I have too many pigs. And now because I have too many pigs, I have too many ducks. Let me explain and maybe you’ll learn something about Muscovy Ducks along the way.
Contents
Becoming an accidental pig farmer
Pigs breed fast. I mean REALLY fast. Their gestation time is Godās little joke of 3 months, 3 weeks and 3 days. And they can get pregnant basically as soon as the last piglet pops out.
Historically, thatās been fine with me. I started off with two pigs, added a few extra breeders along the way to diversify the gene pool (nobody wants an inbred jed pig) and just kept them all together. There werenāt very many and I figure the more babies they made, the more I could sell and the better the farm would do.
This worked great for years.
Then I got busy.
Pig overload
They bred and bred and bred and I didnāt have time to sell the piglets. Imagine if one pig can have a litter of up to 14 piglets 3 times a yearā¦ It doesnāt take long to be overrun with pigs. Thatās why wild pigs are such an issue in certain parts of the country like Hawaii and Texas. Pigs are pretty rough on the environment, not to mention even domesticated pigs can be aggressive and wild pigs are super dangerous. Iāll have to tell you my theory one of these days on how pigs changed the course of civilization.
Anyhow, so halfway through last year I realized that my little herd of two pigs had become closer to 50 and if I didnāt do something by the end of the year I would have hundreds. When your animals begin to exponentially increase you know thereās a serious problem.
Ducks instead of pigs
I began to sell pigs, heck I even gave pigs away. And most recently I have traded my pigs for ducks.
I have a love hate relationship with ducks. I think theyāre adorable (and they taste good), but I hate their quacking. I donāt know why my flock of geese doesnāt bother me in the least, but give me a few quacking ducks and I will go insane.
Fortunately, the ducks I traded for are Muscovy ducks which actually donāt quack. They have a cute little hissing squeaky sound and they wag their tails. I mean cāmon! They. Wag. Their. Tails. How cute is that?
What is a muscovy duck?
So muscovy ducks are obviously unique. The only duck that doesnāt quack. Theyāre also a tree duck so they like to perch right along with the chickens. They also have these big claws that help them to hold onto branches as well as give farmers scars if the farmer isnāt careful.
Muscovy ducks are native to Mexico and south america and some people actually argue that these ducks should be classified as geese. So maybe I donāt like ducks period and Iām just a goose person??
I have never ever in my life owned an aggressive muscovy (making them different than a lot of geese), but Iāve heard the drakes can be. Mine are sweet and let me pet them despite not being hand raised.

Muscovy ducks, especially the boys, have this funny mask called a caruncle. Some people think it’s ugly, I think they look like super heroes.
Purpose of a muscovy duck
Meat
They usually live for a little less than a decade and yes you absolutely can eat them. They are actually the number one raised duck because they are such good meat birds. They are hefty little guys with the mallards (boys) weighing up to 15 pounds. If you are butchering ducks, you want to keep good records about their birth date because there are specific times to butcher. This is when their pin feathers (or immature) feathers are all grown out. Pin feathers are horrendous to pluck out. Pin feathers are grown out at about 7, 12.5 or 18 weeks of age and should be the only time you butcher ducks if you value your sanity.
Do remember though that Muscovy ducks arenāt kosher unless crossbred with a Mallard to make a Mulard. No Iām not making that up.
Eggs
They also are pretty decent layers if you want duck eggs laying up to 195 eggs a year during their 40 week season (they usually stop laying during the winter). This isnāt as good as Khaki Campbells, the best egg laying duck breed out there who can lay up to 300 eggs a year. Then again Khaki Campbells are skinny little things that you wonāt get any meat from so itās a trade off.
Pest control
Now hereās the best thing about Muscovy ducks. They are fly eating machines. One experiment put ducks in a cow pen and the population of flies dropped by 80 to 90 percent. Flies are a huge problem in our area of the High Desert whether you have livestock or not. I spend 3/4 of the year fighting flies. Iām looking forward to using our new duck patrol for this purpose. Muscovites are also willing to eat grasshoppers, ticks and mosquitos.
Pets
If you want them as pets, the nice thing is that they are really resistant to disease so chances are you arenāt going to be dealing with any illnesses assuming that they are kept in good conditions. And like I said theyāre super friendly having once been described as āfriendly as a puppyā, so thatās a pretty good quality. Just be careful of those claws.
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[…] is one duck breed that I absolutely adore and thatās the muscovy duck. They donāt quack, they actual hiss (itās cuter than it sounds), and they wag their tail […]