All Drake Flock Talks! 😊

[Miss Lydia]

If you add a new drake in the spring there is going to be trouble hormones are really starting up then. If you want to add another drake this time of year would be best on through winter. Make the new guy his own space right next to your 2 so they can meet and great with out fighting it may only take a few days but it might take longer. Every drake is different in personality. But hormones are waning now which hopefully means your new boy won’t be raped.

 

[TinaandJohnny]

If you add a new drake in the spring there is going to be trouble hormones are really starting up then. If you want to add another drake this time of year would be best on through winter. Make the new guy his own space right next to your 2 so they can meet and great with out fighting it may only take a few days but it might take longer. Every drake is different in personality. But hormones are waning now which hopefully means your new boy won’t be raped.

Okay ya! Good to know! Thanks! I might wait until next fall or winter to add another boy unless the right one comes around. My boys are pretty young still. Thank you for the information! Super helpful!

 

[Miss Lydia]

I wish @thumper650 would be on he started with an all drake flock an I am pretty sure during hormone season he had all his boys in separate fencing right next to each other until fall.

 

[ruthhope]

My drakes are rescues and have had traumatic back grounds. I have a pekin that was an Easter duckling in 2021. He was attacked by a raccoon and has a damaged bill. His brood mate died in the attack. He was cared for by a wild life rehabber but his original owner abandoned him when he was healed. Meanwhile, 3 months later, she took in a waterlogged muscovy and as that duckling grew he was cared for with the injured pekin and other ducks. I took in a muscovy that was found alone in a storm in a parking lot. At 6 weeks old he was introduced to the muscovy and injured pekin from the rehabber. All three got on well together -- my "three musketeers" --last fall. My muscovy preened the other muscovy and napped during the day with his head acroos the other muscovy. So sweet. We thought mine was female. We werent sure about the other muscovy. The pekin being older was certainly a drake.

Fast forward to January this year. By that time, all three were obviously male and trouble started brewing. The two muscovy started fighting: full frontal feet and claws to the fore. There were occasional skirmishes between my original muscovy, Daffy, and the pekin, although Daffy quickly learnt that I didnt like him fighting and largely ignored provocation by the pekin.

The worst behavior was by the other muscovy who started attacking me in February. Something happened in his head when his drake hormones started rising. I was seriously concerned about him. He three times got up on the side gate where he was my height as the 4ft gate was at the top of two steps. I have written about his "therapy" and his behavior on the gate previously. He has stopped his worst attacks on me, stopped getting on the side gate, but frequently starts biting my feet. I now keep a dogcrate in the garden and put him in there for a few minutes time out when he bites my feet -- it only takes 3 or 4 minutes in the dogcrate before I can release him and he comes out all contrite

So currently, he has almost finished molting and looks good (his other issue is that he will not bath in the wading pool and had become very yellow stained down his previously white chest). He is still very close to the pekin with the damaged bill although he bites the pekin on occasions to assert domination. He has started periodically fighting again with Daffy who is a great soft lump that doesn't like fighting, and Daffy comes off the worst for the attacks. And the troubled drake terrorizes a pair of pekin drakes that I rescued as juveniles in April. The pair of rescued pekins are frightened to go in the coop with him.

I have had all three pekins in dogcrates in the coop -- they will go into the coop and their crates if the troubled muscovy is not already in there. As its too crowded in the coop with three dogcrates, i tried new sleeping arrangements tonight: troubled muscovy in a dogcrate with Daffy and the three pekins loose in the coop. Daffy was pecking at the pekins (pecking order behavior) when i locked them in. I will have to see how it goes: I might have to put Daffy in a crate at night too, but hope not to have to do that.

Free ranging during the day, there is little trouble except for the very occasional fight between the two muscovy. Daffy likes to hang out near the troubled muscovy but gives him a wider berth when he is being aggressive.

 

[TinaandJohnny]

I wish @thumper650 would be on he started with an all drake flock an I am pretty sure during hormone season he had all his boys in separate fencing right next to each other until fall.

My drakes are rescues and have had traumatic back grounds. I have a pekin that was an Easter duckling in 2021. He was attacked by a raccoon and has a damaged bill. His brood mate died in the attack. He was cared for by a wild life rehabber but his original owner abandoned him when he was healed. Meanwhile, 3 months later, she took in a waterlogged muscovy and as that duckling grew he was cared for with the injured pekin and other ducks. I took in a muscovy that was found alone in a storm in a parking lot. At 6 weeks old he was introduced to the muscovy and injured pekin from the rehabber. All three got on well together -- my "three musketeers" --last fall. My muscovy preened the other muscovy and napped during the day with his head acroos the other muscovy. So sweet. We thought mine was female. We werent sure about the other muscovy. The pekin being older was certainly a drake.

Fast forward to January this year. By that time, all three were obviously male and trouble started brewing. The two muscovy started fighting: full frontal feet and claws to the fore. There were occasional skirmishes between my original muscovy, Daffy, and the pekin, although Daffy quickly learnt that I didnt like him fighting and largely ignored provocation by the pekin.

The worst behavior was by the other muscovy who started attacking me in February. Something happened in his head when his drake hormones started rising. I was seriously concerned about him. He three times got up on the side gate where he was my height as the 4ft gate was at the top of two steps. I have written about his "therapy" and his behavior on the gate previously. He has stopped his worst attacks on me, stopped getting on the side gate, but frequently starts biting my feet. I now keep a dogcrate in the garden and put him in there for a few minutes time out when he bites my feet -- it only takes 3 or 4 minutes in the dogcrate before I can release him and he comes out all contrite

So currently, he has almost finished molting and looks good (his other issue is that he will not bath in the wading pool and had become very yellow stained down his previously white chest). He is still very close to the pekin with the damaged bill although he bites the pekin on occasions to assert domination. He has started periodically fighting again with Daffy who is a great soft lump that doesn't like fighting, and Daffy comes off the worst for the attacks. And the troubled drake terrorizes a pair of pekin drakes that I rescued as juveniles in April. The pair of rescued pekins are frightened to go in the coop with him.

I have had all three pekins in dogcrates in the coop -- they will go into the coop and their crates if the troubled muscovy is not already in there. As its too crowded in the coop with three dogcrates, i tried new sleeping arrangements tonight: troubled muscovy in a dogcrate with Daffy and the three pekins loose in the coop. Daffy was pecking at the pekins (pecking order behavior) when i locked them in. I will have to see how it goes: I might have to put Daffy in a crate at night too, but hope not to have to do that.

Free ranging during the day, there is little trouble except for the very occasional fight between the two muscovy. Daffy likes to hang out near the troubled muscovy but gives him a wider berth when he is being aggressive.

I thank you for writing all that! It was a great read! I love hearing about other people’s ducks and their experiences. Ducks are such smart animals.
I have met a few Muscovy ducks and they are quite large! I would imagine a bite or attack from one of those guys are brutal. I love the look of them though.
I think considering your message I will be very intellectual about choosing the next boy I get. I may not until next fall so that my boys have a year under their belts. They’ve only gotten aggressive sometimes with each other when I lay down on the grass with them and they “argue” who gets to lay where. Lol.

 

[Miss Lydia]

I thank you for writing all that! It was a great read! I love hearing about other people’s ducks and their experiences. Ducks are such smart animals.
I have met a few Muscovy ducks and they are quite large! I would imagine a bite or attack from one of those guys are brutal. I love the look of them though.
I think considering your message I will be very intellectual about choosing the next boy I get. I may not until next fall so that my boys have a year under their belts. They’ve only gotten aggressive sometimes with each other when I lay down on the grass with them and they “argue” who gets to lay where. Lol.

Very possessive of their mama it seems. lol

 

[ruthhope]

I thank you for writing all that! It was a great read! I love hearing about other people’s ducks and their experiences. Ducks are such smart animals.
I have met a few Muscovy ducks and they are quite large! I would imagine a bite or attack from one of those guys are brutal. I love the look of them though.
I think considering your message I will be very intellectual about choosing the next boy I get. I may not until next fall so that my boys have a year under their belts. They’ve only gotten aggressive sometimes with each other when I lay down on the grass with them and they “argue” who gets to lay where. Lol.

I would plan on adding 2 muscovy drakes together. If you add 2 clutch mates they will stick together and just stay out of the way of any aggression from your existing drakes during the day. You might need to partition your duck coop to have them sleeping separately, but you may not.

We have very many feral muscovy round where I live. I see 3 large handsome boys lumbering round a neighborhood with one smaller, far more active female. She goes foraging for grubs. They just sit in the sun in gardens waiting for handouts from homeowners!! So three drakes are perfectly happy to hang out together in the wild!!. (I have no worries about the female being overmated by 3 boys: she can fly, they cant!!)

I cannot emphasize enough that my problems are all with the behavior of the one muscovy drake. For whatever reason, he is seriously disturbed. He is safe as he is a pet but in another duck keeper's flock, he would have been moved to the cooking pot. I just cannot do that to the poor boy.

 

[Traci in Oklahoma]

gonna pay attention to this thread cuz my two ducks turned out to be drakes and are getting slightly more aggressive towards each other… I’ll probably find this thread very useful lol

My 2 turned out to be drakes also. They are very close and never leave each other's side. There was some mating behavior this summer where they would try to mount each other or seemed to be fighting when taking a swim but for the most part, they could not be separated....until a couple days ago. I opened the pen to let them out and only one came out. The other one was just sitting in the corner staring at the space between our fence and the backyard neighbors. He has been acting off and unsociable ever since. This morning he was in the little water pool inside the pen and would not come out when his brother did. He looks and acts like he's giving everyone the cold shoulder. I don't know what to make of it. I'm worried that maybe they were attacked by a snake or something. No evidence of an attack tho.

 

[Duckie doodle]

Does anyone, who has all drake flocks, want to chat? Give each other some tips about having drake flocks?
Hello, I am new to the all drake flock. I hatched out my two boys July 30th. Indian Runners. They are my sweet babies, they love me devotedly, follow me around everywhere. I am considering getting another one in the future giving the right circumstances.
What are some “do and donts” for having an all male flock?
What are some things I can expect?
Fighting?
Can i get different breeds of Drakes or should I stick with Indian Runners.
Thanks everyone! Let me know on some insight!!

I do find that if you have males from the same hatch together they get along better then males from outside sources. I have 2 Saxony drakes that are always together and they hatched together.

 

[TinaandJohnny]

My 2 turned out to be drakes also. They are very close and never leave each other's side. There was some mating behavior this summer where they would try to mount each other or seemed to be fighting when taking a swim but for the most part, they could not be separated....until a couple days ago. I opened the pen to let them out and only one came out. The other one was just sitting in the corner staring at the space between our fence and the backyard neighbors. He has been acting off and unsociable ever since. This morning he was in the little water pool inside the pen and would not come out when his brother did. He looks and acts like he's giving everyone the cold shoulder. I don't know what to make of it. I'm worried that maybe they were attacked by a snake or something. No evidence of an attack tho.

My boys are best buddies also. If there is one, the other right is behind!
Awe I am sorry to hear that! What kind of area do you live in? Are there many bird vets in your area also? If you’re really concerned, I would take him to the vet. It could be something he eat that is making him sick or lethargic. Keep us updated!!!