Male Muscovy and Cayuga drake?

[Ghibli]

Hi!

I have a lone female muscovy at the moment, her friend disappeared without a trace over a month ago, so I've given up hope on her returning and I should be picking up another female muscovy for her next Thursday.
I have 3 other ducks, a cayuga drake, and two female ducks, a cayuga and an ancona. The drake, Kiki, has always been really mean to my muscovies, he's not gentle with mounting and he chases them off from the group, doesn't let them integrate and spend time with the female ducks. My poor lone girl, Shiro, now that she doesn't have any other muscovies around spends most of her time either sitting on an empty nest or hanging around about 6 feet away from the others because Kiki will chase her off most of the time if she's too close.
The place I'm getting the female muscovy from also has a male for sale, and I was wondering if it would be a good idea to introduce a male muscovy to help protect Shiro and the new girl I'm getting, and maybe allow them to just have their own little group without always wanting to be around the ducks.
I'm worried it could end up causing drama and fights, and I don't have an easy way to separate them if it does, my ducks roam the garden freely during the day and are put into a run with a coop at night.
I wanted to get some opinions from people who have more experience than me. I've never had a male muscovy so I don't know how aggressive they are towards drakes, and I'm really struggling to find relevant information just by looking it up.
All my current ducks are around 5 years old, and the muscovies I'm looking at are approximately 3 months old, if that makes a difference!

Thank you!

 

[sourland]

I'd be reluctant to add a muscovy drake to the flock. In my experience once they become aggravated enough to fight they will fight to the death.

 

[Quatie]

The male muscovy may also not take a while to warm up to the females. Males can be difficult. Some can be really great and get along well. Others can be complete jerks. If I was going to get a male, I would get a young one.

Also, my muscovy got picked on by my ducks when I first introduced them. It took about a month when the muscovy realized they could out maneuver my ducks. The muscovy started leaping over their heads and pouncing them. Happened to my drake as well. Now they all get along fairly well. The only exception is my male muscovy has been picking on my female pekin. There have been thoughts of him gracing the dinner table.

 

[Ghibli]

Thank you for the responses!
Hm, so it does sound like it might be more trouble than it's worth.

The muscovy male would be young, around 3 months old. But that probably is also too young to judge character yet, right?

Would it be better for me to get two female muscovies? Having 3 might at least spread out Kiki's attention more. I want to change the social dynamics, so Kiki isn't as much of a problem, but I'm not sure what would do that, aside from a male.

 

[Quatie]

The males personality really changes when they get to breeding age. But it is sometimes hard to say what they will be like. My drake was social with the woman I got him from. He is one of the most least trusting of all the muscovy I have. He also didn't really start picking on my ducks till he was almost fully mature. Granted each animal is different and you could get one that is sweet. However I will note, it is my female muscovy that pounced my saxony drake.

I can't really say how many female muscovy you should get. You may find issues with the new females and your old female. She would overall likely be happier with more of her own species. But it will take time for muscovies to accept one another.

I integrated done new females into my flock. They got picked on. We decided to add muscovy at the same time and do all the integration at one. The new ducks being picked on, picked on the muscovy, while my older ducks got along with the muscovy. Everyone gets along fairly well now. The point of the story, things don't always go as we expect. Just so you are prepared if everything doesnt go perfectly at first.

 

[Ghibli]

It sounds like it's really up to the individual male, so that makes it more complicated! No "right" choice really, I just have to make an educated guess and hope it works out and everyone can be happy, and if it doesn't then do whatever I can to alleviate that drama.

Female muscovies have really big personalities too, I suppose it's totally possible a girl will turn out to be a bully! Can't really know how it will work out until I try it.

I haven't done introductions with ducks in a long time, but I have a lot of experience dealing with them in other animals, I do fostering and you can get a lot of social drama when you're frequently bringing in strangers to the group. So I definitely understand if it doesn't go as expected or takes some time for things to settle.

I think I'll meet the available male muscovy, see what he's like and make a decision then. Either get him and one of the girls or two girls.

 

[Quatie]

It sounds like it's really up to the individual male, so that makes it more complicated! No "right" choice really, I just have to make an educated guess and hope it works out and everyone can be happy, and if it doesn't then do whatever I can to alleviate that drama.

Female muscovies have really big personalities too, I suppose it's totally possible a girl will turn out to be a bully! Can't really know how it will work out until I try it.

I haven't done introductions with ducks in a long time, but I have a lot of experience dealing with them in other animals, I do fostering and you can get a lot of social drama when you're frequently bringing in strangers to the group. So I definitely understand if it doesn't go as expected or takes some time for things to settle.

I think I'll meet the available male muscovy, see what he's like and make a decision then. Either get him and one of the girls or two girls.

Females can definitely be the dominate ones. I had a Pekin who acted like a grouchy old lady. Our muscovy drake even got out of her way, despite being bigger than her.

I hope it all works out well. Best of luck.

 

[Ghibli]

Funny! That must have been an interesting sight.
I've had some weird dynamics between my ducks. The girls never touch the drake, the only time one has gone for him was a very broody muscovy, aside from that they won't ever attack him. And one of my muscovies, the one who disappeared, came from the same place as my ancona, and the ancona would occasionally bite her feathers and stuff like that, but she would never retaliate, she refused to fight her. Even though she had no problems with fighting the other female duck.

Thank you! I'll try to remember to update with what I decide and how it goes

 

[Ghibli]

Hi! Just a quick update.

The woman selling the muscovies ended up asking me if I would take all three remaining muscovies, so they wouldn't be separated, a boy and two girls, and I went with that.
They're gorgeous, they don't like it if I come too close and they're very against being picked up, but aside from that they've been lovely so far. My older muscovy took a bit to warm up to them, I started out with keeping them separate and then only supervised, but even when she was being rude to them she already seemed so much happier. She still nips them sometimes but she does absolutely fine with them, she talks to them and sleeps near them, she had a swim in the pond and they followed her in yesterday, their first time in it

My cayuga drake I've been more hesitant about letting around them, I set up a makeshift pen for him that he's been staying in, but for the first time today I'm letting him be free in the garden with them and it's going really well so far; they're just two separate groups, the three ducks wandering around doing their own thing, and the four muscovies.

Obviously the big test is going to be once the male muscovy matures, he's still only a baby, but so far it's going really well. I'm very happy my older girl isn't so lonely and sad anymore.

 

[Quatie]

That's great. I hope it all works out for you.