They are fiesty and with the sharp claws they have you and other birds need to respect those claws. The drakes get quite large and can provide more meat than a smallish china goose. The meat is more like beef than anything else it usually isn't fatty or greasely like other ducks unless you confine them to fatten them up. Remember that the ducks fly very well even with their shorter wings Even a well fattened Drake can usually fly.rhoda_bruce said:I just got my very first muscovy ducks EVER. Momma used to complain that they were ugly, but didn't care and DH heard her often enough and also heard his own grandmother cursing in French, "No good turkey duck," and he never wanted to consent to getting any. Well, I landed on a few ducklings, which I offered to sell for a local lady.....only I never even attempted to sell them (I knew I wouldn't). I know they supposed to be awesome mom's. I don't know what I will get out of them, but they are here. I started with 7 and I somehow lost one......like...gone, missing, vanished. I'll keep a drake and at least 2 females if I have enough to get that going and eat the rest. All my other ducklings have been sold off, so looks like that will be my only duck meat anyway, but hopefully a future incubation assistant.
These ducks never migrated they were tree perching ducks that fished and gobbled plants in rivers in warm temperate climate therefore they never had the fatty layer just under the skin which act like fuel tanks for the birds that migrate.
The females are often only half the size of the males because tree nests were often holes in old trees, the smaller the duck the more nest spots that were available. Ours liked private nests with a curtain to provide privacy. The drakes were mating machines to the point that they would tear up a nest or kill ducklings to make his lady avaialllbe to him again.
Because they do not migrate they tend to start laying later but will keep it up untill it starts to get cold Here is the big thing it is fairly common for a duck to produce 12 ducklings per hatch with three hatches per year. And they also come in fancy colors from people that breed for colors