Female Muscovy change in behavior

[Soon2BChixMom]

@oldhenlikesdogs whew. At least my memory didn't fail me this time.
I have seen my ducks attack my chickens - so definitely don't want to be on the receiving end of that.

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

@oldhenlikesdogs whew. At least my memory didn't fail me this time.
I have seen my ducks attack my chickens - so definitely don't want to be on the receiving end of that.

Hopefully you're up for it next year. Maybe yours will all be nice, and behave themselves.

 

[Soon2BChixMom]

Hopefully you're up for it next year. Maybe yours will all be nice, and behave themselves.

I'm not sure about that. I will let you know.

 

[franrose]

I don't mind the sitting on a nest with no eggs. What I don't know how to deal with is when my female muscovy gets hormonal like this and attacks my other female duck. (She is a Saxony) But its hard to keep them apart during this period because the Saxony goes crazy when the Muscovy is separated from her. Any suggestions??

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

Broody muscovy are grumpy aggressive birds. I'd probably try to break your muscovy broodiness by blocking her chosen nest site and hopefully she will break.

 

[Miss Lydia]

I had to laugh, breaking a broody Muscovy is not something that has gone over well here.
When my grumpy hormonal Muscovy girls start picking on each other the one that's doing the pecking gets to spend however many nights it takes by herself, usually only 1-2 nights. But when one is broody and sitting on an empty nest or eggs I take the eggs and usually just let her work it out as long as she is nice about it. I've tried many ways to break since 2004 [thats when I started with this breed] and not many work. I've torn up the nest, locked them out, and it doesn't seem to matter.
You might just let them be together but with fencing in between until your Muscovy gets over it. Usually mine only seem to get really hateful is at night when they get locked up in their house. The rest of the time they have plenty of room to stay away from the crazy one.

 

[Crazy Maizie]

I had to laugh, breaking a broody Muscovy is not something that has gone over well here.
When my grumpy hormonal Muscovy girls start picking on each other the one that's doing the pecking gets to spend however many nights it takes by herself, usually only 1-2 nights. But when one is broody and sitting on an empty nest or eggs I take the eggs and usually just let her work it out as long as she is nice about it. I've tried many ways to break since 2004 [thats when I started with this breed] and not many work. I've torn up the nest, locked them out, and it doesn't seem to matter.
You might just let them be together but with fencing in between until your Muscovy gets over it. Usually mine only seem to get really hateful is at night when they get locked up in their house. The rest of the time they have plenty of room to stay away from the crazy one.

Have you ever just put a broody muscovy in a small kennel with no bedding just food and water? Mine have decided that the chicken coop is the best place to lay and brood. I can't block them due to the chickens needing to lay. I have been collecting eggs, but I also work, so some days the eggs aren't collected until late afternoon and nests aren't destroyed until then.
I've been segregating my broody girl in the evening so that she can't nest - she will go sit in an empty nest box. She's pretty stubborn. The last broody I broke by putting chicken eggs under her. I can't have more chickens right now and that experiment didn't go over quite as planned.
My only concern with the crate is that she gets super agitated when penned up by herself. She even tries to climb out of a larger dog kennel with a tarp over the top.
I find muscovy ducks to be fairly intelligent and not very forgetful.