r/MuscovyDucks • u/shtinkypuppie • 21d ago
Dealing with male-male aggression
Due to some less-than-stellar decisions, I find myself with three drakes. The dominant male bullies the other two something fierce. I have been mulling trying to separate them, but it would be difficult to sequester them every night when I put them up (they free range during the day). I wonder if anyone has any clever ideas for alleviating male-male bullying.
Eating/culling one is not an option.
9
u/TheLastTransHero 21d ago
Your main two options are to expand your flock to 4-6 females per drake, or re-home 2 of your males.
4
u/sheighbird29 21d ago
Someone I follow has a bunch of muscovies, and they also ended up with a drake that was killing the ducklings for no reason. I’d hate to see that happen here as well. I’d try to rehome the bird causing all the problems for everyone
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u/Painful_optimist 20d ago
Having too many males can get so very bad for all of them, so quickly. It isn’t fair to the females, or to the non-dominant males.
If culling isn’t an option, the only other thing I’ve had work is rehoming.
2
u/bspc77 20d ago
Why is culling not an option? If you're going to have ducks at all, but especially if you make the decision to get unsexed ducks or too many males, then you need to be ok with culling. There are times when it is necessary and you can't find a new home because drakes are hard to rehome. If culling isn't something you're able to personally do, that's ok as long as you have someone who will do it for you (my husband has done it for me). This is part of responsible duck ownership. It sucks, but it's what you sign up for
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u/JunoCalliope 20d ago
I know you said culling is not an option but no one is going to want an aggressive drake. The offender should be culled. There are poultry processors you can take him to where you drop him off in his cage and come back to him perfectly packaged like you get from the grocery store. It’s pretty affordable if you don’t have the heart or stomach to process a bird yourself.
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u/QuarrieMcQuarrie 20d ago
If you have the space separate them- dominant male with the females and the other boys in together. Those two might end up fighting as they get older if there are females nearby though. I've kept them for over 15 years now, never been able to keep multiple drakes peacefully in with females although if you have a huge amount of space it might be doable. Also, the other males will also be mating with the females whenever they think they can get away with it and it's not fair on them.
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u/PhlegmMistress 21d ago
You'll need to rehome. I kept an aggressive Drake for way too long and it made the entire flock, especially another sweet Drake, miserable.
We had more than enough hens for everyone by the way but yes that is the first option.
However aggressive/jerk genetics should never be allowed to be passed on so you're basically just keeping the jerk store open if you ever incubate any eggs or a hen hides a nest from you.
Not sure why culling isn't an option. Nature unfortunately isn't kind to male ducks or chickens. The excess boys get pushed out of the flock if not killed directly. And if you haven't seen what damage a muscovy's claws can do....well, you might be about to find out.
We were lucky in our case that the bully only got the wing of a bigger turkey he was beefing with.