Black Muscovy Ducks

The Black Muscovy is a new addition to our duck offerings – In addition to White Muscovy, we have now Black Muscovy as well. Black is the native color of wild Muscovy originally found in the swamps and rivers of Brazil. Over time the commercial birds being raised for meat have been bred to be white just like chickens, turkeys, ducks, geese, pheasants, etc. so they dress cleaner.

The progeny of the Black Muscovy we produce are not 100% black. They are generally black, and in good light, you can see a glossy greenish hue on their backs. They also are characterized by white on their heads and neck. We imported breeding stock from Grimaud Freres of France to produce their R41 strain of black muscovy.

Black Muscovy can be grown for meat just like our white birds and they are excellent in this department. In France over 90% of the duck consumed is Muscovy. You will also find it in many of the nicer restaurants throughout the United States. It is leaner than Pekin meat and the male Muscovy will produce a very large breast that is almost beefy in taste and texture. The male Muscovy breast is often served rare. Black Muscovy are very popular for meat in the Middle East along with Central and South America.

Muscovy eggs take 35 days to hatch (versus 28 days for all other breeds of domestic ducks). Oftentimes they are difficult to hatch in an incubator but a broody Muscovy will do an excellent job of hatching and raising her young. If you remove the ducklings by 3-5 weeks, she will probably produce one or two more broods during the season. Muscovy normally start laying later in the spring than other ducks.