Muscovy ducks (Cairina moschata) are a large domestic duck breed that originate from Central and South America. They are popular as backyard ducks and on small farms due to their excellent meat qualities, resistance to disease, and reputation as good foragers. However, Muscovy ducks do have some disadvantages that need to be considered before deciding if they are the right duck breed for your situation. This article will provide an overview of the main disadvantages of raising Muscovy ducks.
Aggressive Behavior
One of the biggest complaints about Muscovy ducks is that the males can become quite aggressive. Drakes are known to attack children or adults they view as threatening. Their sharp claws can inflict serious wounds, requiring stitches or other medical care in some cases.
Muscovy drakes are very protective of the hens they have paired with and will chase, peck, and attempt to claw other animals or humans that get too close to their mates. The hens themselves can also be somewhat aggressive at times, especially when they are incubating eggs.
It’s not recommended to keep Muscovy ducks in the same area as smaller duck breeds or chickens. The Muscovy drake may attack, injure, or even kill smaller birds. Free-ranging Muscovy ducks should be supervised around smaller poultry.
Some ways to help reduce aggressive behavior in Muscovy ducks include:
- Providing adequate space for each breeding pair.
- Separating excess drakes from hens.
- Discouraging territorial behavior by removing eggs.
- Rehoming overly aggressive ducks.
- Discouraging contact with humans at a young age.
Proper handling and training from a young age can minimize aggressive tendencies, but their protective, territorial nature remains strong. Muscovy ducks may not be the best choice around small children given the potential for aggressive reactions.
Messy Feeders
Muscovy ducks are notoriously messy eaters. They will splash and slosh water from their drinking containers. They also scatter their feed around. This can lead to watery, muddy, food-strewn areas around their food and water.
In addition to making a mess, this wastefulness can attract rodents to the feed litter. The wet areas create prime environments for the growth of mold, fungi, and bacteria that can cause illness in your flock.
Ways to contend with the messy feeding habits of Muscovy ducks include:
- Use hanging waterers and/or automatic, recirculating water systems.
- Elevate feeders on stands.
- Choose deep, narrow water containers rather than wide, shallow ones.
- Provide generous space between food and water sources.
- Place water sources on wire flooring or a draining system.
- Routinely clean and disinfect feeding areas.
Despite your best efforts, Muscovy ducks will make a mess around food and water. Be prepared to accept a certain amount of waste and wetness when raising these ducks.
Perching and Roosting
Unlike most domestic duck breeds, Muscovy ducks prefer to perch and even roost at night like chickens. This can create a few issues for their care and housing:
- They require housing with tall perches and roosting spaces.
- Perching Muscovy ducks will foul their feed and water due to droppings from above.
- Their claws can damage surfaces like wood or vinyl when perching.
- Roosting requires extra protection from predators.
- Special flooring or cleanout systems are needed beneath perches.
Providing proper perches takes more planning and effort than typical ground-dwelling duck housing. The daily droppings underneath their perches also necessitates a well-designed cleanout system. While perching is natural Muscovy behavior, it creates additional housing considerations.
Potential Fly Problems
The wet, muddy conditions Muscovy ducks create around their food and water can become prime breeding grounds for flies during warmer months. Fly larvae develop in moist organic matter like spilled feed, feathers, and duck droppings.
Adult Muscovy ducks produce a very large amount of droppings, which can draw large fly populations if control measures aren’t taken. Their messy habits also spread the droppings over wide areas surrounding their housing, increasing the fly breeding area.
Steps to control flies around Muscovy ducks include:
- Daily cleaning of wet feed and litter.
- Removing duck droppings promptly.
- Keeping bedding clean and dry.
- Draining or dispersing puddles.
- Landscaping outdoor areas for drainage.
- Using feeders designed to limit waste.
- Mowing grass short around housing.
- Using fly baits and traps.
Without vigilant sanitation practices, fly populations may be difficult to control around Muscovy duck housing during warm weather. Be prepared to take strong fly prevention measures when raising these ducks.
Difficulty Containing
Muscovy ducks are able to fly short distances, unlike most domestic ducks. Their ability to perch in trees or on roofs, combined with their large size, makes properly enclosing them a challenge.
Lightweight fencing or netting will not effectively contain Muscovy ducks. They can injure themselves or escape if not provided with solid housing and secure enclosures. However, fencing sturdy enough to contain them can be expensive to install and maintain.
Muscovy ducks kept with clipped wings are still able to climb quite well. They are accomplished at using beaks, feet, and claws to scale fences and excape enclosures. Care must be taken to ensure there are no footholds or grip-points they can use to climb out.
Housing Muscovy ducks often requires:
- Solid walls rather than wire or netting.
- Roofed enclosures to prevent escaping over the top.
- Digging barriers along the bottom such as wire mesh or concrete.
- Perimeter fencing at least 5-6 feet (150-180 cm) high.
- Electric fencing around the top perimeter.
- Routine inspection for and blocking of possible exit points.
The housing and fencing required to keep Muscovy ducks securely contained is more complex and costly than for most domestic ducks. Their ability to fly and climb makes them problematic to enclose.
Excessive Noise Levels
Muscovy ducks are not considered a noisy breed, but the males (drakes) can produce some surprisingly loud vocalizations. Their usual calls are soft hissing, puffing, or wheezing sounds. However, drakes may emit loud honks, braying, or roaring croaks in response to perceived threats, when competing for mates, or to call ducks together.
The male’s noisy courtship display, in particular, can become an annoyance to neighbors in urban or suburban areas. Drakes perform this ritual frequently when mating season begins. The rumbling croaks and hisses carry for quite a distance.
Solutions for reducing excessive Muscovy duck noise include:
- Not keeping more than 1-2 drakes.
- Separating drakes from hens when noise becomes problematic.
- Clipping drake wings to discourage roaming and displaying.
- Only obtaining male ducks if you have adequate space and distance from others.
- Placing duck housing far from neighboring homes.
- Keeping drakes and hens penned in separate areas.
The noise levels of groups of Muscovy drakes may not be compatible with suburban or urban homesteading. Their loud vocalizations should be considered before bringing them home.
Difficulty Breeding and Brooding
Compared to other ducks, Muscovies can be more difficult to breed, and the hens make for unreliable brooders. These factors make hatching and rearing ducklings more complicated.
Some issues with Muscovy breeding and brooding include:
- Hens often hide their nests and eggs very well.
- It’s common for hens to lay eggs in multiple nests rather than one clutch.
- Broody hens may abandon some of their eggs/nests over time.
- Hens may stop sitting on eggs or abandon ducklings.
- Ducklings require extra protection from the cold due to poor maternal care.
- Incubation and hatch rates tend to be lower than other duck breeds.
To achieve good results breeding Muscovies, extra management is required:
- Watch for nests and broody activity carefully.
- Collect eggs frequently for artificial incubation.
- Provide optimal incubation temperature and humidity.
- Assist pequeninos from shells if needed.
- Isolate hen and ducklings for 1-2 days for bonding.
- Provide extra heat, food, and protection to ducklings.
With extra help facilitating breeding and brooding, Muscovy ducks can raise ducklings quite successfully. But they are naturally less suited to these tasks than breeds selected specifically for reproduction.
Longer Time to Market Size
Muscovy ducks take significantly longer to reach target market weights than the Pekin or other common meat duck breeds. While Pekins may reach 5-6 pounds (2.5-3 kg) in 7-8 weeks, Muscovy ducks require 12-15 weeks to achieve the same weight.
The slower growth rate of Muscovy ducks affects production for home or market purposes:
- More time, care, and feeding is required before processing.
- Housing space needs to be provided for a longer duration.
- It takes longer to replenish duck stocks by hatching more.
- Lower total meat yield per year compared to faster-growing breeds.
Slower growth has implications for productivity, but the higher yield of usable meat from mature Muscovies can balance longer production times. Their excellent foraging ability also helps offset extended growth phases with free food sources.
Lower Egg Production
Muscovy hens lay significantly fewer eggs per year than the top egg laying duck breeds. While breeds like the Ancona or Khaki Campbell can lay 200-300 eggs annually, Muscovy hens produce 80-120 eggs on average.
The lower egg laying rate of Muscovy ducks means:
- Fewer surplus eggs for sale, hatching, or home use.
- Lower feed to egg conversion efficiency.
- Drakes required for fertility due to infrequent laying.
- Less frequent egg collection needed.
Muscovies excel at meat production over egg laying. For homesteaders focused on egg harvest, a more productive duck breed may be preferable. But the excellent egg quality and adequate family-scale production of Muscovies can still be very useful.
Susceptibility to Certain Illnesses
Muscovy ducks have excellent overall health and disease resistance. But there are a few illnesses they seem prone to developing:
- Sour crop – Improper feed and poor gut health can lead to this fungal crop infection.
- Botulism – Muscovies are unusually susceptible to this paralytic illness.
- Duck Virus Enteritis – Also called Duck Plague, this contagious herpesvirus is frequently lethal.
- Maggots – Fly larvae infestations occur if wounds or soiled feathers are present.
Special care should be taken to prevent these conditions through proper feeding, sanitation, and disease control practices. Quick treatment is needed at the first signs of illness to restore health and prevent flock outbreaks.
With attentive management, Muscovy ducks can have excellent health. But their relative susceptibility to certain potentially serious illnesses should not be overlooked.
Foraging Habits
The powerful foraging instincts of Muscovy ducks that allow them to find much of their own food in the wild can also cause some issues:
- Muscovies may damage garden beds, crops, or landscaping if allowed to forage freely.
- They can be difficult to contain within a designated foraging area.
- Ducks may ingest toxic plants, garbage, or other hazardous items.
- Well-fed Muscovies may still forage destructively out of instinct.
- Free-ranging ducks are at higher risk of predator attacks or theft.
- Foraging ducks are exposed to more contagious diseases.
Allowing Muscovy ducks to fulfill their natural foraging behaviors requires precautions like supervised access, securing toxic items, temporary fencing, or providing raised foraging trays. Free-range privileges should be balanced with necessary controls.
Dramatic Size Differences Between Sexes
There is a very pronounced size dimorphism between male and female Muscovy ducks. Mature drakes weigh 10-15 pounds (4.5-6.5 kg) on average, compared to an average of just 7-8 pounds (3-3.5 kg) for hens.
The large disparity in size between the sexes can create some practical challenges:
- Housing, perches, and pens should accommodate the larger drakes.
- It’s important to ensure both sexes get adequate access to feed.
- Drakes can physically overwhelm smaller hens when breeding.
- Matching adult pairs by size for breeding is recommended.
- Sexes may need to be separated at times due to behavioral conflicts.
The much larger adult drakes require some special provisions and management considerations for harmony with petite females. Selective breeding for size uniformity would help resolve this issue long-term.
Legal Restrictions
In some areas, there are prohibitions or restrictions in place regarding keeping Muscovy ducks:
- Some cities ban housing Muscovy ducks.
- Zoning laws may prohibit poultry on properties under a certain size.
- Neighbor noise complaints can force removal of noisy drakes.
- Homeowners associations frequently prohibit poultry.
- USDA regulations affect commercial sale of Muscovy meat and eggs.
- Ducklings require special shipping preparations like wing clipping.
- Permits, health certificates, or testing may be mandatory.
It’s important to check local ordinances before acquiring Muscovy ducks to ensure compliance. Even if legal initially, rules and complaints from neighbors could force removal later on. Consider noise, odor, enclosure guidelines, and processing regulations as well.
Conclusion
Muscovy ducks have many advantageous qualities, especially as hardy, low-maintenance foragers that produce delicious meat. However, their messy habits, aggressive tendencies, loud vocalizations, difficulty containing, and other factors highlighted here present some challenges as well.
Considering these disadvantages during your housing and management planning can help ensure that raising Muscovy ducks is an enjoyable and rewarding endeavor. Being prepared for their unique care requirements helps avoid frustrations and problems down the road. Their disadvantages can be largely overcome through awareness, preparation, training, and providing adequate space.
With extra management considerations, the Muscovy can be an excellent addition to a small farm or homestead looking to raise ducks. Their distinctive appearance, personalities, and premium meat will likely win over any backyard duck keeper willing to take on their challenges. With proper supervision and care, Muscovy ducks are sure to impress and pay dividends for years to come.
