HARD LESSONS LEARNED FROM FREE RANGING MUSCOVY DUCKS (december muscovy duck update)
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- Опубликовано: 16 окт 2024
- I know this video has been VERY long awaited indeed but it's here now for all you Muscovy duck fans who have been wondering where my ducks have been and waiting patiently for an update on our Muscovy duck flock. I share the good, the bad and the ugly when it comes to the fate (and future) of our Muscovy duck breeding program here at Fable Hill Farm.
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I am so sorry for your loss. I know how it feels for sure. I only have one acre, but last year my first and only flock of 9 chickens and 4 Muscovy ducks got killed by a coyote. So I learned my lesson and put up good fencing around their area and now I have a new flock of 12 chickens and again 4 duck in an area about 1/4 of an acre and of course I feed them well because we don’t have much insects or even grass; so I go cut some weeds for them and give to them in addition to the main feed I give them; so far so good. Please don’t despair and protect your animals and increase your duck flock again; your old duck flock was so beautiful; keep going don’t stop.
We are definitely taking steps to keep our birds more secure at night to eliminate predation from nocturnal predators but unfortunately it will take some time for me to locate new genetics to replace the quality of birds lost. I'm sorry you experienced those losses. Coyotes are terrible when it comes to how swiftly they can decimate livestock. I'm thankful they do not come close to our property because of our LGD but we definitely have some packs near us.
You can look at Edible Acres on RUclips. They don't purchase feed for their flock. They have compost piles throughout the run and they plant trees and berries and gardens in their run. They don't spend money on feed. They basically keep the soil healthy with working hens. My husband and I now implement this on our 10 Acre farm here in Northern California. The worms from the compost piles feed my hens and the soil is extremely healthy. Good luck with your flock
@@thinkandgoaloe2432 Yes I do watch Edible gardens and I love their videos and I have been thinking to do the same with compost piles with wood chips where my chickens are staying. Thanks for the advice
Wow thank you for this, so much to learn and be aware of. So sorry you had such a rough year! ❤
I'm really sad for your losses. Thank you for sharing the ups and the downs, so there's a realistic picture of what this beautiful, full life is like.
So sorry for your losses I completely understand. I just found your channel because of the Muscovy content. You still have a huge library of info on them! I’ll still stick around because you have a lot of other critters on your farm I’d like to have on my property one day!
Thank you. I appreciate that.
@@FableHillFarm along with Muscovys I’m hoping to get Nigerians, egg chickens, maybe geese next year. I already have meat rabbits.
I like your coment . Salam from indonesia
I had your video on the muscovy color genetics bookmarked, and so I came back to see how it went with your breeding plans. I am SO sorry to hear about your losses. We recently had a guy come and buy as many drakes as we'd sell him because he said he thought he had some "two-legged predators" stealing his drakes. Now that I'm seeing your video (late), I'm going to ensure that our electric fences are zapping hard this winter & our security camera has a big no trespassing sign beside it. Did you keep any muscovy from this summer's clutches?
Very good to know, I am on my second year with my silver appleyard ducks.
I'm glad the ducks are continuing to do well for you Honey. Are you pulling eggs to consume then or letting them hatch out next spring?
@@FableHillFarm I had to buy more this spring because it seemed my drake was shooting blanks. Harvested the extra males for meat. BIG LEARNING CURVE for me & watch all your duck videos! Thank you
I hate to say, im sure it was someone who follows or has seen your videos. Your not the only RUclipsr who has had birds missing all of a sudden! Im sorry to hear that..padlocks on everything!!!❤❤
sorry to hear your bad news am based in Thailand i stared a few yrs ago with muscovy and chickens am doing really well with the ducks i have a company come in and take the birds every 3 months its hot here so they grow quickly .. my hens i am getting 120 eggs per day hope things get better for you i understand you have a cold climate
Thank you. I appreciate you watching. How many hens do you have to get so many eggs a day? I am sure Muscovies do fantastic in your climate. So when you say a company picks up birds every 3 months, what weight, out of curiosity are those birds in 3 months and what are you feeding?
@@FableHillFarm we feed the ducks on a mixture of duck food and pig food the pig food makes them grow quickly as regards the weight they are all diffrent over here they only eat them at that age for the tender meat older ones they wont take with regards to the hens we have 150 hens that are fed a expensive food i dont know the name is written in thai ... but to make your ducks grow try the muxture with pig food
I only clip the flight feathers on one of either wing to stop flying, it also keeps them covered.
I had a few years ago and am getting fertile eggs this year. Thinking I will not allow free-ranging, though with streams here it would've been fun...but the predators abound here, and I want them nesting where I can see/protect them.
A raccoon got a couple of mine this year! It sucks!
But I made the mistake of keeping to many for the winter (17) and it won't happen again!
Raccoons are brutal killers. I'm sorry that happened to you Pam. 17 is a lot over the winter. Ugh, I can only imagine how they are eating you out of house and home. They are huge pigs in the winter when there is no forage of any kind.
@@FableHillFarm trust me that many won't happen again! 😂
Oh no! So much loss all at once. Im struggling with owl attacks in the evening, one bird currently has a bloody nose too. So new mystery. Part of the hardships of farming.
Thank you. I'm sorry you are dealing with an owl; birds of prey can be especially challenging to deal with. Farming isn't for the faint of heart, that's for sure.
This crazy weather hurt my flock this summer. Last year we hatched about 80 eggs successfully. This year maybe 3 out of every 20 was viable. And yes, the last ones hatched in Sept., but since we started having predator issues we kept the babies confined and some are still too small to process. We only had 13 drakes, too. Last year we had 1 hen to every 4 drakes hatching, which I liked because they grow faster. So, now I still have 40 nice hens to process and I hate to kill hens. When I'm done I'll have 1 or 2 drakes and 6 hens left to start next year with.
I was wondering if the ducks that went missing had their wings clipped ? I've heard of them flying off, and not returning home if there is enough in the group. I had some fly to a neighbor's place, but they'd return by evening. Since I lock every bird up at night, I clipped wings and stopped that nonsense. Then his drakes started coming to our place looking for their girlfriends. That started a bunch of new problems.
Sounds like you've had a rough time too with hatching Sheila, I'm sorry to hear that. To have such high hen numbers is pretty wild too. I also hate processing the hens as they give such little meat in comparison and usually there is a market for hens to customers wanting duck eggs, BUT, the reality is, at some point, they've got to go, one way or the other. And if you need meat for the freezer, they still process the same. None of the birds that went missing had their wings clipped. It was an adult hen (and her juveniles) who had spent several years on our farm and NEVER wandered. She was very content here and always kept her babies close to our duck house or wood shed. I did consider they wandered off but none of my neighbors keep poultry and I'm positive they would have let me know if ducks showed up as everyone knows where the ducks live.
Really enjoying your content. I’m in Maine and just starting out this year with a couple Muscovy ducks. Do you butcher your own or do you have a place to take them to be processed? We are not sure yet how we are going to address this, because we want to be humane. We are not against doing it ourselves and are checking out the local butchering businesses.
Ive seen the local feral muscovies I feed, walking around a mile away, foraging in fields and neighbors yards for bugs. Theres a couple that always stay close to my building, but generally they love to break off in little social bands of 2 -3 birds grazing. The coyotes get a couple, loose dogs kill a few, coyotes and racoons eat the eggs. I love to watch their interactions with each other and their social structures. Not what i imagined at all.
But i can definitely see if you are raising them for meat or eggs you need a secure place esp for the nests, thats where the hens usually get killed. They also have zero dog sense even after being chased/grabbed by dogs.
Very low self preservation instincts for sure!
My duck friends would definitely eat everything in my feed barrel if they could get to it 😂😂
So sorry. I know how sad this is as multiple similar items have happened to us. It does suck.
Farming isn't for the faint of heart, as they say...but you're right. It does suck. Thank you.
I would like to raise a few for meat from spring to summer. I was thinking of fencing them in so they have a large area to roam. Would they just fly over the fence or could i clip both wings to keep them in.
If you want to keep them in an area, yes, you'll need to clip both wings.
I have a question I have a small flock of Muscovy duck a a couple weeks ago and they where attacked by a fox luckily none of them were hurt to bad as the guard dog chased it of but since then they have stop laying eggs and I was wondering how to get them to start again as it’s been almost 5 weeks since
My grandfather had hundreds of chickens and all kinds of poultry, he always said those livestock guardians were “some chicken killin’ sob’s”
Muscovy ducks woohoo 🙌
Amaziing ..
😢
So sad
Love your Muscovy videos xx
I will still be producing more Muscovy content this spring once our flock kicks off nesting again and you'll still see some Muscovy videos from me, but I will not focus as much on them. Sorry to disappoint!
He'llo, really like your videos.!! Do the ducks need more 24 protein, on them feed?
Hi there, thank you for watching. Their protein needs are really dependent on three factors; their age, their forage and the climate. So if you have younger birds, they typically need more protein to grow and develop, but if they have lots of forage, not necessarily. In the winter, I usually add in protein to help the birds sustain through the cold weather.
Wow good 😂😂😂😂
Muscovys have a tendency to
Wonder which may be what happened to your missing ducks
My ducks never wander. I truly believe they were killed or stolen.
To depressing
Unfortunately, homesteading isn’t always rainbows and sunshine. It really sucks when bad things happen, but it is certainly part of life; especially when you have livestock.