Muscovey Duck raised with a chick

[vanlash]

This is only my 3rd duck to raise (the other two were years ago). I have some questions if anyone can chip in with advice.

I have a 5 month old Muscovy duck (female) who I raised with a chick because I ordered two ducks and one didn't make it in the shipping. So I got a chick to be her friend. About 2 months later I got an additional 9 chicks. I kept them separated but she chewed through the box where the week old chicks were and one got out and she preened it to death. I ended up moving her and chick sister (golden laced wyandotte) out to the chicken run. It's really big because we live on an acre.

At first, she was being bullied and chased off by the older two hens. So I guess she learned pecking order and she started applying it to the younger chicks (except for her sister chick) when I moved them out to the chicken run. She is so bad, she pulls out their feathers on their back if they are near her or trying to eat her food. 2 chicks are bare just like what happens when the males are mating with them.

She and her sister chick are always together. It's funny, I'm not sure if they think they are ducks or chickens. They sleep together, eat together and the chick hangs out on the edge of her pool when she is in it.

So problems:

1. How can I keep her from picking on the other younger chicks?

2. I bought a big kid pool (about 12" high and 5 feet across). But then she got so big and couldn't dip her body below the water like my mallard ducks used to do (they were much smaller). So I bought a large stock tank (3 feet tall) and setup a ramp for her. I removed the kid pool so she would go into the stock tank. But she will not go into the stock tank by herself at all. I feed her spinach in it and if I put her on the ramp and drop the spinach in the water she will reluctantly jump in. As soon as the spinach is gone, she jumps back out. She can get out just fine. But she is not going in unless I put her in there. At first I filled it to the top, but then I thought well maybe she is nervous now because she can't feel the bottom. So I tilted on one end and filled with water so one end is deeper, the shallow end she can stand in (I figured more like a body of water where she could go into the deep side gradually). She's a duck, she should want to be in the water more and was in more often the small kid pool. Any ideas on what to do to acclimate her to the stock tank?

Thanks!

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

When you raise different species together they become confused and they end up thinking they are all the same. Muscovy tug, and poke each other all the time, so you duck is doing what comes naturally to it. All you can do is separate them until the young ones are older.

Muscovy in general don't swim like other ducks. They come from a place, south American, where predators lurk in the water.

Mine prefer rubber pans for baths. I also have a smaller stock tank, I believe it's 30 gallons, and I've used kiddie pools. Generally muscovy take baths daily, and aren't into swimming much.

 

[luv geese]

Can you put all your males together? In one pen?
I have mallards and Cayuga s and a welsh, soon to
Have a Pekin drake also. Otherwise the welsh and mallard really bully the females. The Cayuga doesn’t bother them. I have a male and female Toulouse-the male goose is the boss of everybody but doesn’t stop the bullying.
Thanks so much!

 

[vanlash]

When you raise different species together they become confused and they end up thinking they are all the same. Muscovy tug, and poke each other all the time, so you duck is doing what comes naturally to it. All you can do is separate them until the young ones are older.

Muscovy in general don't swim like other ducks. They come from a place, south American, where predators lurk in the water.

Mine prefer rubber pans for baths. I also have a smaller stock tank, I believe it's 30 gallons, and I've used kiddie pools. Generally muscovy take baths daily, and aren't into swimming much.

Thank you for that info! Now that I know she is not into swimming, I feel better. My mallard's loved swimming, so I was going by that. She does like to climb into the rubber pan I have out for drinking water , I guess that works, and I can change the water more often. And, I'll put the kiddie pool back out for her.

Thanks!!!