Young Moscovies pulling each others pin feathers

[rollkeeg877]

I have a large group of young moscovies they are at the stage where they are growing in their primaries. Over the past couple weeks I’ve noticed that some have been pulling the pin feathers out of others and now it’s gotten to the point where a quarter of the flock is tormenting each other pulling each others pin feathers out. I’m honestly at a loss with this as at night they are put into a large dog run to keep them safe then they are let out early in the morning. Obviously this started in the dog pen either out of boredom or they felt they were crowded which they honestly aren’t and they only sleep in there.

So I’m to the point where I’m going to not be putting them in the pen at night and just leave them out as they don’t do it as much when they are out side of the pen. Only issue is I do have coyotes around and they have taken ducks in the past last year in the fall. These ducks are meant for the freezer.

The other thing is I’m here in communist Canada and we aren’t allowed to buy blue kote anymore which would fix this as years ago I had this happen on a smaller scale and I just sprayed their wings with blue kote and it stopped.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

 

[OneEggToRuleThemAll]

My 7-week-old Muscovy ducklings are doing the same thing right now. It's effing BRUTAL. I have 18 of them in total: 7 wild type that I hatched, and 11 French Whites that I bought from a hatchery. They are always bloody. ALL of them eat each other's feathers--it's been going on for a few weeks now. I assumed they were overcrowded and that it's my fault that they are doing this, but after reading your post, maybe it is more common with Muscovy than with Mallard-derived ducks. This is my first time with Muscovy and I've never had this happen with my other ducks. I'm only planning on keeping 5 females and one drake out of this batch--the rest are for the freezer. I originally wanted the 5 females for broodies so I can hatch more meat birds, but I'm seriously reconsidering due to this feather-eating tendency. It's tough on me and the kids to watch. I was going to raise them in tractors on pasture, but maybe they need to free-range in order to be healthy enough to not eat each other's feathers. Ugh. I just hope they grow out of this. Good luck!

 

[rollkeeg877]

My 7-week-old Muscovy ducklings are doing the same thing right now. It's effing BRUTAL. I have 18 of them in total: 7 wild type that I hatched, and 11 French Whites that I bought from a hatchery. They are always bloody. ALL of them eat each other's feathers--it's been going on for a few weeks now. I assumed they were overcrowded and that it's my fault that they are doing this, but after reading your post, maybe it is more common with Muscovy than with Mallard-derived ducks. This is my first time with Muscovy and I've never had this happen with my other ducks. I'm only planning on keeping 5 females and one drake out of this batch--the rest are for the freezer. I originally wanted the 5 females for broodies so I can hatch more meat birds, but I'm seriously reconsidering due to this feather-eating tendency. It's tough on me and the kids to watch. I was going to raise them in tractors on pasture, but maybe they need to free-range in order to be healthy enough to not eat each other's feathers. Ugh. I just hope they grow out of this. Good luck!

I have noticed it slowed down once I started adding yogurt and beer to their feed. I’ve been raising moscovies for over ten years and have never had this issue to this extent so I’m trying everything to get them to stop. I decided trying to up the protein as much as possible to see if it would stop which it seems to be working. I normally give yogurt and beer the last few weeks before slaughter to fatten them up but I’ve had to start sooner. Once they have stopped completely I’ll hold back until the last few weeks before due date.

 

[OneEggToRuleThemAll]

I have noticed it slowed down once I started adding yogurt and beer to their feed. I’ve been raising moscovies for over ten years and have never had this issue to this extent so I’m trying everything to get them to stop. I decided trying to up the protein as much as possible to see if it would stop which it seems to be working. I normally give yogurt and beer the last few weeks before slaughter to fatten them up but I’ve had to start sooner. Once they have stopped completely I’ll hold back until the last few weeks before due date.

How much yogurt and beer do you give them? And why do you give them beer?

 

[rollkeeg877]

How much yogurt and beer do you give them? And why do you give them beer?

I use beer as a fermentation additive so I mix a 5 gallon bucket of wheat with 1 bottle of Budlight cause it’s cheap and water then let it sit in the sun for 3 to four days. Then I drain the diluted beer ferment water into the garden and mix the fermented grain into duck grower along with a tub of yogurt. I also add water to that so it’s more like a slop. The yogurt adds a lot more protein and calcium while also fattening them up.

It’s a similar process to what the French do with Breese chickens but this is my own method for finishing moscovies. I normally do this a month before butcher day but since I’ve been having issues with them ripping each others pin feathers out and eating them I figured it might help to start the process early this year.

 

[OneEggToRuleThemAll]

Hey there OP, how are your muscovies doing? Mine are still pulling feathers. It's mainly two large beautiful females doing it now...they have perfect, intact wings and all the rest of the muscovies have chopped up wings and are always bleeding. Yesterday, during a supervised bathe/swim for my younger runner ducklings, one of the muscovy females ran over to the group of bathing runners and tried to pull a wing feather from one of my runner ducklings! My runner couldn't get away, the muscovy had such a tight bite on the wing--it was awful! My runner cry-quacked for almost 10 minutes afterwards! This is making me regret hatching muscovies but my original intention was to keep a few muscovy hens to hatch and brood my runner ducklings, so I'm going to keep going for now and see if they live up to the claim that they are wonderful mothers. I honestly can't wait til butcher time, though...Those two beautiful, feather-pulling females are going in the freezer (along with the drakes). I'm so sick of listening to muscovies crying out in pain every 20 minutes or so as they get their feathers pulled out and eaten.

 

[rollkeeg877]

Hey there OP, how are your muscovies doing? Mine are still pulling feathers. It's mainly two large beautiful females doing it now...they have perfect, intact wings and all the rest of the muscovies have chopped up wings and are always bleeding. Yesterday, during a supervised bathe/swim for my younger runner ducklings, one of the muscovy females ran over to the group of bathing runners and tried to pull a wing feather from one of my runner ducklings! My runner couldn't get away, the muscovy had such a tight bite on the wing--it was awful! My runner cry-quacked for almost 10 minutes afterwards! This is making me regret hatching muscovies but my original intention was to keep a few muscovy hens to hatch and brood my runner ducklings, so I'm going to keep going for now and see if they live up to the claim that they are wonderful mothers. I honestly can't wait til butcher time, though...Those two beautiful, feather-pulling females are going in the freezer (along with the drakes). I'm so sick of listening to muscovies crying out in pain every 20 minutes or so as they get their feathers pulled out and eaten.

Hey there! I’m still having some issues mostly with the pure white moscovies. My plan is to breed out white as I find they were the main source of how it got started. The majority of my flock has grown out their primaries now it’s just a handful who keep plucking each other. I find making sure they have a lot of food at night seems to lessen the plucking.

Don't give up on moscovies yet as I’ve been raising them for at least 10 years now and this is the first time for me it’s been this contagious amongst the group. I would just make sure whoever you keep for mothers next year is not one of the females that’s plucking the others.

 

[OneEggToRuleThemAll]

The ones pulling feathers here are the white ones, too! All my wild-type, I hatched myself. But I ordered the French White muscovies from a hatchery, and they are the ones who started plucking feathers. The wild-type did pull feathers for a bit, but it's been mostly the white ones and it's just the white ones doing it now, too. Interesting! We will eat the white ones and keep the wild-type. You are giving me hope that this may stop soon and hopefully not happen again in the future!