So I noticed the weirdest behaviour in our muscovy ducks today.
We have three hens and one drake. None of them are tame. We caught the drake today and treated him for bumblefoot, afterwards locking him into the coop (the only time our ducks willingly go into the coop is to lay eggs, they sleep in the pen all year round). He is to remain in the dry coop a day or two until his feet are healed up and nice. After doing that, we caught all the hens, one by one, to check if they also had bumblefoot. They didn't, and we let them out into the yard.
They started by walking around normally, seemingly uninjured and unfazed by the rather violent chasing and catching earlier. However, after half an hour or so, we noticed one hen mounting another, just as a drake does while mating. The third hen stood by and did nothing. After watching this for a minute or so, alternating between scratching our heads and joking about how the hens can't even go without drake for half an hour without taking matters into their own hands, we went out and scared the mounting hen off. It seemed as if she risked injuring the bottom hen, especially since she had started to rather nastily bite her at the base of the neck.
After it was over, everything went back to normal, and they seemed to be friends again.
What was this all about? A post-stress reaction? Settling a new pecking-order, now that the drake wasn't around? We bought them all with the drake, and he hasn't left their side for more than a few minutes before (you know how muscovy ducks always band together). Call me dull, but I doubt they were just sexually aroused.
And is it something I should worry about? We will probably keep an extra careful eye on them until we let the drake out, the day after tomorrow or so.
We have three hens and one drake. None of them are tame. We caught the drake today and treated him for bumblefoot, afterwards locking him into the coop (the only time our ducks willingly go into the coop is to lay eggs, they sleep in the pen all year round). He is to remain in the dry coop a day or two until his feet are healed up and nice. After doing that, we caught all the hens, one by one, to check if they also had bumblefoot. They didn't, and we let them out into the yard.
They started by walking around normally, seemingly uninjured and unfazed by the rather violent chasing and catching earlier. However, after half an hour or so, we noticed one hen mounting another, just as a drake does while mating. The third hen stood by and did nothing. After watching this for a minute or so, alternating between scratching our heads and joking about how the hens can't even go without drake for half an hour without taking matters into their own hands, we went out and scared the mounting hen off. It seemed as if she risked injuring the bottom hen, especially since she had started to rather nastily bite her at the base of the neck.
After it was over, everything went back to normal, and they seemed to be friends again.
What was this all about? A post-stress reaction? Settling a new pecking-order, now that the drake wasn't around? We bought them all with the drake, and he hasn't left their side for more than a few minutes before (you know how muscovy ducks always band together). Call me dull, but I doubt they were just sexually aroused.
And is it something I should worry about? We will probably keep an extra careful eye on them until we let the drake out, the day after tomorrow or so.
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