Muscovys and Cayugas

[TammyWillard]

Although I have had chickens for several years, I am new to ducks. I bought a pair of Cayugas simply because I Loved their pretty colors. After some research I settled on Muscovys for bug control and non greasy meat. After raising up 15 I had to pick the ones to keep for breeders. I chose 4 females and 2 males. I only wanted to keep one male but it is so hard to choose between these two. Now the males are fighting, even the male Cayuga is fighting with them. Last night I saw the male Cayuga on top of a female Muscovy like he was trying to breed her. The female Cayuga was pecking the Muscovy’s head while this was happening so they were ganging up on her. I broke it up and continued with my chores. Shortly after that they were at it again except in the water. It looked like he was holding her head under water. That was it, I took the Cayugas out of their pen, they slept outside the gate last night. These 2 Cayugas have been a bonded pair since they were ducklings and I think she just started laying eggs ( I found my first 3 in the duck yard last night).
I guess my question is why is my male Cayuga being so mean now? They were all raised together as ducklings even though the 2 Cayugas naturally gravitated toward each other. Why is he messing with the muscovys?

 

[FathertoFeathers]

I had a similar thing with my Pekin drake and Muscovy drake. Both were very sweet with each other at first but then they got brutal. The muscovy drake would constantly pin down the females and just stand on them. He wasn't breeding them just standing on them. This happened constantly. I think that its because of two things. 1. They both want to breed as many females as possible so when there's a challenge they get very mean. 2. Muscovy and mallard derived species don't speak the same language. I don't think that they can understand each other very well so the Muscovy drake doesn't understand when the Cayuga is trying to tell him that these are his lady's not his. Im not positive about the language thing its just a guess of mine.

 

[Klutch]

When spring is in the air, the boys hormone levels go on the rise.

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

Muscovy are more similar to geese than they are to mallard based breeds. The mallard based breeds will breed more often and it's more vigorous. Muscovy tend to be slow and it takes a while. You may need to separate your breeds. Multiple muscovy drakes will fight. They generally work it out eventually. It's been years since I had the regular type of duck so I'm not sure how much they fight.

You still don't have enough females to males, so either pen up some drakes, or get more hens otherwise your hens will get over bred.

 

[sourland]

What you are seeing is normal duck behavior as they begin the breeding season. Drakes are extremely sex driven and will fight other drakes and try to breed any/all available hens. It's not 'mean' it's all about assuring that their DNA gets to carry on.