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© 2017 Sweet Creek Goat Farm Poteau, OK
BUILT By Web Print Solutions
One Summer, a couple of years into raising goats, the Barn felt like it must be floating a foot off the ground from all the flies. The humming of their tiny wings was almost ear shattering. Like most newbies, I went to the feed store and bought some chemical spray. I usually try not to use chemicals, but I felt desperate. All I did was make myself and goats start coughing. Ok, this was obviously not going to work.
I called up the Agent from OSU. “What can I do for flies, Naturally?”
Brian suggested Muscovy Ducks because, “I heard that they will eat their weight in flies”...
Looking around I found some month old birds advertised. Talking it over with my Guys', we decided it was worth a try, since we could always eat them if they don't work out. We knew nothing about Muscovies, well, actually, nothing about farm fowl at all.
Ducks available and ready for a new home.
More information coming soon.
So, we started with a small flock of 20 birds and never regretted it. Over the years we were raising up to 300 or more ducks during the summer... Selling the Muscovy for meat, breeding and egg production. For several year we were supplying over 300 to 500 eggs a week to a wholesale customer, and still managed to hatch out 300 ducklings... In 2015 we started raising more birds to supply the demand for Meat Ducks and eggs. Constructing 'The Mud Drake Manor”, with a covered area with 4 large wired runs in 2016 has helped manage over 800 birds at a time. They have divided grass areas in front for the young birds and a large open grass area with a small pond in the back for the older birds. We constructed the “Manor” so we could drive the tractor in the back and clean runs, adding the manure to our compost piles of goat waste to heat up. In Winter we spread the Fertilizer onto our pastures.
These birds are enjoyable. Silent, except for a chirp or whistle here and there, always busy eating everything that moves... They love being with the goats, and when a LGD dog barks a warning, the ducks flee to the safety of the barn buildings...
Muscovy are your quiet duck. They will chirp and whistle, crackle sometimes, but do not quack constantly. They are land ducks. They do enjoy water, but just a wading pool, where they can dip and clean themselves will satisfy them. They are a very hardy bird. Do not feed them medicated feed. They do not need to be wormed, very tolerant to colder temperatures, but some straw down on snow will help them not get frostbit on those bitter days. They will eat worms, every bug that moves, (spiders, scorpions, baby snakes, mice, crickets, ticks, are the best fly catchers, mosquito larvae in ponds, etc...) they love grass and seeds, so they need greens to eat...(no chemical spray please.)
They can have beautiful colors. All tones of gray, brown, black & green, some solid, some pied with white. Some even with blue eyes. One wing can be trimmed to keep them from flying. They do like a little grain to keep them coming to you. They are basically a peaceful creature, do not attack other animals, (except when you have too many males -
Besides all their good points, they make the best tasting eggs, probably laying one crème colored, larger than Jumbo chicken eggs, every other day in season. They are a meat duck, firm dark red meat, (like veal) with very little fat. They are a great all round farm animal.. But! just remember they are ducks, and they like to go everywhere in search of a treat....Your porch, your garden, your animal water troughs, etc.
Ducklings up to a month old are normally $5. each. Immature ducks (unfledged out ) will cost $8 -
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