Muscovy keepers share your pics!

[Miss Lydia]

Hi allI'm a relative newbie to the world of raising Muscovies and I'm having my first big hiccup!I need some advice:-/I have three girls and one drake that are all siblings.I raised them from two weeks old and they're pets. Quite friendly. I hand fed them grubs and worms when they were little so they are all quite large too.They will be six months old in a few weeks and we still haven't had any eggs or mating so i decided it might be worth a try getting a se ond drake as mine free range around the front yard all day and there are a few girls.He came from a pen of 8 drakes so is quite battered and much smaller tthan mine, though he is about 1 year old.The moment I opened the box he was in, my drake attacked him. The girls even got in on it too. It was horrible! I pulled my drake off the new boy and locked him in his pen. He went crazy!I gave him some time to cool off then let him out again and he ran around the yard mating all of the girls and attacking the new drake again.My thinking is that he isn't attempting to defend himself as he is used to this and realises he is smaller and weaker than my boy. I have been leaving him in the pen during the day with tonnes of food and putting him in the shed at night on his own so he can grow stronger and his wings can repair themselves. Is this the right thing to do?Also, my drake is now following me around the yard and quite aggressively biting me, which he started doing about a week prior to the new drake arriving, around the same time he started trying to mate one of the girls. He's quite big and akward (his wings never formed correctly. I'm told this is called angel wings?) and his bites are leaving big bruises on me:-( It really hurts and I adore this fellow but I'm about ready to kick him up the backside!!What can i do to stop this agression towards me and how can i manage the two drakes?ANY help at all here would be greatly appreciated

You really need to get your new drake at least 2-3 girls of his own, when Scovy's are raised together they form a tight bond and your new guy isn't ever going to be welcomed. I had a lone drakelet hatch here and since his mama refused him I brought him inside to care for, boy did he turn into a handful when he got sexually mature at around 4 months of age, but I worked with him and now at almost 3ys he is an awesome drake, dominant drake too. but when he would come at me I would get him down and lay him flat out just like a dominant drake would do to him. On his belly one hand on his upper body the other lower and hold him till he quit fighting then i let him up he'd either waddle off humiliated or come back for more but the main thing i found is not to give up keep it up till he realizes you are top drake not him. Sometimes i would even go after him make him get out of my way or act like i was going to pick him up just to make him move and realize i call the shots. also carry a broom with you and when he comes at you sweep him away, I never hit my drake but I could sweep him pretty far. lol I did go and get this drake 3 girls of his own and they are very tight family. Of course he gets to mate with any of the others too since he's top drake and my other 3 drakes know that if they don't want to get their butts kicked they keep a distance between themselves and him. still there are fights but usually they don't last long. Get your new drake some girls and give them time to bond and him time to get healthy then try again to let them out together, as long as there is plenty of room to stay out of each others way they will soon learn to live together.

 

[MuscovyLover]

Thanks guys
This is all really good advice and reireiterates what I suspected.
I'm definitely keen to sort my boy out. I wil give this a try next time he tries to intimidate me. It's absolutely a battle of the wills between us. He stares me down the whole time he's doing it but now I have a solution i won't let him ruin the ordinary calm of my front yard. Hopefully he goes back to the clumsy lover he was lol.
As for the laying/breeding, I am in Australia. We got our ducklings at the end of our winter(September). They grew through spring and the sweltering summer and we're just at the start of autumn now.
There aren't many people here to get advice from in my area:-(
Perhaps I was too eager to have ducklings and purchased the new drake too soon:-/
He has no desire to defend himself at this stage. I brought him from a disgusting farm and refuse to return him. He has red raw wings and is quite frightened alot of the time. All of the birds there were in poor condition.
We only have one enclosure in the front yard where the ducks live and one out the back where our chooks live.
There isn't room for more girls is there?
At the moment, I'm letting the new drake have the front yard for the morning on his own to find bugs and worms etc to get stronger then he goes in the duck pen for the afternoon while they have the yard. Then at night I'm putting the new drake with our chooks, who aren't delighted, but tolerate him.
How long will it take him to get his feathers back?
Oh dear, I have really put me and my little brood in a bad position:-(

 

[Miss Lydia]

Thanks guys
This is all really good advice and reireiterates what I suspected.
I'm definitely keen to sort my boy out. I wil give this a try next time he tries to intimidate me. It's absolutely a battle of the wills between us. He stares me down the whole time he's doing it but now I have a solution i won't let him ruin the ordinary calm of my front yard. Hopefully he goes back to the clumsy lover he was lol.
As for the laying/breeding, I am in Australia. We got our ducklings at the end of our winter(September). They grew through spring and the sweltering summer and we're just at the start of autumn now.
There aren't many people here to get advice from in my area:-(
Perhaps I was too eager to have ducklings and purchased the new drake too soon:-/
He has no desire to defend himself at this stage. I brought him from a disgusting farm and refuse to return him. He has red raw wings and is quite frightened alot of the time. All of the birds there were in poor condition.
We only have one enclosure in the front yard where the ducks live and one out the back where our chooks live.
There isn't room for more girls is there?
At the moment, I'm letting the new drake have the front yard for the morning on his own to find bugs and worms etc to get stronger then he goes in the duck pen for the afternoon while they have the yard. Then at night I'm putting the new drake with our chooks, who aren't delighted, but tolerate him.
How long will it take him to get his feathers back?
Oh dear, I have really put me and my little brood in a bad position:-(

Since your going into fall you should start to see everyone begin to molt they will drop alot of their old feathers and grow all new ones and your new drake too. Is there anyway you can divide off your front yard and make 2 areas? that way one group can have one side the other the other side. Keeping your drake with your chooks puts them in danger because if he takes a mind to want to mate he may try for one of your hens which won't go well since they are not made to breed completely different set up between chickens and ducks. Drakes have been known to kill hens by mating with them, I know your in a bind right now but i think your best solution is going to be making 2 separate areas and getting your new drake a couple of girls I surely understand not wanting to take him back where he came from you essentially have rescued him and I commend you for that. If you can find some used building material you could make a small house for him and a couple of girls then after everyone has gotten use to each other during the day try letting everyone be together since your mating season should be drawing to a close ours is just getting heated up. Or do they mate year round there?

 

[Buck Oakes]

I have noticed Muscovy's are keep a rather strict pecking order.  Mine are all between 7-11 months old and have just now taken interest in mating. I purchased all of mine last fall. I got them from three different people.  I have noticed t hat they still like to keep there little flocks within the flock. The girls mostly. The boys sort of intermingle.  Last fall when i introduced my second purchase of three females to the existing flock of six. They were not very nice at all to the new girls.  And when i got the next four, it was the same thing.  But they were larger then the rest so they did not tolerate it.  Sounds like your big guy is a hand full !   I have never  had one that was aggressive . So not to sure what to say about that. I know i sure would not let him bite me more then once lol...
but that is just me... 

I know this is kinda late but I don't have this problem, mine are 8 months fixin to be nine and already had babies which I'm raising now I got then from country hatchery

 

[barredmuscovy]

wow now that's a picture. My blue hen fly back to her pen

 

[barredmuscovy]

 

[barredmuscovy]

And her mother

 

[Buck Oakes]

Oh my gosh there beautiful!!!!!!!!!

 

[MuscovyLover]

Thanks Miss Lydia
I didn't know that about drakes mating with chooks! We have one rescue chook with our muscovies and they all just do thier own thing. The chook actually joined in on the mob styled attack on the new drake.
I will have to relocate her if there is a risk Fat Tone (my boy) is going to try mating her too?
My partner is a builder and we built our duck pen together so I'm afraid I might have to ask him to make another, perhaps smaller for the new drake?
I'll add a pic of our current pen.
Okay, so I have a line of thinking here for everyone to be happy and I want to know if I'm way off...
My partner really will not be happy if I tell him we should get another two females. Perhaps I could persuade him one more will fit if we build a second pen and there is one girl taken from our current flock and put with the new drake as well?

 

[The Howards]

wow now that's a picture. My blue hen fly back to her pen

Lovely!