Duck!!!

[Fox-Gal]

Originally posted by Mich
Please tell me what type of Duck that is in the photo? Is it a young Muscovy ? The ones I had grew red flesh above their beak.

Yes he is part Muscovy, My ducks have been so mixed up over the years that not one of them is full anything.


As for getting a duck from the wild and flying south for the winter, thats going to depend on the type of duck and the age. If you get it as a baby.

I'll tell you what we do with our ducks when we first get them, just to make sure they don't fly away. We clip their wings some, you have to be carefull how you do it though. Don't clip so far up that it hurts them, of course, and leave enough that they can still fly some, just enough so they are not completely grounded. We do this several time in their first year or so. As they get older they don't even try to leave anymore, they know this is home and free food, why leave. Of course I live in Florida, so how much more south do they need to go.

It also helps to train them to stay in their part of the yard. We don't want them to be able to fly over to the dogs side of the yard. Fence can hold in the dogs, but can't hold in a duck!! That's where the clipping come in handy. We do this with all our birds, goose, peacocks, chickens etc. It doesn't hurt them at all, so not to worry about that.


As for feeding them, our's get chicken feed.

[Mich]

What a lovely story, Foz-Gal. I never cut the wings,but the Muscovy was too heavy to fly over the fence, and the Dwarf Appleyard, must have liked where they were. I do have to say, that that phot is a lovely one of one of your ducks. Thank you for telling me about them all.