muscovy ducks on suburban lot

I have a small orchard of 3/4 acre with a six foot privacy fence all around.  Around 200 tees and bushes and lots of small weeds.
I am in the Southeast (North Alabama) so we have hot humid summers and short very cold spells.  I can build them a nice duck house.
Will the muscovy do well here and not wander off?  I expect they will become road kill if they get out.

I have no idea, but I love the question.
I would love to have some of these ducks on my own urban lot one day.
I have chickens, and unless they have their wings clipped they could easily get over a 6 foot fence.  
They generally don't,  because they have it good,  but ducks might be very different.

What kind of predators do you have there?

I don't think predators will be a problem if I make a duck pen/house.  Basically lock them in at night behind a fenced in pen.  We do have coyotes in small numbers but enough that people end up losing pets.

Muskovy, in my experience, will simply LOVE going to visit your neighbors, if allowed to free range. They're quiet, very sweet, funny, and some simply amazing eating. But, very messy and not at all likely to stay home. They believe the world is their oyster to poop in.

1. Muscovy live to breed. I control that by having them hatch and raise my Khaki ducks and my goslings. They are "batch" layers, unlike Mallard derived ducks, so more of a meat bird than a laying bird, and as Carla said, they taste amazing. (not fatty like Pekin ducks)
2. You may be able to deal with item 1 by only having 1 sex.
3. Muscovy are a "wood duck" so they climb trees. If they *really* like your 3/4 acres they'll stay home, but if they climb a tree near the fence, getting over won't be a problem. My birds have more like 3 acres and they pretty much stay home - until the neighbor's apple tree starts dropping apples and they just *have* to help him clean up. He insists he doesn't mind their help.
4. They are very quiet which is an asset in an urban area. Much quieter than both chickens and Noisy ducks (Pekins).
5. They are friendly and sociable. Just don't have 2 males if there are any females around. The girls will occasionally fight to establish the pecking order, but not as seriously, they get over it sooner and it's less likely to be lethal.
6. I would hesitate to hit a Muscovy with a vehicle - the vehicle won't like it. The males in particular are solid. They're also like "slow moving vehicles" so if your neighbors are all into drag racing rather than having a bit of patience, it could be a problem. However, positive reinforcement will work to some extent - make inside the fence a happy place and there's a good chance they'll stay.

The first Muscovy we got were a pair of male rescues. We bought them some girls and they did well until eagle season. We've had Muscovy ever since (mostly self-replicating, but occasionally we picked up some extra rescues that needed a good home.) Ultimately, I'd suggest you give it a try.

Oh - and though they don't really fly, if they find a high point they will... glide. Sort of. It's pretty comical, because grace in 'flight' is not their forte, and their landing skills are... no. They have no landing skills. I was once walking from the chicken coop back to our house - both at the bottom of a steep hill, from the peak of which a pair of our muskovies waddled, but I wasn't paying them any attention, until John let out a yell.

They'd launched themselves from the peak, and were wobbling their way through the air, headed right for me. As I yelped and ran, they attempted to put on the brakes, in mid air, and our collision was only a very fine hairsbreath from disaster. I was only lightly bumped by a wingtip. They landed (plopped? tumbled?), and John and I laughed so hard, we nearly plopped down beside them. I did say they were funny. They're so sweet, they seemed to think they were puppies.

Unfortunately our batch turned out to be all male, but one,  and a coyote ended her time with us. We kept the boys for a while, but when tracking them through the ravines became a daily - or even multiple times daily thing, we discovered their meat is more like a good quality steak, than any kind of poultry I've had, save ostrich.

OK, let me be more precise - after laughing my head off about Carla's "misadventure with flying torpedo ducks" - Muscovy DUCKS can fly moderately well when young. Muscovy DRAKES can't fly worth beans. The older Muscovy get, the bigger they get, and the less aerodynamic they get, and male Muscovy are significantly larger than the females - in fact that's how you tell their sex as youngsters, although it's not nearly as clear-cut as the web will tell you if you've got mixed genetics. We're always playing the, "that's a girl, that's a boy, those two are who knows" game with young teenager Muscovy.

However, out of deference to my fellow humans, if I'm in the upper field and I let the Muscovy out for the day, and the girls take off, I always yell, "incoming" to anyone standing in the lower field. The girls generally demonstrate some efficiency in flight control, but no one likes to feel they're a landing pad! There is definitely a fair difference in skill level.

Does trimming the wings help keep them grounded?

Dennis Bangham wrote:Does trimming the wings help keep them grounded?

I avoid trimming wings unless there seems to be no other option. It may work, but I've heard of too many instances where it just makes them easier prey animals.

I think the best approach is to make them want to stay inside:
1) That means fresh "bathtubs" of water - we use those rubber feed bins because it's easy to tip them out and refresh them. If you move them around, they will water your fruit trees - stacking functions!
2) We give them a scoop of chicken pellets at bedtime - this motivates them to come to bed!
3) We respect their drive to be broody and have babies. I don't always give them Muscovy eggs. I harvest extra males responsibly. If you don't want to have babies/eat meat, Pekin ducks might be a more appropriate choice. Pekin ducks are better slug hunters, Muscovy are better fly catchers. (I have a female named "Venus" as in "Venus Fly-catcher" - she chose the name by her prowess!)
4)  If I do end up with more babies than I want, I do sell some of them. A lot of Muscovy end up in shelters here, so do try to figure out if this is what you want to do, and check with shelters in case you can adopt some that need a good home.

John C Daley wrote:What do you mean by ' the ravines'?

From Mirriam-Webster:
ravine
noun
ra·​vine rə-ˈvēn
Synonyms of ravine
: a small narrow steep-sided valley that is larger than a gully and smaller than a canyon and that is usually worn by running water

My experience has been positive with them, I free range and have a cattle panel arch (tarped) they can get out of the weather.
The ladies will go up to the roof when tired of the drakes, they tend to wander around and swim sometimes in the middle of the night.
Best bug control I’ve ever had, put the chickens to shame on that. They taste like steak so cook them like beef not fowl.