Bully Muscovy ducklings

[5ducks]

I have four 6 week old Muscovy ducklings that have recently moved outside. They get along well with each other and the older ducks during the day. The first week or so they did good getting locked up at night, but one morning one had some blood on its wing. We thought maybe it had hurt itself on the door or something, the next night they were all fine. The next couple of days I introduce my nicer drake and let him sleep in their duck house(his mate wouldn’t stop screaming for him every night since I separated them). Observed them off and on all day and for an hour after they were put away the first night to make sure he would be nice to them. The first night went good, the next night 2-3 ducklings had gotten bloody wings again. So I separated the drake and other adult duck in case they were the bullies. The next morning I go to let them out and 3 of the ducklings were bloodier than ever The 4th one only had blood on its mouth so I separated that one from the all the other ducks for the night and the next morning the 3 ducklings were still bloody and 2 had blood in their mouths I now have three separate duck houses to try to prevent the bullying, but it’s looking like they are going to keep doing it. They have a large duck house so space shouldn’t be a problem, I have read Muscovies like to roost and we were planning on putting something for them to perch on in the house when they were older, could adding it in now help with the bullying? A couple of nights they ran out of food before morning. Are they maybe bored in the house? I have raised over a dozen ducklings now but never Muscovy and this is the worst bullying I’ve ever seen

 

[Miss Lydia]

Are you seeing the feather shafts? For some reason feather shafts are prime target then since they are full of blood the duckling starts chewing on them they bleed a lot. Why he is doing this is hard to say you could try blue kote it works to keep chickens from pecking at wounds but not sure if it will deter a duck. They don’t need food and water inside over night now. Do you have a light on in their coop if so remove it so they are asleep when inside. if you have a dog crate you could put the bully in it over night in the coop that way he is separated but still with the flock. Many of us use them for bullies or hospital recovery. My Muscovy love to roost I use 2x4s for all my birds for their roosts

 

[5ducks]

Are you seeing the feather shafts? For some reason feather shafts are prime target then since they are full of blood the duckling starts chewing on them they bleed a lot. Why he is doing this is hard to say you could try blue kote it works to keep chickens from pecking at wounds but not sure if it will deter a duck. They don’t need food and water inside over night now. Do you have a light on in their coop if so remove it so they are asleep when inside. if you have a dog crate you could put the bully in it over night in the coop that way he is separated but still with the flock. Many of us use them for bullies or hospital recovery. My Muscovy love to roost I use 2x4s for all my birds for their roosts

Yeah I can see the shafts, it looks like they are trying to pull them out, I will order some of the blue kote and see if it helps. I can start leaving the food and water out at night, Tiny is gonna be upset about no more midnight swims lol. There’s no light in the coop, but I’ll try the dog crate in there and get my husband to build some roosts for them. Thank you

 

[Miss Lydia]

When using blue kote get the one with the dauber you have more control on where it goes. This stuff works great for disguising wounds but also makes everything it touches purple. So you might want to wear gloves and old clothes. I had spray first and ended up with purple hands towel and wall with the dauber it’s more precise.

 

[5ducks]

When using blue kote get the one with the dauber you have more control on where it goes. This stuff works great for disguising wounds but also makes everything it touches purple. So you might want to wear gloves and old clothes. I had spray first and ended up with purple hands towel and wall with the dauber it’s more precise.

Ok, thank you

 

[ruthhope]

Hi 5ducks, I am one of those using dog crates in my coop because of bullying. However, I have my pekins in hte crates to protect them from bullying by the muscovies. They all get on during the day but somethign gets into the muscovies int eh coop and they peck at hte pekins and they exclude the pekins from food and water.

You might consider keeping your 6 week old ducklings in dog crates to protect them rather than crating the bully. At that age/size you can likely sleep 3 ducklings in a medium dog crate. I have two mediums side by side in my 4 foot wide coop. I cannot get large dog crates in my coop but if you have room, two large crates would be better as they will last longer before the ducks out grow them.

I have a repurposed wall cabinet, without doors, in the coop that was intended for two or three ducks to sleep inside in the winter. One of my two muscovy prefers to sleep on top of it -- he always jumps straight up there when he goes into the coop. He has his food bowl up there but has to get down to get to the water tubs. The other muscovy never gets up there. He has slept inside the cabinet but is currently sleeping right in front of the dog crates to be close to the pekins. When I had a female muscovy -- she was rehomed to my son's flock in January -- she also slept high up. In the winter I had pine straw bales in the coop for warm bedding. One bale sat on top of the cabinet and the female slept up on the bale on top of the cabinet.

So yes, some muscovy like to sleep off the floor. The female no longer has the option to sleep higher in my son's coop, so she satisfies her urge to climb, by sitting on the arm of a garden chair during the day.

 

[5ducks]

Hi 5ducks, I am one of those using dog crates in my coop because of bullying. However, I have my pekins in hte crates to protect them from bullying by the muscovies. They all get on during the day but somethign gets into the muscovies int eh coop and they peck at hte pekins and they exclude the pekins from food and water.

You might consider keeping your 6 week old ducklings in dog crates to protect them rather than crating the bully. At that age/size you can likely sleep 3 ducklings in a medium dog crate. I have two mediums side by side in my 4 foot wide coop. I cannot get large dog crates in my coop but if you have room, two large crates would be better as they will last longer before the ducks out grow them.

I have a repurposed wall cabinet, without doors, in the coop that was intended for two or three ducks to sleep inside in the winter. One of my two muscovy prefers to sleep on top of it -- he always jumps straight up there when he goes into the coop. He has his food bowl up there but has to get down to get to the water tubs. The other muscovy never gets up there. He has slept inside the cabinet but is currently sleeping right in front of the dog crates to be close to the pekins. When I had a female muscovy -- she was rehomed to my son's flock in January -- she also slept high up. In the winter I had pine straw bales in the coop for warm bedding. One bale sat on top of the cabinet and the female slept up on the bale on top of the cabinet.

So yes, some muscovy like to sleep off the floor. The female no longer has the option to sleep higher in my son's coop, so she satisfies her urge to climb, by sitting on the arm of a garden chair during the day.

Thank you, I ended up putting the two most bullied in the crate in their house and the other two outside the crate in their house and they have been fine the past couple of mornings