I'm thinking these are ducks. I don't know anything about hatching ducks, but I really enjoyed reading your post. I like ducks. :)

Another great topic. I have absolutely no experience with ducks of any kind but I found a great website that answers all of your questions and more. It's a really interesting site. Metzer Farms

Duh, I've been on that site more times then I can count. They ARE a great resource for duck info. I'll have a look tonight and see what they have to say about crossing.
Everything I've read so far says that offspring will be infertile and that does make sense since muscovy's are not descended from mallards.
It's kind of like a goat and sheep breeding. It's rare but it is possible and the offspring are usually always infertile.
Anyway just thought I'd give it a shot and see if anyone has tried it. I have 2 of her eggs so far. Luckily her's are a little smaller and more green than my pekin ducks.
FYI, these two ducks think they are chickens. It's so funny.

Ok, I had a chance to read Metzer's info. I would have a Hinny, since it's a male pekin and female muscovy. They would take 32 days to hatch.
Not sure if I want to see if she'll go broody and hatch her own or use the incubator. It would clost quite a bit per bird to hatch in electricity since I only have one muscovy hen and they'd only be good for meat or pets.
Decisions, decisions. I guess I can keep collecting them and decide in a couple of weeks. Normally the muscovies sit on a clutch of at least a dozen eggs anyway (or so I read, no real experience).

So what do they do to be like chickens?

Does she mind that you've taken her eggs? Or do they know when they're fertile or not? Do you think she'll lay fewer than a normal clutch? Are you questioning whether she'd brood because she's new, or do domestics not always? The ducks I'm familiar with (friends' ranch) were very domesticated, but not in any kind of well managed flock, and they'd brood fine, if sometimes in, erm, unusual places. What more would they be worth if you had more muscovy's?

plllog They just hang out with the chickens and won't socialize with our ducks. They used to live with chickens so that's all they've ever known.
She just lays her egg and leaves it, most of them do. Once in a while a duck or chicken will go "broody" and they want to sit and hatch eggs so then they do mind. I just let a duck sit on some chicken and duck eggs a little over a month ago. She abandoned the nest 2 days before the chickens were due to hatch. I was so annoyed with her, but what can you do? My incubator was full so I couldn't even finish incubating them? Unfortunately that's what birds do, even when they've hatched some, they will sometimes leave with some and the others will just die in the egg.... impatience.
Pekin's are terrible for sitting on their eggs, muscovy's are supposed to be great sitters, so I don't know.
My husband would probably leave me if I got a bunch of muscovies added to our already plentiful brood. LOL

Do you think they tried to join the other ducks and got teased? :-D With people in mixed marriages, they often join a neutral social group. :)

Thanks for explaining the laying behavior. Sad about the eggs nearly to term and abandoned. My mother has always had very salty things to say about the (lack of) intelligence of domesticated fowl, but it seems sad that the mothers would just get tired of brooding and wander off, even if some of the eggs weren't hers. :( Can't you tell your husband that the muscovy ducklings are chickens?

LOL, I don't think there was teasing involved. They tend to be the mean ones. Perhaps they like to be part of the smarter group of domesticated birds. It was funny one of the first few days we had them they were hanging out in the barn and a chicken bumped into the male as she walked over to one of the feeders. He lunged at her, but she just hopped out of the way. Then one of my male and female pekins came into the barn right after and the new pair actually lunged at them. So my male, being quite a bit larger just lunged back (they never seem to bite, just threaten) and they scurried off. I have 4 males and I never see them fight, but the person I adopted them from she said where they were kept over winter, the male would fight all their peacocks, or might have been pheasants, I can remember which. They seem to be working out well though here though. No fights, just displays so far. They were outside the barn quite a bit today so that's a good sign.
I do find it odd that the male will not go in the water. Pekin ducks are water fowl, they LOVE water. Muscovies are not water fowl. She has that boy wrapped right around her webbed foot.

It's not that the pekin female wandered off because the eggs weren't hers. I think it's because it was right around the time the weather started getting nicer and they were getting water to play in outside. She started spending more and more time outside. They aren't the brightest.
Hubby wouldn't have a problem with hatching the eggs, just buying new adult birds. A decent female adult is usually around $20.

Okay, I get it. The Pekins are corner boys, who posture to feel each other out, then leave each other alone. It's just that they can't stand dandies and showoffs. :) And the females aren't so much bad moms. They just like to party and forget the little ones. :)

You've just given me insight into the origin of patterning. Mom will wander off, so you'd better follow her or you might never see her again!

Oh, you meant your husband didn't want you buying more muscovies, not hatching them, right?

BTW, have you read Enslaved by Ducks? It might be too goofy for you, being that it's about people who had no clue how to keep animals, but it's very funny. ;)

Exactly! Well at least my guys are. And yup, the females would rather go skinny dipping than watch stay with their babies. And don't even get me started on duck mating behavior! haha
In all fairness, once babies hatch, they are usually pretty good mom's.
You know chickens will abandon eggs too.
Actually a lot of animals do it in some form or another. Often with triplet lambs, one baby is rejected. I've also had goats with twins reject one. Most times I can get a sheep or goat to accept their baby but it takes a lot of work, multiple times a day going down to hold the mom and force her to let the baby nurse. It's taken me up to a week with one. Bettery than months of bottle feeding though. One thing I've learned is that animals can be a$$holes sometimes, just like humans. LOL
I've never read Enslaved by Ducks, I'll have to check it out. Considering all the learning experiences we've had, I doubt it would be too goofy for me. You can read, and read, and read all you want and speak with people with experience, but until you actually live something for yourself, man you (meaning me) really have no clue. LOL And when you have many different types of livestock, it seems there is always something going on.

There's a Farm Life Forum here in Gardenweb.....have you gone there with your questions?

Your county extension office would also be a source of good information.

rhizo_1 (North AL) zone 7 I didn't see that, thanks, I'll try and find it.
What is a county entension office? - Canadian here. I did actually find the answers that I was looking for from Metzer. It pretty much summed up what I had read on other sites with a few more details.