Photo by Cherie Langlois
The excited Muscovy parents - to - be .
You would think after keeping them on our farm for near twenty years , I ’d have discovered a consistent , effective , responsible agency to handle with my Muscovy flock ’s compulsion with reproduction ( I surmise they ’re plot to take over the farm , then the world ) .
But no . For example , spring has barely spring and already a adolescent female parent wannabee — one of last summer ’s duckling — has been sit over two weeks on a clutch of 16 eggs .
This is not a surprisal , because past experience has learn me to expect R - rated Muscovy behavior and prolific testis anywhere from March to November .
Since we have n’t been able to bestow ourselves to eat on surplus ducks ( yet ) and I do n’t desire our farm over - ladder with top-notch - poopy preferred poultry , I seek to be diligent about gathering duck testis ( great for baking , by the way ) , except for the yearly summertime clutch pedal I let one female parent duck crosshatch out for these understanding :
1 . The growing duckling devour lots of slugs and other pesterer , providing eco - friendly pest control around the farm .
2 . needs , we suffer winter duck’s egg losses due to vulture — normally eagle or raccoon — so keeping two or three of the ducklings each yr helps keep up our sight at five to seven hiss , the optimal act for our farm .
3 . Ducklings are just so darn cunning and foggy .
Unfortunately , my ducks do n’t give a quack about limiting population growth . They have their own generative docket , with the female — determined to give us duckling surprises whenever possible — squirrel away their egg in secretive places , from a dim corner in the sheep ’s stall to underneath the pump house .
This prison term , though , the nest was an promiscuous find ( in the duck pen ) , so the fracture is mine : I slacked off on duck egg - assemblage , and then when Tally the duck’s egg started incubating , I procrastinated about removing the eggs until too much time had elapsed to do so without feel shamefaced about it . So given the Muscovy incubation period of around 35 Day , it ’s now only a few weeks until D - solar day .
Then what ?
In past years , I ’ve bartered excess duckling to my feed store for provender or sell them myself to other husbandman . The downside is that I can never be sure what happens to my duckling down the route . Maybe they live happy - ducky - ever - after lives , but perchance they do n’t . What if they become victims of neglect — starve , or dump on a metropolis pool somewhere ?
Every year I reason with myself that it would be more responsible to raise any special ducklings with respect , forgivingness , and good care , and then humanely broadcast them to the deep freezer . After all , Muscovies were domesticated for just this purpose : to provide mankind with food .
So how do you other duck - raisers deal with your duck’s egg ?
~ Cherie
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