Best way to tell, male vs. female Muscovy?

[Going Quackers]

By 4mths you'd definitely hear nothing but hissing coming from the drakes... my original hens.. starting laying at 4mths lol Mine are pretty quiet but the ladies all trill and chirp to one another, The newer hens, you grab them they make more noise, I have one that honks like a flippin' bike horn! however my original hens and even some of my newer hens peep at me when i come by and wag.. and yes they can raise their head feathers i have one hen who does this.. she is for certain a hen...

Not all Muscovy drakes are mean, my oldest guy is a sweetheart.. the younger pair are buggers.. but they are not nasty just cocky

I have to many drakes right now.. but i refuse to um, make them dinner as they are a very nice pair of barred blacks.. so i am hoping to sell one or both come spring.

 

[Miss Lydia]

By 4mths you'd definitely hear nothing but hissing coming from the drakes... my original hens.. starting laying at 4mths lol Mine are pretty quiet but the ladies all trill and chirp to one another, The newer hens, you grab them they make more noise, I have one that honks like a flippin' bike horn! however my original hens and even some of my newer hens peep at me when i come by and wag.. and yes they can raise their head feathers i have one hen who does this.. she is for certain a hen...

Not all Muscovy drakes are mean, my oldest guy is a sweetheart.. the younger pair are buggers.. but they are not nasty just cocky

I have to many drakes right now.. but i refuse to um, make them dinner as they are a very nice pair of barred blacks.. so i am hoping to sell one or both come spring.

I agree on the drakes not being mean, I have had 5 drakes in close to 9 years and only one was bad. It's like he just snapped one day and killed another of our drakes which i wouldn't have believed could happen but we saw the tail end of it when we came home. He literally beat him to a pulp. He died during the night. But I would say this is rare. My oldest drake is a teddy bear, my youngest is very cocky. which is typical of all drakes that are young. I would never not recommend not getting a Muscovy drake because he may be mean. And as for getting them use to you, it does take time. and lots of treats. With it being Winter we aren't able to be outside with them as much but once it's starts to warm up the best thing to do is spend as much time outside as we can just being around them. None of my adult girls like to be picked up which I try not to do very often but they will come and eat out of my hand and love to hang out with us especially if we're digging in the ground[maybe a worm for a snack] but my 3 youngest girls we got in Sept. are still pretty skiddish of me. They will come around now for treats but won't take any out of my hand and will fight like crazy to get away if I have to catch one[wing clipping] I try to wear gloves if I have to catch one. I am thinking once warm weather comes around again I will work on getting them use to coming around and eating out of my hand. Now my house/outside drake would eat at the table with us if we'd let him.

 

[Going Quackers]

I agree on the drakes not being mean, I have had 5 drakes in close to 9 years and only one was bad. It's like he just snapped one day and killed another of our drakes which i wouldn't have believed could happen but we saw the tail end of it when we came home. He literally beat him to a pulp. He died during the night. But I would say this is rare. My oldest drake is a teddy bear, my youngest is very cocky. which is typical of all drakes that are young. I would never not recommend not getting a Muscovy drake because he may be mean. And as for getting them use to you, it does take time. and lots of treats. With it being Winter we aren't able to be outside with them as much but once it's starts to warm up the best thing to do is spend as much time outside as we can just being around them. None of my adult girls like to be picked up which I try not to do very often but they will come and eat out of my hand and love to hang out with us especially if we're digging in the ground[maybe a worm for a snack] but my 3 youngest girls we got in Sept. are still pretty skiddish of me. They will come around now for treats but won't take any out of my hand and will fight like crazy to get away if I have to catch one[wing clipping] I try to wear gloves if I have to catch one. I am thinking once warm weather comes around again I will work on getting them use to coming around and eating out of my hand. Now my house/outside drake would eat at the table with us if we'd let him.

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I'm not big on picking up the ducks myself especially the drakes with those claws.. but my oldest kid loves to, they all just sit there even the drakes... My newer hens are coming around but it's definitely more of a challenge when they are older... these girls were 5-6mths so much different experience than with my day olds and then my 3-4wker's .. that is probably why they can be lifted they have been here since so very young...

I had one nasty drake.. he was one of my day olds.. he did go, felt bad but he was going after people!

 

[Miss Lydia]

You know we have to do whats best for the flock and ourselves . especially if they pose a danger to children or adults. My newest girls were 12 weeks when we got them and hadn't had much human contact, lived in a not so pleasant place, so it will take longer to bring them around, like you said your seeing improvement and so am I so I think they'll be eating out of our hands by summer if not before. I don't pick up my oldest drake unless I really need to not because he's mean but because he is so heavy. he's a hoss.

 

[iluvsedward]

I don't want to post a new thread so.... here,

I am getting a duckling soon, yes, just one, (I am going to mix with my chicks cuz I only have two and they are lonely) but I am afraid if I get it and it turns out to be a drake it will try and mate with my hens and injure them (how is that even possible anyway??)

 

[Miss Lydia]

I don't want to post a new thread so.... here,

I am getting a duckling soon, yes, just one, (I am going to mix with my chicks cuz I only have two and they are lonely) but I am afraid if I get it and it turns out to be a drake it will try and mate with my hens and injure them (how is that even possible anyway??)

The drake will try to mate with your hens and the anatomy of a duck and a chicken is entirely different, chickens mate by touching their bottoms together roos sex organs are internal. Ducks sex organs are external, if he mates with a chicken he will do internal damage to your hen and kill her, she is not made to take a ducks organ internally I hope this isn't too grafic to be posted if so sorry.

 

[iluvsedward]

The drake will try to mate with your hens and the anatomy of a duck and a chicken is entirely different, chickens mate by touching their bottoms together roos sex organs are internal. Ducks sex organs are external, if he mates with a chicken he will do internal damage to your hen and kill her, she is not made to take a ducks organ internally I hope this isn't too grafic to be posted if so sorry.

not at all thanks for the info, but I thought that like, chickens lay huge eggs you would think that a little duck genital wouldn't hurt, has anyone actually had trouble with this though??

 

[iluvsedward]

I did some research and have found that if I have a rooster he will protect my girls... is this so or will the large size of a moscovy (thats what im getting) over power my roo in the pecking order??

 

[satay]

Maybe i was lucky but I had a drake and a bantam cochin originally and that was all. My drake was suppossed to be a girl. They loved each other and he was so protective of chooka. Never once saw him try to mate her but they did snuggle up together at night even after he got some ladies of his own. We lost him about 2 years ago and i think little chooka misses him to this day.

 

[Miss Lydia]

not at all thanks for the info, but I thought that like, chickens lay huge eggs you would think that a little duck genital wouldn't hurt, has anyone actually had trouble with this though??

Yes they have and evidently you haven't seen how a drake is built or you wouldn't even ask. Chicken hens are not made anatomically to mate by insertion, so there lies the problem. Go study the difference between a drake and a chicken hen, not compatible at all. the best thing you could do would be to get ducks for your drake if that is what you ended up with. and keep the hens away from him.