Hi Guys and welcome back to Moat Cottage Homesteading. Today we're going to have a
look at my Muscovy drake and see how he's settling in, seven weeks ago we introduced
the new muscovy drake to the flock and today is the update video to see how he's going and
we're going to talk about what his new name is, thanks to you guys for helping choose his name.
The new drake is finding his place in a fully established flock of muscovy ducks and chickens,
so they all know each other and they know he is new and the old one out
usually it's best to introduce a couple of birds at once so they have a friend and they're not
targeted and bullied however as he's going to be the main drake and the only drake that we have,
he is really big enough to look after himself
and he'll fit in quite quickly and in a few weeks he'll probably have a following of ducks
initially he sits back and observes the ladies. At feeding time the ducks
are territorial with their food and don't want to share with the new boy.
Storm, my Australorp, is a kind soul and she's already welcoming him into the flock
in an earlier video we asked you guys if you could think of the name that would suit him
and we got some really great names. Some of the names were actually names that we've already
got in our muscovy duck and chicken flock so that was really funny, so you obviously are on
the same sort of wavelength as what we are and we ended up settling on the name Smokey and that was
recommended by 'Backyard on Orchard' so thank you very much for everyone who suggested a name
because we really appreciated it. That's probably the hardest thing when you're getting a new pet
around here, is trying to find a name that fits in with all the other birds and our theme of
sort of either crystals or elements weather, I guess you'd class them as nature names.
Initially he was timid around the ladies, he loves having a bath
but in the early days he was getting out if a duck wanted to get in. So his name is Smokey
and Damon liked Grayson, so his name is 'Smokey Grayson' but we'll probably just call him Smokey.
As the weeks have gone by, Smokey started chasing and catching the ducks, to practice,
but he isn't actually fertilizing any eggs yet, now I know this because there are no signs of his
manliness, which if you haven't seen a duck's manliness before, it's shaped like a pig's tail.
So we won't be having any babies just yet.
Smokey is now comfortable sharing a bath with the ducks
and the ducks are happy to let him sit with them, as well as forage and eat with them as well
His Caruncles are developing and starting to really fill out now.
so you can see that he's maturing, that's the red markings on his face.
He's nice to the little chicks and chickens as well, so he really is fitting in quite
well. At night, he sleeps in the coop area, which is locked up away from foxes
and they're just going in now, although I've disturbed them by shining the torch in
to film this. Smokey is officially part of the flock now. If you'd like to see more of what's
going on in our small space homestead then check out some of our other videos and hit
subscribe if you're not subscribed already. Thanks for watching, I'll see you next time