North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[mIEKAL aND <qazingulaza@gmail.com>]

How are they for egg laying?

On Thu, Jan 27, 2011 at 11:06 AM, Kieran &/or Donna
<holycow@frontiernet.net> wrote:
> I was one of those people who were horrified and contacted F&WS.  I also
> contacted hatcheries who had muscovy ducklings for sale and had no idea that
> suddenly they were supposed to have their customers fill out forms, and that
> in fact no more muscovy ducks were to be raised in the USA except for
> registered producers, and all those backyard birds that were "grandfathered
> in" were supposed to stop reproducing too.  Those of us who discussed this
> all agreed that only protection from predators kept our muscovies alive.
> Down in Florida they can be a nuisance, and in Texas some have naturalized.
> The F&WS were apparently equally shocked to discover that muscovies have
> been around for so long in so many places without making trouble.
>   I guess muscovies are a lot like goats.  If sufficiently protected and
> fed, they can take over and eat everything.  If insufficiently protected,
> they can die out.  To be practical and be worth the effort, they should be
> used.  They are excellent meat birds with excellent foraging capacity, are
> terrific mothers, are much less wasteful of water than quack ducks, and are
> very pleasant to have around.  The mature drakes are quite uncouth, but you
> only need one.  Donna