Aggressive Muscovy Drake

[FathertoFeathers]

About three weeks ago I purchased three Muscovy Ducks two hens and one drake. The first two weeks went by with no incident and they got along well. But this week he has completely switched personalities. He has been relentlessly chasing my other ducks and pulling out their feathers. He'll grab them and force them to the ground before just walking off. He doesn't try to mate with them he just forces them to the ground. Is there anything I can do to dial down his behavior?

 

[Duckfarmer1]

Hmm. I usually go and scold them and push them away if I’m near. Can you get more females. I take in ducks and a woman gave me three ducks for the same reason. The first day Pete went for everyone. But the next day he was calm. He’s a khaki though

 

[Duck_life]

From what I heard muscovy drakes need up to 6 hens? Get more hens and if he attacks you I grab him slightly by the lower part of the neck (the "fat" part) and hold him down, the drake will over breed the females, right now I have 1 drake 1 hen, the only reason I keep them together is because I straightened up my drake (now I just need to straighten up my hen ) and he has been mating her less because she is smaller and can run pretty fast, much faster than him, plus he only mates her at night from what I've seen (if he gets the chance). @Miss Lydia has much more experience!

 

[FathertoFeathers]

From what I heard muscovy drakes need up to 6 hens? Get more hens and if he attacks you I grab him slightly by the lower part of the neck (the "fat" part) and hold him down, the drake will over breed the females, right now I have 1 drake 1 hen, the only reason I keep them together is because I straightened up my drake (now I just need to straighten up my hen ) and he has been mating her less because she is smaller and can run pretty fast, much faster than him, plus he only mates her at night from what I've seen (if he gets the chance). @Miss Lydia has much more experience!

I thought it was him trying to breed them at first but he won't climb on top of my hens. He just forces them to the ground and then leaves them. Its hard to explain but it doesn't look like he's breeding them at all.

 

[Duck_life]

I thought it was him trying to breed them at first but he won't climb on top of my hens. He just forces them to the ground and then leaves them. Its hard to explain but it doesn't look like he's breeding them at all.

I would separate him for a while, chase him off if he does it again. What my drake does is he pins down my hen by biting her on the neck and holding her their, she always escapes though and he will let go if she struggles, he is probably protecting his female, my old drake who I sold would attack my drake pekins if they went near them.

 

[Miss Lydia]

My Runner was doing this to my Muscovy females and he’d run them down and stand on them an not breed so I think it’s just dominance thing. My Muscovy drake would just stand an watch. If he isn’t hurting them I think I’d just let them work it out.

 

[quackiemama]

Silly drakes! Sounds like a dominance thing to me too! I agree with @Miss Lydia that they can work it out as long as he is not hurting them.