Your Poultry

It looks like a duck (but doesn't quack), acts like a goose, roosts like a chicken, and tastes like beef.

The big duck with no quack

Domesticated ducks quack quite loudly and can't fly. Muscovy ducks can fly and don't quack. Technically, while they look like a duck, a gander at their genetics shows the Muscovy is a type of waterfowl that's distinctly different from all other ducks. They're close enough that they can interbreed with them, but any offspring are always sterile.

Casey Patten runs Harrisville Heritage Poultry on her block, 50km south of Auckland. She loves the variety of colours of her flock, but it's their personalities that first caught her heart.

“They've got really great characters. You go out to feed them and they come up and gather at your feet, hissing, bobbing their heads, and wagging their tails.

She has 10 birds, eight ducks and two drakes. Even with a small flock, it's enough to produce a wide range of colours, one reason people love to keep Muscovies.

“The babies are always interesting when they pop out. I have black and white ones and blue and white ones. I get the occasional – I'm not sure of the correct terminology – lavender and white, and the odd ones with some barring (stripes down their front). I also have one bronze girl out there, which is a combination of chocolate and blue I think, so there's a whole range of colours.”

Casey mostly breeds birds to sell as pets. They're popular because they're so quiet (read more on page 57), especially compared to the other duck breed she sells, the Pekin.

“Now those girls quack quite loudly!” The Muscovies are much bigger than standard domestic ducks, especially the drakes which can be 30-50% larger than the females.

“They're very popular as meat birds in some cultures,” says Casey. “I have a combination of customers (meat and pets), but I couldn't breed enough Muscovies for the people who would like them for meat.”

She's found the ducks are good layers, and mostly good mothers.

“They don't lay an egg a day for ages like chickens, they do tend to have a break here and there. Mine will lay a ▶

"They... gather at your feet, hissing, bobbing their heads, wagging their tails."

clutch, sometimes as many as 12-15 eggs, then they want to go broody. They're pretty good mothers, although I have one that's really crap at it, so I guess not everyone's cut out for it.”

The incubation period is another Muscovy quirk, significantly longer than other similar birds.

“It's 21 days for a chicken, 28 days for a mallard-based duck like a Pekin (and geese), and it's 35 days for a Muscovy,” says Casey. “Funny how it's multiples of seven.”

Muscovies are odd in other ways. Unlike other ducks, they like to perch, so they'll happily settle in a coop or on tree branches to sleep using long sharp claws on their feet to help them grip. As a result, handling them requires some care, and thick gloves, especially if you need to pick up a male who is likely to kick out.

Casey does eat their eggs, which are slightly larger than chicken eggs.

“They're awesome for baking, for meringues and sponges that require air to be whipped into the whites. They're really good in quiches – I use them half and half with chicken eggs in quiches.”

She doesn't eat them fried, poached, or boiled on their own.

“I don't like the texture, they tend to be quite rubbery, but then I have had people who enjoy that texture and buy the ducks for that reason."

How Muscovies like to spend their time

Research into wild Muscovies in public parks in the US found they spent about 12% of the time in open water, swimming, foraging, and bathing.

Shorelines (13%) were used for roosting at night and for resting/comfort, foraging, and other activities during the day.

Grass (42%) and tree cover (18%) were important habitats for foraging, while shrubs (8%) and urban habitats (7%) were mostly used for resting and comfort activities.