The Case for Ducks: Keeping Livestock on a Caribbean Homestead
- Nea Talbot
- May 28
- 5 min read
Updated: Jun 4
When I started with animals there was one thing that always caused me stress; the rain, or the lack thereof. Either too much or too little, at all the wrong times for animals who just don't appreciate it. Well, I'm here to yell it from the rooftops; I love ducks!
Ok so we all have chickens, right? You’re all well and truly on your way to full blown homesteading. No? Ok good, I’m here to help you skip a few steps.
I will preface this by saying you do need a little space to keep farm animals. They are something I would only recommend if you have a garden or outdoor space you are looking to holistically manage and have considered raising your own livestock for food. If that's not your thing, skip around to other blog posts. If you are curious and considering next steps, I’m here to talk about the lovely Muscovy duck, the Cairina moschata.
The best description I’ve heard of these birds is that it has a body like a duck, behaves like a goose, has a breast like a turkey and roosters like a chicken. (Personal note, they make absolutely zero noise compared to a rooster, but their attitude can surely be up there). It is not truly a duck, but a South American waterfowl, and this distinction is part of why I love them so much.
To start, the ducks are just funny. Chickens are entertaining, but can also be ferocious and witless and will not hesitate to take an eye out. Geese are "interesting", but also won’t hesitate to take off your toes, fingers and whatever else they can reach with minimal effort. Ducks are personable, ridiculous, complex, and just funny. They don’t quack, but the females sound off with charming titters and tattling and the males just hiss, pointlessly. Once you keep the female/male ratio within a reasonable number (1 male to 3-4 females), they manage themselves well and raise their young with no help from you, thank you very much!
Another huge thing for me is that they don’t require a large amount of water. For a true duck to be happy, they need a pond deep and wide enough to paddle and swim and dive. Muscovies will do this, but don’ require it as much as dibbling in mud puddles and frequently bathing off the troubles of their day in a small pool. So we provide them with large swimming tubs and a few washing tubs in which they jump and splash happily. In the rainy season they thrive and are not as prone to issues from ‘tropical downpours for days on end’ as chickens are. A proper pond is a dream, but if you can’t do that yet you can still enjoy a happy flock of ducks.
The overall best reason to keep muscovies on a homestead is their pest control to garden disturbance ratio. It is 100:0….not like those ******* chickens. Our ducks are given access to the whole farm, especially the garden. No other livestock can be given that. Chickens just mash up the place, let alone the sheep, pigs or geese. Ducks provide all the benefits of poultry in the garden (fertilizer, pest control) without the damage (scratched up soil and seedlings and torn apart leaves and flowers). I cannot overemphasise the decrease in pest pressure on the crops since I have introduced ducks to the rows. You name it, they eat it and I don’t have to worry about holes in the lettuce leaves or half-eaten flowers.
And of course, once they’ve done this job, we have the option of selecting them for our freezer. Ducks procreate readily in a good environment, and you do need to keep the male:female ratio in check. If you get too many males in a flock, they can get aggressive towards you and each other. As a homesteader, you also want to maintain a healthy breeding flock that is adapted to your environment, so selective culling provides you with what you need and manages the flock for demeanor and adapted traits. As a lifelong lover of duck on the table, this is an added bonus.
The only issue I have found with muscovies is that if you are hand raising chicks, you need to be mindful of their niacin levels, as they require more than is found in feed from local suppliers. So, extra frozen peas and treats. The hens also take longer to start laying and to go broody, so establishing a breeding flock has taken longer than with our chickens. Hand raising chicks for any species is troublesome so I avoid that as much as possible and let the mothers do their job. Muscovies are susceptible to any of the diseases and problems that all poultry are, but they are hardy and adaptable and enjoyable and I have had almost zero issue with them, as opposed to many issues with chickens. The only other thing to remember is that they do fly. Make sure they can't escape until they are used to and happy in your space, and once they are old enough I recommend giving them the painless wing clip.
To keep your muscovy ducks happy and comfortable, they do need access to water, but they do not need a full size pond or water feature. I have seen some keep ducks along the sea shore and they happily paddle about in the shallows, and I have seen people keep ducks where their only access to water is a ditch. With this latter option, I do not recommend it at all but it does highlight how versatile and resilient they are. We keep several options around for our flock. Small containers in various locations around the farm offer them a spot to drink from throughout the day, and one large container they can paddle and bathe in. These require cleaning and refreshing the water every few days so it is a little labour intensive, but it works until we are able to put in an actual pond for them. For a small flock on your property, a kiddie pool or large cement mixing tub works really well.
The one aspect of ducks I find more difficult than chickens is their nesting. Ducks do not go home at the end of the day like chickens, and they are not drawn to the nesting boxes we provide like chickens are. Both our ducks and chickens are free range, but only the chickens roost and lay in regular, easy to find places. The ducks will lay wherever, whenever and if you do find their eggs on time and bring them to your kitchen, the hen will notice and immediately start laying somewhere else and your search begins all over again. So, we don't gather or use duck eggs as much as the chicken eggs simply because we cannot find them! However, it all balances out as we don't really keep them for eggs and the chickens provide more than enough in this regard. However, if you choose to keep them in a smaller enclosed area this job would be much easier. If you do let them free range, be prepared to invest in a herding dog in order to get the help you need to get them back home in the evening!
There are pros and cons to every animal you choose to keep on a homestead, and for us the Muscovy duck is the favourite. It makes sense because Muscovy ducks have been kept by smallholder farmers across the tropical world, particularly the Americas, for thousands of years. They are highly adapted to our environment and have co-existed with humans since around 50 CE. On our farm, we have kept pigs, sheep, geese, ducks and chicken, and if I had to choose only one it would take me about 2 seconds to scream, "ducks!" They are the least maintenance, highest reward once you are looking for a small, multipurpose animal to add to your land.
