Egg incubator

[Hilary B]

Whatever you do, do NOT try to shoot a drake with an air-rifle. At the legal power limit an airgun pellet will not have sufficient impact to kill clean, even at a few feet range. We only tried once!
We shot rats quite successfully, but ducks have much harder skulls (and anything other than a headshot we were not confident of hitting where the injury should be rapidly fatal).

[petal]

point blank to the head works- I have a friend that has a high powered air rifle for this purpose. A proper gun might make a bit of a mess?

[baldrick]

thanks all x

[Hilary B]

Point blank you have to restrain the bird, and that is the tricky bit with a Muscovy Drake!
If you can get hold of it that well the broomstick method should work (or you could use the cone thing someone mentioned, I've seen one at a market where geese were sold 'on the hoof' and slaughtered once sold)