Duck tales: Troy considers exception for waterfowl breed

A fowl question came before Troy City Council last week: Are chickens any cleaner or easier to manage than ducks?

Ilona Eubank, newcomer to Troy and an aspiring duck owner, posed the query hoping to understand why city regulations allow residents to keep up to five chickens but bar waterfowl. In a letter to the council, Eubank made the case that both chickens and their semi-aquatic cousins help regulate insect populations and generate quality fertilizer. She noted that chickens, like ducks, can transmit disease to humans.

While quacking can pose a nuisance, Eubank said some species, like Muscovy ducks, emit a “soft peep like that of smaller birds which many people find appealing.”

Pointing to the apparent discrepancy in Troy’s livestock ordinance, Eubank asked councilors to consider allowing residents to keep at least two Muscovy hens.

Other residents, who discussed separate agenda items during the regularly scheduled Oct. 13 meeting, chimed in with their own experiences raising ducks. Milo Rogers, owner of a local construction company, vouched for Eubank’s description of the sound that Muscovies make.

“It’s almost like a chicken sneezing,” he said. “If you have a mating pair, it’s so weird because they raise their top features and they wiggle their tail and they actually move their head back and forth and make a hissing sound.”

Clay Campbell, Troy’s power manager who said he’s been around a lot of Muscovy ducks, asked Eubank how she would keep her ducks from breeding with local waterfowl. He said Muscovies tend to lay many eggs and if a wild drake were to fly into her yard, she could find herself with a surplus of mix-breed ducklings.

Eubank said she planned to house her hens in a moveable pen that would keep them from consorting with undesirable mates. She noted that even if one of her hens were to breed with a local drake, their offspring would be sterile.

Along with producing large quantities of eggs outside of winter months, Muscovies can easily grow up to 20 pounds, according to Eubank.

“If one wanted to eat one’s duck one could,” she said.

Campbell agreed, saying some referred to Muscovies as “swamp cows” because of their desirable red meat.

“Geez, half the crowd is duck connoisseurs,” said Mayor Dallas Carr.

If officials were to amend the livestock ordinance, City Councilor TJ Boswell said he would like to see language permitting only certain breeds. He noted that residents were allowed to keep chickens because of the birds’ ability to produce eggs year-round. Without the specificity, Boswell worried that some residents might get a duck just for the sake of getting a duck. He spoke from experience.

“My wife is one of them,” he said. “She’s talked about wanting to put a duck on a leash and walk it.”

City Councilor Chuck Ekstedt said he was in favor of allowing ducks and noted his wife was also a fowl fan. Colleague Shawna Kelsey said she was not concerned about permitting Muscovy ducks so long as owners were able to keep them from getting loose.

Carr recalled how a dark chapter in Troy’s history of livestock management was opened roughly four years ago when someone freed a domestic duck in a city pond. The abandoned duck, named Gabby, created a rift between locals who grew fond of her and residents who feared she would breed with wild drakes.

As the dispute escalated, dissenters targeted Gabby with blow darts and the city had to threaten to issue tickets to those who broke her eggs. In July 2020, the city passed an ordinance making it illegal to release pets on public property or let domesticated animals run unsupervised within city limits. When councilors approved the ordinance, Carr said Gabby would be grandfathered in.

Several residents urged the council to carefully consider how changes to livestock ordinances would affect bear intrusions in Troy. Existing regulations prevent residents from keeping horses, swine and goats within city limits.

City councilors plan to continue the discussion around Muscovy ducks at an upcoming meeting.