Seperating breeds? Not sure what to do :/

[Goose and Fig]

So- I have a big flock of Welsh Harlequins that I love very much. I also have a trio of Muscovies. They're such cool birds. I keep all of my ducks in a 1/3 acre pen in the woods during the day with pools, and they get locked up in little houses at night. I am not sure what to do for the coming breeding season- don't want to have to sell the scovies to avoid mule ducks.

Any ideas that won't cut too much into the size of thier pen? Whatever I do has to be on the cheap. Thanks!

 

[GrannyCarol]

Chances are that they will stay with their own species if they have other ducks of their own to hang out with.

I do find breeding season a bit of a pain, as I have more than one breed and do have things I want to accomplish. I have to separate ducks into pens for 3 - 4 weeks before I gather eggs to sell or to incubate to be sure of purebreds. They are constricted more than usual, but part of their "job" for me is to put up with such things for a while each spring. I try to be sure they have room, greens, bathing water, etc. so they aren't too sad.

 

[TennesseeTruly]

My Scovy's free range and my other ducks are penned. That's how we solved it. I'm heavily wooded too. At night I have separate runs and coops for them. They always come back to their run/coop at night. I have approximately 60 Scovy's (21 are 3 1/2 week old babies) and they travel my 35 acres daily. Every evening, they come back, females flying, males waddling to their coop.

I wanted to add this. The reason that I decided to let the Scovy's free range is because they take care of mice, lizards, snakes, things like that. They'll eat mosquito larvae in small pools of water and they'll eat anything that moves! LOL It was an easy decision.

Laurie

 

[iajewel]

Your Muscovy hens will lay Muscovy babies, however a breeding aggressive Muscovy male can breed allot of your Harlequin. I would build a separate pen for the drake. Then.. after the hens are bred they can go back with the flock, the drake however can stay penned up until fall when you run them all together again.
I have a "stable" for my drakes. 20x20 pens with shelter that way I know who was bred to whom and can keep pedigrees. The hens stay fertile for 3 weeks, by then they are normally setting and don't need to return.

 

[Goose and Fig]

Maybe I will try taking the scovie drake out when they all start laying. My older harlequin drake spends all day chasing one of the scovie hens. All day. I just got the one hen to hopefully use as a broody, then the lavender pair kind of fell into my lap. I'd hate to have to let them go. Thanks guys