# broody duck breeds



## mskrieger

Hi all,

I lurk a lot on the poultry board but now I need your advice! I'd like to have a duck flock that broods its own ducklings. Dual-purpose--they need to lay decently and have enough meat to be worth butchering.

So tell me--do you have dual-purpose ducks that raise their own? If so, what breed, and where/from whom did you get them? (I'm concerned that hatcheries don't necessarily preserve broodiness even in traditionally broody breeds...)


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## farmerstac

Muscovies would fit your bill. Some don't like to looks so you might think of a couple of bantam silkies. Then you get what ever breed is easy on your eyes.


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## KSALguy

Muscovies will lay a clutch of upto 20+ eggs and brood them naturally multiple times a season, they are very good eating, and easy keepers, 

if you want a Mallard type duck then it all depends, i have had farm yard Rouen type hens set and raise a clutch pretty well, also Cayuga, buff, Mallard, and all kinds of cross breeds, but generally smaller clutches, once a season if they decide too, some make decent moms and some dont, but thats accross the board in any breed of domestic fowl,


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## GrannyCarol

My Saxony ducks have been the most reliable broodies for me. However, they brood once a year and I don't let more than one brood any given year, I don't need that many ducklings and I don't want the others to quit laying. Most of my ducks haven't brooded until they are two years old for some reason. Saxonys are a meat breed, I find them to be hardy and to lay HUGE eggs quite well most of the year. Silver Appleyards are supposed to go broody, but I've never had more than one or two girls at any given time and they didn't happen to brood. However, they are good meat ducks and lay even bigger eggs quite well. The Silver Appleyard eggs run close to 4 oz each for instance, you can use one for two chicken eggs. The Saxony eggs are more like 3.5 oz. 

Since the older ducks brood better, I find I don't get a lot of Saxony eggs in the winter, my current two girls are three and four years old. They just started laying for the spring/summer a couple of weeks ago and I expect one or both of them to go broody about the first of May, like they have for years. I'm limited in space and lost my Saxony drake, so this year I'm going Silver Appleyard, as I have a pair of them - I like them for their calm cute personality too. 

I use Welsh Harlequins and Anconas for eggs and I'll say the four Ancona girls are laying me four eggs a day right now - not so much over the winter though, as two of them were too young and the others are getting older. I had Anconas go broody one year, but they haven't since and I had a Welsh Harlequin go broody once, but not again. Due to my error (letting them share a nest) the Anconas didn't hatch their eggs, but they sure tried. I've only had one duck that hatched eggs that wasn't a good mother, she was devoted to her babies, but is just a little spazzy crossbreed of some sort and she kept freaking out and running all over her babies, I had to separate her and she was devastated. She is, however, the best layer I have, having given me one cute little green egg almost every day for three years now. I have one of her daughters that is also laying a cute little green egg for me from last year! Every year I hatch a couple of her eggs, but if the duck doesn't lay green, I find them a home and try again.


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## Dusky Beauty

Broodiness pops up in strange packages sometimes. I have a mallard hen that I presumed would be my broody, as well a a muscovy hen but no joy on those two. Thus far it's my welsh harlequins really stepping up and setting the nest with dedication. I've probably got a nest due to hatch here any day now.

Last year it was a young layer hybrid in late summer that didn't want to break her broodiness, and it's supposed to be bred out of that strain.


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## GrannyCarol

BTW, one thing to keep in mind is that egg laying breeds are bred to NOT go broody, because it takes a hen out of production for at least a couple of months to brood eggs and raise young. However, individual ducks will brood and some bloodlines are broodier than others, but anyone breeding for egg production doesn't want broodiness. Even for meat, you get more ducklings if you incubate your eggs and keep the mothers laying. One broody duck seems to set off others too.


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## mskrieger

thanks! so it sounds like almost any of the medium-to-heavy breeds (or Welsh Harlequins) _might_ go broody...but they might not, and it depends on the duck. So just have a bunch of ducks, and keep the daughters of ducks that successfully brood their own ducklings, and try to get broodiness back in the line?

one thing I am still confused about--I thought Muscovy ducks are purely for meat, i.e. they don't lay that many eggs. (although they might hatch out two or three large clutches of ducklings every year.) Am I wrong?


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## GrannyCarol

I can't help you with Muscovies, never had them, so hopefully someone will chime in.


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## SJSFarm

I am new to Muscovys myself. I got mine in June to control the flies (they do a FANTASTIC job!). 
My two ducks were laying, usually, an egg a day each. I let them go broody to get more, but found one duck was a lousy mom and let her eggs freeze. The other is great. Although I've no ducklings yet and it's been almost 25days

I have an extra drake now that one duck got taken by a fox last week, so I'm thinking of butchering the one drake because he's too aggressive to the other. 

I think the muscovy is a good choice for both meat and eggs. Keep in mind the muscovy is the ONLY duck I've had


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## wolffeathers

Muscovies are a less domesticated species of duck, while mallard derivatives have been selectively bred for farm life a bit longer.

The muscovies are larger and have retained much of their broodiness and mothering skills. My mother scovies have jumped at a number of people/things trying to get at the young, while my rouens and cayugas tend to skirt away and just make a fuss. Muscovies still have their ability to fly, despite their size, so pinioning or wing clipping needs to be thought about. They lay well, but they are also pretty wise to where they hide their eggs. They would prefer to hatch those eggs and raise ducklings, instead of them being eaten by "predators"(including us people. LOL)

I like the muscovies the best myself.


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## KSALguy

muscovies lay up to 20+ eggs per clutch, if you keep takeing the eggs they will keep laying, Muscovy eggs take a week or more longer than normal duck eggs to hatch, 35 days i think,


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## Dead Rabbit

we always had faaaar more rotten eggs come from our muscovies when setting than ducklings.
horrible setters and worse mothers.


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## KSALguy

guess it depends on the flock, i started with a trio of whites and then later added a trio of black pides, i was soooooooo over run in that first year it was insain, each hen set three times with no less than 18 hatch per clutch, 20 and 22 more likely, i would keep each new mom and her clutch locked up in a protected shed the first week of life so that the little bits had their legs good and under them and could keep up in the tall grass and weeds, after that first week they were out the door on their own, nothing worse than trying to feed and water a flock of pigeons and a brood of ducklings in the same shed with a mad crazy momma duck on the rampage flying at you trying to get you away from her babies, even worse when i had two hatch at the same time,


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