NOT like being locked in for 4 months.
We have loads of these ducks living in the Pavilion Gardens in the centre of Buxton: www.paviliongardens.co.uk%2F&usg=AOvVaw31pqIQ1Tl3OLwIfPJiEsZW
I didn't know they had such an unusual history.
They seem very calm - they don't run away from you, but gently waddle off if you get too near.
They are really calm ducks, and so very quiet. I enjoy being around them. Thank you for reading my blog!
This kind of ducks are abundant in Bangladesh. They are well-known for laying eggs and relatively cheaper compare to others. Just adding some knowledge to you. Hope it is useful for @lifemovedbysteem and @najmifajar
That is really interesting! If you ever get a picture of them there let me know, that would be cool. Thank you for the information and for reading my blog.
Nice
Thank you.
They are cute animals :)
Thank you, I love them.
Thanks for sharing, very informative!
Thank you.
Congratulations it's beautiful @lifemovedbysteem . Must feel great - that is a lot of work!
Thank you, It is a lot of work but I love it. It does feel great!
Very good my friend . . Thankyou for sharing @lifemovedbysteem . . I have followed you 💟
Thank you.
keep posting like that...and please give me some suggestions how i can i amazing blog like you
Thank you, be authentic in your writing and don't spam would be my suggestions. Thanks for reading my blog.
Hey, maybe I should get these ducks instead of chickens when I start my coop next spring? Any thoughts? They sound perfect!!
Ask me that question in three months and I will give you an experienced answer, I think they could be a really great option though. They are so quite, no noise in three days. I love that and they have really inquisitive eyes, and cute personalities. I like how ducks wag their tail, its endearing.
thanks very good information and me enjoyed very much from your ducks and now i love have a ducks
I hope you get one someday! Thanks for reading.
woow that's amazing knowledge to have. Their meat is amazing and super healthy too
The are amazing birds! Thanks for reading my blog.
Hi Ren! (*ﾟ∀ﾟ)
I super duper love your blog. It's very educational. Once a kid, we have ducks. The white ones, I have no clue what kind of ducks are they but we keep them for the eggs. I was young so I can't tell if I ate chicken eggs or duck eggs. But I love chasing them. Good old times.(๑´ڡ`๑)
I haven't tasted duck meat though. (・へ・)
That is a cute childhood memory, I had white ducks when I was really little too. They bit our ankles, lol. Thank you for reading my blog, hope you are enjoying October.
I'm considering getting a few muscovies, because I live in a residential area, and I need something quiet. How big of a pen do you have for your ducks? I'm wondering how much space I'll need for 3-4 of them.
They are really big ducks, the males the biggest. If you just stuck to female you could have a little more room for them. I am not sure how much room they need, we are making them a fairly large pen. My husband @happymoneyman made a post on the pen. I resteemed it. Thank you for reading. I will try to do a post on how much room they need as I learn from them.
haha I actually saw that post yesterday. I thought it had said chicken coop though for some reason. I guess I'll start looking out on the free section of craigslist for building materials. xD
Your ducks are beautiful. I'd never heard of Muscovy ducks before today. I don't think we have them in the UK. Mallards seem to be our most prominent type.
Following you now. All the best!
Thank you for reading! I hope you enjoyed the post. I think the Muscovy's are really special ducks, you never know if one will pop up in your area.
Well I'll tell you what. If I learn that there are any in my area (I live in Norfolk, UK), I will let you know.
@lifemovedbysteem thank you for sharing with us your knowledged in Raising Muscovy ducks
Thank you for reading!
Thanks for your information...That is really helpfull......
You are welcome, thanks for reading!
this is a process of increasing duck production of ducks
It is! I am excited to be a duck farmer.
Very interesting information, useful for many, congratulations
Thank you so much.
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Awesome! Thank you so much @curie, you have been changing my life!
I think I need me some of those ducks as flies here are horrendously annoying haha! Awesome addition, that will help make your place even more enjoyable!
Also a dream of mine to make a self-sustaining property, something to live off of and a lot better than always having to go out and buy what you need.
You get return to you ten fold when you grow your own food. Eating it is just a side benefit. Thank you for reading my blog, hope you can someday participate in your dream of self efficiency.
Definitely and just more rewarding in general. You're welcome and thank you, one day I will.
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Awesome, thank you @hendrikedegrote! I am so excited about steemit and am excited and full of energy to create content.
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Wow, cool thanks for telling me :)
Wow! Three beautiful ducks! I want to have one pair then care them to make them multiply 😊.
Thank you, they are beautiful. I already love them very much. I hope you can get some duck and breed them one day.
Nature is wonderful. Thanks for the info it's great learning about all these new things
nature is wondrous, thanks for reading.
Those ducks are lovely. Really great to someday live in such a life where everything is near nature and fresher air. :)
Gardening is a great way of life, I think everyone could benefit from growing a plant. Even if its just in your window. Thanks for reading.
Agree to that. :)
You did very good research! I bet it's great to see them how they catch flies! I would love to watch them once and check out how they do it :) It sounds like fun! And it's great too that they're silent :)
I will try to get a video of them hunting, puts my barn cat to shame. They have been just siting there wagging their tails and eating flies right out of the air. They are amazing, I cant wait to get to know them better. Thank you for reading my blog @theywillkillyou.
soon you have your eggs from the house rather from a supermarket, good effort man
That is the end goal, cant wait for farm fresh eggs. Thanks for reading!
and for that you have been followed
It sounds that they will have a happy life (till the day they get in the pan...lol) but it is cool You are doing that. Only if more people were that conscious.
Thank you, my birds live in paradise. They are spoiled rotten, just wait until they have their new coop and free roam of the homestead. Thank you for reading my blog.
Glad to hear that. You're welcome it was a good read