NAVIGATION
It’s hard to pick my favorite part of raising Muscovy ducklings. From their funny red caruncles to their inability to quack, Muscovies are a unique homesteading experience right off the bat.
I find these ducks are fun and easy to raise, and since they multiply quickly, they make great meat birds and provide a good amount of eggs as well. Muscovy ducks are also personable birds you’ll fall in love with.
Although I’ve found raising Muscovy ducklings to be pretty easy overall, for the best outcome, you’ll want to be prepared ahead of time for their arrival and have some knowledge of what to expect in each stage of your ducklings’ lives.
Hi, I’m Ryan
My years raising chickens and other livestock on my homestead prepared me for the ins and outs of raising Muscovy ducklings. Once you know some basic tips and tricks, you’ll be ready to start your own flock.
How To Raise Muscovy Ducks
If you’re wondering how to raise Muscovy ducklings, it helps to have some background info on this large bird. Native to South America, Muscovy ducks aren’t technically ducks at all but simply large waterfowl that could be described as somewhat like a duck and somewhat like a goose.
As with quail, chickens, and all types of ducks, Muscovies eat all kinds of bugs, including a significant amount of mosquitoes, making them heroes on my homestead.
Mature Muscovies have a very distinct appearance with bright red caruncles around their eyes like little masks. They’re beautiful birds with a range of colors including solid white, tan, gray, brown, and black — often mixed together. Since they don’t quack, many homesteaders find that Muscovies annoy their neighbors less than some louder animals might.
If you decide to raise Muscovy ducklings, it’s essential to thoroughly prepare before bringing them home. If you’re hatching your own ducklings, you’ll want to know how to set up a good brooder, where to find the best eggs, how the process of incubating and hatching the eggs will go, and what to be prepared for week by week as your ducklings grow.
Choosing And Preparing A Suitable Duckling Enclosure
Learning how to care for Muscovy ducklings is, for the most part, a simple process. They’re quite hardy birds, with the exception of young Muscovies, who require a little more attention because they aren’t very cold-hardy. To give the ducklings their best shot, I always recommend starting a new flock in the summer when the weather is warm.
Whether you plan to hatch Muscovies from eggs or purchase young chicks, you’ll want to set up a duckling brooder, much like what you’d set up for baby turkeys or baby chickens. Your duckling brooder can be as basic as a plastic tote or cardboard box, or you can purchase a prebuilt one at a local store or online. Just make sure your brooder provides close to one square foot of floor space for each duckling. I built a wooden box that I use as a brooder for all my poultry, and I gave it a divider in the middle that I remove as my hatchlings grow and want a little more space.
Muscovy ducklings live in the brooder for the first six to eight weeks of their lives to keep them safe and contained and to regulate their body temperature. During this time, they’ll need a heat source, such as a heat lamp or UV lamp, as being too cold is the main reason ducklings at this stage die.
If you bring home Muscovy ducklings that are older than eight weeks, you can bypass the brooder and go straight to an outdoor enclosure. Once they’re out of the brooding stage, Muscovies are incredibly low maintenance. Like any poultry, they will need a coop or duck house to provide shelter at night and protection from predators, much like a chicken coop with room for dry, warm nests to lay their eggs. Other than that, they aren’t bothered by rain or snow, so unless you live in a really cold climate, they often prefer the ground to roosting bars.
I live on a 30+ acre homestead near Charlotte, North Carolina, so I’ve got a lot of land to work with, but you might struggle to find room for a garden or other forms of livestock if you let your Muscovies free-range on under an acre of property. If you don’t have enough land to allow your ducks to free-range, then you’ll also need to build a sturdy run for them out of chicken wire or something similar to allow them space to exercise and forage. Plan for at least 15 square feet per duck, but the more space they have, the better.
Where To Find The Best Muscovy Duckling Eggs
Once you’ve prepared a home for your future flock, it’s time to figure out where to buy your Muscovy ducklings. I always try buying from local supply stores or local hatcheries first, but if that’s not an option where you live, you might need to purchase your eggs or hatched chicks from a well-known national breeder such as Metzer Farms.
If you are just getting started, I recommend starting your Muscovy duck flock with hatchlings instead of eggs, simply because the hatch rate on Muscovy eggs is less than 25%. Try starting with at least six hatchlings in case you lose a couple before they grow older and stronger.
Plus, starting your Muscovy flock with hatchlings instead of eggs will allow you to skip a lot of steps and equipment at the startup. Later on, you can always choose to incubate or naturally hatch some eggs of your own, once your flock is established. An added benefit of purchasing hatchlings instead of eggs is being able to pick out the Muscovy duckling colors you like the most.
Incubating And Hatching Your Muscovy Ducks
If you’re used to incubating and hatching chicken eggs, be prepared for the process of hatching Muscovy eggs to be a little bit more challenging. Less than 23% of Muscovy eggs end up hatching, so I’d recommend starting with a good number of eggs to ensure you’re rewarded with at least a few ducklings.
You can increase your chances of more eggs hatching by allowing a broody duck to lay on them for the first 10 days before moving them to an incubator. In the following weeks, it also helps to place them back under the broody duck for a day or so per week. Most eggs that are going to hatch will do so by the 35-day mark. The good news is that eggs that do hatch and make it to adulthood can live as long as 20 years.
Muscovy ducklings look just like other ducklings when they’re small. They won’t develop their distinctive red caruncle masks until they’re around one month old. If you want to know how to tell male and female Muscovy ducklings apart, the size of their caruncles is a sure indicator, but that won’t be clear until they are a little older. If you’re trying to sex them sooner, you’ll see a noticeable difference in their head sizes by two weeks, with the female heads being smaller and daintier. After three or four weeks, the male’s tails will be more U-shaped, while the females will be shaped more like a V.
Once they’re fully grown, which can take three months or longer, you’ll be able to tell the difference between your male and female Muscovies based on their size, the size of their caruncles, and the noises that they make. Male Muscovies are generally quite a bit larger than the females with larger, more warty caruncles over their eyes. Males also usually make breathy sounds, while females trill and chirp.
Muscovy Duckling Development Week By Week
Raising Muscovies is a fun process that’s made even better by knowing what to expect as they grow week by week. You’ll want to invest in sexed ducklings (ducklings already sorted into male and female), as males will fight with each other to prove dominance if female ducks are present, though an all-male flock is fine if you’re wanting to raise them just as pets. The males won’t fight each other if females aren’t around. On the flip side, unless you’re strictly buying these birds as pets, the more females you have the better. Having more females will produce more eggs, which is generally your main goal if you’re raising these ducks for meat or eggs.
Let’s take a look at what your little ducklings will need week-by-week as they grow.
One Week Old Muscovy Ducklings
A one-week-old Muscovy duckling is still quite fragile and susceptible to cold. You’ll need to keep your brooder temperature at 90°F to help them stay cozy and dry. At this stage, it’s also good to start the ducklings on a waterfowl feed in crumble form that’s 18–20% protein.
Two Week Old Muscovy Ducklings
A two-week-old Muscovy duckling can handle a slightly cooler brooder temperature of 85°F, but keep feeding them the same starter crumbles. Throughout their time in the brooder, these fluffy ducklings will be very messy, so I like to use feeders and waterers that are hard to tip or climb into to keep them clean and the ducklings safe from getting wet and chilled.
Four Week Old Muscovy Ducklings
A four-week old Muscovy duckling can thrive in a temperature of 75°F. From three to eight weeks, your ducklings should be fed 15–16% protein crumbles. You can accomplish this by adding 20% oats into their feed to lower the overall percentage of protein.
Six Week Old Muscovy Ducklings
Six-week-old Muscovy ducklings still need 15–16% protein feed, and their brooder temperature can stay at 75°F until they’re ready for the great outdoors. When watering your ducklings (at any age) I cannot stress enough how important it is to keep their water dishes high enough so that they can’t get in them and drown, or spill them and possibly get chilled.
Giving Your Muscovy Ducklings The Proper Food
Wondering what to feed Muscovy ducklings? The best thing to feed them is a waterfowl crumble feed with 18–20% protein for the first two weeks, then 15–16% protein for weeks three through eight. Muscovy ducklings can eat chick starter if that’s all you have, but if you choose a feed that isn’t specifically designed for waterfowl, you’ll want to supplement their protein by adding a mixture of brewer’s yeast to their drinking water.
Introducing Your Ducklings To Adult Muscovy Ducks
Like with any type of livestock, it’s easy for mature Muscovy ducks to feel threatened by the arrival of fresh young ducklings, and it’s also intimidating for the young ducklings to meet bigger ducks.
My best advice for introducing young ducklings to established ducks is to have them meet on neutral ground, such as out and about in the yard where there is enough room for the young birds to run away if they feel threatened.
As I’ve mentioned, raising Muscovy ducklings gets easier as they get older. Older Muscovies won’t rely on feed as much as they will grazing and free-ranging, and they don’t mind staying outside through all kinds of weather. Start with a few ducklings, and see how it goes. It’s hard not to get attached to these fun little creatures, and I’ll bet that if you start raising a few Muscovy ducklings this year, you’ll be excited to expand your flock next year.
Your Turn!
- What types of poultry have your raised on your homestead?
- Do you want to raise Muscovy ducklings for eggs, meat, or as pets?
We have been raising chickens for four years and ducks and turkeys for three years. We started with five Isa Brown chickens. We acquired a friend’s unwanted Pekin female and a Rouen female and four turkeys, three hens and a gobbler. Raccoons got two of the turkey females and we replaced them. Fast forward, we now have thirty chickens, separated into three different flocks. We have 8 ducks, one Rouen female, one Muscovy male that just showed up one day, one Pekin drake and five Pekin females. We still have four turkeys. We just purchased 10 Muscovy ducks which we will pick up on Saturday. My husband and I were recently diagnosed with Alpha-gal and we need to increase our meat production since we can no longer eat our meat rabbits or our goats. Ah, the unexpected joys of Homesteading life. Honestly, we love our off grid life… Ticks… Not so much.
Awesome advice. I have had them in the past and about to get more. I love them!