Muscovies are not as verbally expressive as mallard derivative ducks (which is why I love them!) so you have to look at other body cues in order to divine their intentions. Once you understand their “language”, it’s pretty easy to figure out what they’re doing and why they are doing it. I’m going to cover a bit of the common behaviors you might encounter in your flock, and hope you find it as interesting as I did when I was first learning about them.
Temperament
If I had to describe muscovies, I’d say they were “sweet.” Although they are less friendly than pekins, who would sit on your lap and enjoy being pet, muscovies are gentle and love to follow you around the yard or rummage through your pockets for treats. They don’t enjoy being pet or picked up though, and would not, even as ducklings, stay in your lap, so their cuddle factor is lacking. My daughter can hug them when they’re young, and they seem to tolerate it until they mature, at which point they become hands off.
Males are more intimidating than females, mostly because they are much bigger, and the caruncling on their faces make them seem mean, especially since they’re always huffing and hissing, but they mostly mean no harm.
Laying Eggs, Nesting, and Brooding
Muscovies are prolific egg layers, usually laying one egg a day from early spring until almost winter. They prefer to lay in a nest on the ground, and I provide nest boxes for them in their coop. Sometimes they can be a bit picky, and will fight over the best nest. This makes egg collecting easier, since they will all try to lay in the same one. They usually arrange the straw I provide in a duck shaped circle, lovingly grabbing straw and placing them exactly where they want.
If they start brooding, which is wanting to hatch eggs, they will pull down feathers from their chest and belly and line the nest with them. This usually doesn’t happen unless you leave them a nest full of eggs (I collect all the eggs since once they go broody, they stop laying.) If they go broody, they will often only eat and drink water once or twice a day, and can become very defensive and aggressive if you go near the nest.
They are great mothers and brooders, with the ability to hatch up to 3 clutches a year (each clutch can have upwards of 15-20 ducklings!) and muscovies are often used to incubate other eggs that may be more difficult to hatch in an artificial incubator.
To trick my ducks into going broody, I collect all the eggs they lay and then set out a nest of fake eggs (I also use the method of giving them a single fake egg to trigger laying in the Spring). Within a few days, one of my girls will start sitting on it and then I mark all the eggs I want her to hatch and replace the fake eggs with the real ones.
Sounds
Muscovies are often called “mute” ducks, which isn’t very accurate because they do make sounds, just not at the level or frequency that mallard derivatives will. It’s what makes them attractive to me as a backyard poultry keeper, since even if I don’t mind quacking, my neighbors might.
When they are ducklings, they make high pitched peeping noises much like all other ducklings and chicks do. This changes as they hit puberty and the males, much like normal ducks, lose their voices, and can only huff and puff and hiss. They’ll sometimes make a series of quick guttural, hoarse huffs, sounding like they are laughing at a private joke.
Females make soft trills and coos, which sound like what you would imagine fast dripping water or what the sound effects of a stream tumbling over rocks might be. It’s reedy, and the closest other animal that might make this sound is a dove–however, muscovy females do it at a higher note than doves do. Females can also “quack”, but it’s quite unlike quacks that you might be used to hearing at your local pond. They sounds more like someone picked up a dog’s chew toy and gave it a nice, quick squeeze. They will often do this as a warning if they’re sitting on the nest, or if they’re very excited and demanding food. Once in a while, if I’m herding them back to their run, they might squeak at me in indignation at being chased.
Females will also huff, but this is more often done when they’re doing their routine greetings to each other (more on this later.)
Eating and Foraging
Muscovies are wonderful foragers, making them excellent backyard poultry to keep ticks and other nasty bugs away. Unfortunately, they’re not picky about what kind of bugs they eat, and I’ve seen them snatch poor little honeybees and bumblebees out of the air.
When they’re on the hunt for flying insects, they keep their heads low and their necks straight, and quickly charge at their prey. They’ll do this for hours, only sitting down to scan the area for their next snack before they’re on the move again.
They will also rummage and rustle (called “drilling”) with their bills under leaves and in the grass for grubs and worms and slugs (and ticks!) They love it when I’m working in the garden because I’ll throw them any slugs or snails I find. Sometimes if I’m digging, they’ll all crowd around the hole and fight over any worms I happen to upturn. It’s adorable, but does slow down my gardening.
I do feed them leftovers as well as layer feed for the females, but usually only at night so they do their “job” during the day. Sometimes I’ll bring them a treat or two just to enjoy spending time with them and watching them.
Like Ducks To Water
Ducks love water, and I love to let them swim whenever weather allows. Though muscovies are not as obsessed with water as other ducks are, they still like to bathe once a day to clean their feathers. I have a Tupperware pool that I refill every day for them from spring into fall (you have to dump it out at least once a day or else it gets dirty, very quickly) and they’ll line up in the mornings to take a dip. They dunk their heads in, snort out any gunk they’ve collected in their nostrils overnight, and toss the water on their backs while rapidly flapping their wings and ruffling their feathers.
When they feel sufficiently wetted down, they hop out, find a high place in the sun (often my deck or on top of logs), and begin to preen by running their feathers through their beaks to realign them (if you’ve ever seen a feather up close, you’ll see the tiny, tiny hooks called barbules that keep each individual barb connected to the rest). They’ll hold their wings slightly away from their bodies and gently fan themselves dry.
Then they’ll rub their beak across the oil gland at the base of their tail and re-oil their feathers. This is an important process because it’s what keeps them waterproof (and thus, warm and buoyant), and helps reduce the chances of parasites penetrating their feathers.
Dominance and Flock Behavior
Muscovies are flocking birds, and have pecking orders the same as chickens do. They often move like one organism–if one is foraging, all will forage, if one goes to get a drink of water, all of the others will follow. It’s as if they’re afraid of missing out on something important. They are not as violent as chickens are when establishing their pecking order, and in general only includes mounting and yanking on some feathers. The yanking is not bloody, but does look mean–they usually grab a wing feather and twist their heads in order to get the point across. The one being yanked on will squeak and try to get away.
The less dominant one usually runs away, but if the higher up feels like it was gravely insulted, it will chase the other one down until it submits, which usually involves flattening itself to the ground and allowing itself to be mounted.
The single male in our flock is alpha (as is usual), followed by his white female clutchmate, and occasionally if he’s getting a little sassy with me, I’ll reach out for him to give him a hug. Sometimes he runs away, sometimes he flattens himself into a submissive pose as an apology, and I’ll crouch over him and pet him until I feel like he’s learned his lesson. (Maybe he likes it, which is why he “forgets” not to give me an attitude?)
My adorable daughter giving alpha male a “hug” because he wanted to bully her. He’s just a big softy if you don’t let him push you around.
A very interesting thing that they do a few times a day is stand in a circle and bob their heads back and forth while trilling and hissing. While we’re uncertain as to why they do that, I think it could be their version of “roll call” and re-affirming their pecking order, or social contact, especially since they don’t preen each other. They also wag their tails at us and at each other–possibly as a greeting sign, but the male has also been known to do it when he wants to show aggression.
Their flocking behavior also makes it so they want to be around you. Mine watch People TV a lot.
Mating Behavior
Muscovies ducks do not usually form monogamous pairs the way wild mallards and geese do, although they do seem to show preference and their tastes can change from one week to the next. The male usually “necks” the female, tangling his neck with hers in order to bring her lower to the ground. He will also grab the feathers on the back of her neck and push her down so he can mount her.
Sometimes it will be consensual, in which case the female assumes a submissive pose and raises her tail feathers, but often it isn’t and the male will have to force the female to submit. The actual act of mating only takes a few seconds, after which the male will hilariously fall to the side. His corkscrew-like penis will be visibly trailing behind him until he retracts it.
This is very interesting, I have 4 muscovies and they all have their own personalities. I also Have 4 Pekin ducks. They all tend to be around each other without much issue, but when feeding time comes the Pekin male turns agressive and runs the muscovies off (I dont think the muscovy fear the Pekin. I think its more of a situation where they are annoyed of the male Pekin charging at them so they just step aside)
I end up feeding them at seperate times so the Pekin ducks walk off to preen and drink and the muscovy then are fed, then the Pekin ducks have no interest in being agressive.
During winter oddly enough they have no problem sharing a coop. I will see them actually huddled together in the straw. They appear to be comfortable. Even the agressive male Pekin is docile and rather normal during sleep time.
The thing about these ducks is they give you great joy in watching them. I am a bird watcher and take several trips a year to see various birds, but I like having the nice muscovies. Cant help but love them. Both Pekin and Muscovies are great for bird loving people.
Agreed! They really are wonderful birds!
See affection. I currently have 3 Muscovy ducklings ( hatched from incubator) Would have been 4 but I messed up and 1 baby got wet and cold-totally my fault and having had baby hens etc before I should have known better.! Anyway my 3 can’t get enough of me ( I assume they think I am Mama) and as I write are nestled on my shoulder…am sure they will get more “uppity” at some point BUT I have had other Ducklings I reared from eggs that spent their entire lives acting as if I was the Devil incarnate!
A lot of duck (and poultry in general) behavior is genetic—including how friendly they are as adults. Sohatwill be the luck of the draw for you (unless you specifically breed for friendliness.)
I live in Colombia, South America. My children were given two baby ducks in August, they looked identical as babies but now that they are 7months and after a little research, we realized we have a male Muscovy and a male Pekin. The Pekin follows the Muscovy around and they seem to get along just fine (although they both bully the chickens a bit) The Muscovy follows me around huffing and at first I thought he was being aggressive but after some more research I discovered, he just likes me and want to me near me. I can pick him up for a brief moment and he doesn’t mind the cuddling. My question is, is it ok just to keep the two males without a female? We don’t need eggs (the ducks also live with chickens and we use their eggs. Also the ducks have a beautiful large yard with stream to roam and plenty of good food, will they fly away? They only fly down from a bench at this point.
Ducks are completely new to me but they sure are sweet to have along!
Hey there! Glad you are enjoying them, they are very, very sweet animals. So I would highly recommend you get at least 2-3 female ducks per male duck if you’re going to keep them with chickens. Without going into too much graphic detail, ducks have parts chickens don’t, and have been known to kill chicken hens trying to breed them. Pekins cannot fly and male muscovies have a very difficult time doing so as well, so I wouldn’t worry too much. They MAY swim away or wander though, and there are predators who want to eat them, but so long as they’re penned they should be fine. Good luck!!!
What does it mean when they stick their heads straight up and open and close their beaks like catching imaginary flies
It’s not imaginary! Mine does it to catch tiny gnats! I actually wrote about that here.
We live on a pond in central Florida, USA. There are a number of wild Muscovies around most of the time. Currently, a female has made her nest in a corner up against the outside of our house. When she has left the nest, we’ve counted 14 eggs. We’re trying to understand one behavior though between her and the male that keeps coming around. He will “bite” at her feathers, prompting her to let out the “squeaky toy” noise until he stops. She will also, seemingly, bury her face in her feathers or in the nest, almost as if she’s trying to stay away from him. He has taken up residence immediately beside the nest, almost blocking her in. When he’s not bothering her (as we see it), he will sit and let out a sound similar to a dog panting. We don’t want to engage and disrupt the natural-ness of their interaction and existence. But we were wondering…what is happening here?! Any thoughts would be great!
Never mind. Figured it out. Male wanted to mate. Basically had the female cornered because she was on her nest. He finally got impatient, forced her off the nest and out of the corner, mated, and they both went their separate ways. She’s back to being peaceful and on the nest.
I’m so sorry I didn’t see this earlier. Yes, the male will attempt to mate with her. You can gate her off for the time being if you’re really worried (I’ve seen male muscovies kill babies that hatch) until they’re old enough to integrate.
My momma such is running all the females away but not the male ones is this normal
Normal is definitely relative for ducks—is it out of the realm of possibilities for them? No, once the babies reach a certain age, the mother will begin treating them as regular flock members and they will work out their pecking order, which is what I’m assuming is happening. As long as no blood is drawn, it’s fine.
We have 2 Muscovy ducks and 1 pee king (use to have 3 but had predictor issues), we now have 4 baby mallards. The ducks share a space with our chickens, so we are waiting to integrate the babies in with them until they are bigger. However today I took them out to introduce them. My muscovy ducks got super excited (happy I hope/think) and came over to the edge of the pin and were bobbing their heads and making sounds. One also spread out her tail feathers. Is this a good sign or not? In worried when it comes time, they will not accept the babies…
How old are the babies? If they’re old enough to be out unsupervised and have enough space to run away, they’ll figure it out on their own without any human intervention. They likely got “excited” in preparation to assert their flock order (which can look pretty aggressive.) So long as your mallards are adult sized and again, there is enough space to escape during their initial pecking order shuffling, they should be okay.
Hi!
We are new to muscovies. I have two questions. When they are brooding will they abandon the nest if it is not viable? Our has been on her nest for quite some time. Also, last night our male plucked a whole bunch of feathers from our females tail. She let him do it, I did not realize this is what he was doing until this morning and now she is red and looks sore. Is this normal for him to do?
Thank you!
Hi! Yes, they’ll continue to sit even if it isn’t viable—usually until something destroys the nest. You can check if the eggs are still good by candling them for movement. And yes, unfortunately if you only have one male to one female, he’ll pester her for mating essentially constantly. In that case it’s better to gate him off…
If the eggs are not viable, I would just take them all away and throw them out and destroy the nest itself, it should break her broodiness. If not you can take other steps. Be mindful it takes about 35 days for muscovy eggs to hatch, so it could very well be viable.
HI – informative site , thank you.
I have 1 pekin female, 2 female muscovys (5 YO and 1 YO) and a male Muscovy drake (1 YO). The Pekin was my egg producing machine since last Oct (she is a 2019 baby). Now her egg laying habits are Very spotty. The muscoys have been introduced 4 weeks ago. I use/consume the eggs. Question – when will the muscovys start to lay? I live is SW Wisconsin; currently about 55F in April. Greatly appreciate insight. I am new to ducks. They are fun to watch.
Hey there! I love ducks too 🙂 You ducks are likely freaking out at all the new changes which will cause them to go off lay, but the two female muscovies should be laying soon. In the event they are hiding eggs from you or just haven’t gotten that push yet, I would put a single fake egg in one of the nest boxes—if they’re not laying it could trigger them to do so. Otherwise, so long as your feed is proper, and there’s nothing else spooking them, it should be soon.
I cant wait!!! I am excited as a new mom. I will be adding 4 khaki campbell hen babies in a few weeks. Will be double duty Mom for me :). Babies will be separate until they are old enough to be entered into the flock. I am so proud of my current flock. I have finally gotten courageous enough to let them free range during the day and they are such good kids, they return to the hut so I can lock them in at night away from predators.
Hahaha I hope you enjoy this ducky journey! It really is a blast!!!
Whoooooo Hooooo!!!! either Lady or TB are now laying!!! I can tell the difference from Thelma’s larger Pekin egg.
Hi. New question. The drake is quite fond of only one of the hens. Is that normal? I am utilizing the eggs for food – – however, until I see a blood spot, is there any other way to tell if they are ferrite? I think I t would be fun to have at least one hatching. if the drake is only breeding one of the females, will the unfertile eggs rot if I let the hen sit? We have 2 Muscovy hens, a pekin hen and the drake is Muscovy. Sorry for the weird questions.
Thank you!
Deb
Apologies as I didn’t see this until now. He probably has a favorite but he’ll likely mate anything he can catch. Contrary to popular belief, the blood spot is not an indication of fertility (a blood spot is actually what happens if there’s been a small injury or blip in their reproductive tract.) You can tell if the eggs are fertile by a “bullseye” around the white spot in the yolk—that is, a faint white ring around the white spot. You can look it up via google if that is confusing.
I have 2 male Pekins that live in our pond and last June a Muscovy showed up out of no where. We had to research the duck to figure out what it was. Long story short, He never left and we welcomed him with open arms. All 3 got along extremely well until about 3 months ago. The pekins out of nowhere continuously chased him, stopped sharing food and would run him off. I also think they were trying to mount him. He always ran from them or swam away. On Friday he was here in the morning and then vanished. We could not find him anywhere on our property. I was very upset and confused why he left or worried a predator had got him. On Sunday my husband woke me up to let me know he was back. I was shocked and happy at the same time. However, he is not acting the same. He has been extremely aggressive towards the pekins, he will not come by his name and is acting like a completely different Moscovy. My husband is convinced he is not the same Jake we had. We are so confused. We think Jake was a male because he puffed and hissed and was the same size as our Pekins but we really don’t know. Our question is- is it possible “our Jake” left and by coincidence this other one just showed up? Or is this our Jake back with an attitude and not going to let the Pekins bully him anymore? Or was our Jake a female all along and this new guy is her mate (but why arent they together). Just love them and cant figure any of this out. Thank you in advance.
Hi! Without a picture I couldn’t tell you if your muscovy is a male or a female although you are very welcome to email me if you want me to check… but right now (not sure where you are but where I am) it’s spring and they can get a little funky (and aggressive with each other) due to hormones. Changes in the environment (him leaving and then coming back) could also reset the pecking order and what they’re willing to tolerate, so now they’re fighting it out all over again in a pecking order reshuffle. I also couldn’t begin to guess if it is your same duck or not… but feral muscovy colonies do exist so it could be or could not be…. Either way I wish you the best of luck!
I have been in Florida for a few years now and am so intrigued by these beautiful Muscovies. I live in an apartment and there are a number of Muscovies around the small lake outside of our apartment. While I try to research and pay attention to their behaviors, I am curious about something new I am witnessing with a mother Muscovy. I suspect she is the same young Muscovy who has been using a nest just outside of my apartment for quite some time now; although I have read that they can share nests (not sure if this is true). This Muscovy had around 15 in her clutch, but is now down to three (sadly, they don’t live long around here), and they are definitely several weeks old. About four days ago, I discovered a new egg in the nest, which had been empty (except for the shells of hatched eggs). She has been coming around and seemingly organizing the nest, sitting on the egg for a few seconds, wiggling her rear back and forth and up and down, and making lots of noise (the coos and trills you described). Furthermore, the last two days she has been kind of abandoning her three babies by the water as she walks around in the area of the nest making these noises. She almost seems confused at times. She will fly to another end of the small lake area as they chirp. Finally realizing where they are, she will fly back over to them. I guess I am just curious if there is any explanation for this behavior. I am a bit obsessed about this, especially as I worry for the safety of the remaining three. There are often hawks around during the day and definitely owls in the early morning. I know I can’t control it all, but I just kind of want to know what to expect.
Hello! Thanks for stopping by, so the answer to your question is that she’s actually ready to begin raising another clutch which is why she has started laying eggs again—which necessitates her to essentially abandon her current ducklings as they are now (according to her) old enough to fend for themselves. They may survive without her, they may not, but she is ready to become a mom all over again.
Also, they can absolutely share nests, although they usually only do so if you have multiple females in an enclosed area.
Thanks so much for this quick response! I really love your website and blog. I do have one more question, or group of related questions. There has only been one egg in that nest for perhaps four days now. I don’t always get to follow the entire process but have been working from. home more. The last time, it seemed that an egg a day was laid. Once there were something like 13 or 14 eggs, that is when she sat on the nest until they hatched. I don’t know how consistent they are with this process. Is it likely that she will still lay more eggs even though days have passed since laying the one egg?
They usually lay an egg a day until they get to the amount that triggers them to brood (as few as 6 to as many as 25), so it might be possible that she doesn’t like that particular nest and found/made another one.
Very interesting! Oddly enough, after about a week or more of just the one egg in the nest, there are now three more eggs as of yesterday. Anyhow, I appreciate your site and the information you have provided. I sure wish people in Florida would appreciate these birds more. They are the best pest control and they are generally friendly.
No problem! I guess she likes the nest enough to try again! Unfortunately muscovies are a non-native invasive species in Florida, and that tends to upset the natural ecosystem…
Hi, I have 1 male, 1 female Muscovy and a female mallard, bought three of them in the month of may and they are all adult but the problem is that the male won’t mate with any of them though he will want to mate when they go down or bend for him but its as if he doesn’t know what to do with them, he will just ruffle their feathers with his beak and that’s all.
Hi! He might just need a little practice, or he actually is succeeding when you aren’t looking. You can check by cracking an egg open to see if you can see a “bullseye” while will tell you if he’s been successful. Bullseye = successful, no bullseye = not successful.
pls do u have any idea how I can make him practice
There is nothing you need to do. He will get it sooner or later and I will bet he already is doing fine and you just don’t see it.
How long is a female futile after mating? We lost our male about 2 month ago and our female are laying a second clutch. Will these eggs still be virile?
Sorry to hear about your male. The rule of thumb is usually ten days to two weeks unfortunately. So if it’s been 2 months, I highly doubt the eggs are fertile.
Hello, I have an interesting situation and am curious for any insight. We have a wild female muscovy. A female and newly hatched chicks had gotten into our neighbors yard back in March and their dogs killed half the chicks. Some got out with mom and one was left behind. she couldn’t have been more than a day old, hardly bigger than a golf ball. We waited to see if mom would come back to retrieve her as she peeped insistently for the remainder of the day. Anyway, we rescued her and raised her until she could fly. This was our fatal flaw as she imprinted on us and as you know, “hey you screwed up, you showed me love and affection, I’m yours now.” We leave her in the backyard as we live on a lake and are frequented by many wild muscovies and a lot of females with chicks. Our girl will not integrate with the others, she will approach but keep a distance.
Just recently, within the past week or so, she has started plucking her breast feathers, I am not sure why, it is specific to the breast feathers. I don’t see any obvious signs of parasites and my initial fear was this is a stress behavior? She is not bare anywhere, yet, but I don’t want her to get there either. She tends to spend the day in the backyard and other muscovies come by regularly. She has uninhibited access to the lake but will not leave the shore and we have a baby pool that she rarely frequents, at night she will fly up to our roof and roost. Could it be diet? as she doesn’t forage with the others and may not be getting an adequate diet? We do feed her (along with the others) wild food with corn and other seeds in it and she gets several helpings of a duck feed with 19% protein. Also she eats a lot of tadpoles and lizards when she can catch them.
Anyway – we’re concerned with the plucking and don’t want her to injure herself. We already dealt with her somehow breaking her foot a little over a month ago and had to nurse her back.
Hi there! Be prepared for her to disappear for a month or more… it looks like (from your description), she’s ready to be a mom. Many birds (waterfowl included) pluck breast and belly feathers to line their nests when they’re ready to brood. Shouldn’t be an issue although some moms get overzealous and look a little ragged. The other possibility (if you haven’t considered it already) is that she’s moulting and when she preens her chest and feathers come out, it looks like she plucked it (when mine moult, it looks like a duck exploded all over my yard and it gives me a small heart attack each time I go outside.)
i have a young male (born apr 20) gifted to me today, hes been raised with another male muscovie and roosters. the owners didnt know they’re ducks were both guys. he seems to be lost and all the drakes and ducks i have attack him. hes super doslie and lets me pet him. i know there is a peking order, but he seems to not show intrest in my fertile girls and even the juvanile turkeys mount him. how long before he mates? or will he be forever scared of girls?
He’s still a little young to even be thinking about mating. My drakes born around that time are still not mature enough to care about reproducing and since winter is coming where I am, they may not exhibit mating behavior until next spring. That said, introducing a single lone duck can be tough, but not impossible. It takes a few weeks and so long as he has places to escape from being harassed, he should be okay.
Hello i am curious about a behavior i see in a mama with week old babies, she does this thing where she lifts one foot and spreads out h her wing completely on that side, holds it for a bit then goes back to walking around. i’m just curious what this is and wanted to see if you knew. I loved this article thank you very much most helpful i’ve read.
for clarification, she does not spread the wing out from her body but more the feathers spread out over her side/back
Ah! That’s just stretching behavior. Mine do it often, especially if they’ve been napping or in the same position for a while.
oh okay thank you so much! i thought so but i wanted to be sure
I love your website! Great information and gorgeous photos.
Please explain this behavior that my 8-month-old Muscovy drake displays on a regular basis – he raises the feathers on the top of his head.
They often do it when they’re communicating with you or other ducks, it is likely a type of display—I find mine does it when they’re excited or agitated about something.
Thanks for all the great information! We just had 18-20 muscovy babies hatch today! We live in central FL and the mom made her nest outside our door against the corner of the house. She had them out of the nest in the mulch for a while this afternoon. Then she got them all back in the nest and went off for a few minutes. Now she is back and has them all snuggled in. About how long will she keep them there or how long will it take her to take them to the retention pond beside our house? Do we need to do anything for her/them?
Hey there! So understand that muscovy moms aren’t the best moms (ducks, chicken, and poultry in general aren’t and that’s why they have a lot of babies) so expect her to lose a few along the way. Ducklings can go without food and water for the first 3 days of hatching (using up their yolk stores) so it really is up to mom and whenever the babies start peeping for food and water. You don’t have to do anything and can just let nature take its course if they are wild. If these are your birds, then I personally always collect the babies and brood them myself for highest survival rate. That’s a personal choice. Some people put mom and babies in a brooding pen until the babies are old enough to be on their own and feed and water them.
So there’s a couple of things here—until the ducklings are close to the size of an adult, I wouldn’t put them together at all because you risk the adult male killing them by either attacking or trying to breed with them when they’re not ready. Otherwise, if he manages to break a feather or cause bleeding, then the picking will be relentless (they are attracted to blood.) That would be something like 20 weeks. Age wise, it’s based on the outdoor temperature and what the lowest temperature the ducklings have experienced—usually 5 degrees cooler each week.
Integration should be easy once they’re adults, a crate inside the same coop for a couple of days or a fence between them and then let them out in the morning together.
Hello! I have two Muscovy ducks (male and female) that were only a few days old when I got them on November 20th, 2020. Raising them, they were inside ducklings due to the unexpected weather conditions until early spring. I’d always take them outside and let them roam around and forage. During their childhood, they were supper loving towards me and would follow me around the yard and house all the time. Once they had got their adult feathers, I built them a cage and they’ve been staying there ever since. Recently when I go out to feed the ducks, the male will run a charge at me. Almost as if he’s being territorial. If I stand outside the cage, he’ll get as close as possible to me and make a deep “laughter” sound. Along with hissing and wagging his tail. Almost every time I step into the cage now, he bites me and sometimes breaks skin. What does this mean with the male? He’s always been a sweet duck but now, he’s extremely aggressive and he does this behavior everyday. For the female, her behavior has always been very calm nature. She’s always loved to sleep and make soft coos while bathing in the warm sun. Recently, as well, she’s started to attack me. Her bites are not as hard but they definitely leave a mark. She’s at the age to stat laying eggs and I even bought her a nesting box. She hasn’t taken to the nesting box what so ever. She’s also yet to lay eggs. I’m feeding her the proper laying feed, and sprinkling oyster shells out into the coop for her to forage and eat. She’ll only use her nesting box to escape the male when he’s trying to mate with her. When I come to the cage, she’ll chirp and wag her tail at me. She’s only charged at me a handful of times and has only bit me a handful of times. I have two fake eggs in her nesting box and her sudden behavior change makes me thing she’s being like that because she’s protecting her “eggs”. Why is my male and female suddenly being aggressive towards me? They have never been like this and not being able to go into the cage without getting hurt is a huge problem.
Hey so there could be a few things going on here—when the ducks reach sexual maturity, they begin truly vying for dominance in what they perceive as their flock, which now includes you. The male thinks you’re competition for the female, and the female might think you’re competition for the male. I don’t know how you raised them, but if you fed them by hand or had them perch on you/your shoulder, often times this can lead to aggression as well (which is why I don’t recommend hand feeding poultry.) You may also be giving off signals unaware that they are submissive but then challenging them, which might make it worse.
Your best bet to fix this is don’t feed them by hand if you currently do and establishing your position as the dominant bird. You can accomplish the second in a few ways, by regularly (whether they are charging and attacking or not), grabbing them and immobilizing them and standing over them, or picking them up (I prefer the first because muscovies have sharp claws.) Worst case scenario you can separate them so they can’t see each other for a few days, in a place neither of them are familiar with, and then reintroducing them to their original coop with you in it—it might rearrange the pecking order and their understanding of what is their “territory.”
Good luck!
We have lots of muscovies in our neighborhood, and at present we know of two nests. One female stupidly made her nest right at the street curb. So far, nothing has damaged her nest, and because of its location, I can monitor her progress every time I pass by. She sits on the nest of a dozen or so eggs regularly, except for food and water now and then. A few days ago, she was carrying an egg in her beak. She crossed the street, deposited it in the gutter, poked and prodded at it a few times, and returned to her nest without it. Later on, I passed by again, and the egg was still sitting in the gutter while the female sat on her nest. Can you explain why she moved the egg out of her nest and left it there?
While I can’t be certain she just did it because she felt like it (they sometimes do strange and inexplicable things), very often birds will throw out rotten eggs or eggs that haven’t developed because they’re a (exploding) bacteria risk to the whole nest, muscovies included. This is the first time I heard of one carrying it in her beak though!
Hi,
I have one male and one female muscovy. The female laid 12 eggs and now she is ready for mommyhood. I have 2 problems: the first few days she would come out of the coop only in the evening for 2-30 minutes to eat, drink some water and bathe. Yesterday she did not want to come out at all. I chased her outside and she ate, but then wold not go back to the nest. I literally picked her up and put her back. in Is it ok to do this, or should I let her stay in the nest until she wants to come out, even if its been more than a day? This is her first time hatching eggs. Also, the male chases her all over trying to mate, and she obviously is not interested. Does she avoid getting out because she knows he will bother her? Should I keep him separated from her and the ducklings when they hatch?
Thank you,
Neda
Hey there, so the best thing to do in this case is to keep the food and water near her and to fence her off from the male, especially when the ducklings hatch. He might become overzealous and kill them accidentally.
Don’t pick her up and kick her out, since if she gets too stressed she could abandon the next. Hope this helps!
A wild Muscovy laid eggs in my garden. She only sporadically sits on the nest. Today she did not come at all. Has she abandoned the nest? I am in northern Florida. Temps are 80 daytime and 70’s at night.
When she was sitting “sporadically” she may have just been laying more eggs in the nest. If she doesn’t come back in a few days then either she abandoned the nest or is otherwise incapacitated.
A Muscovy Mama hatched 8 of 9 eggs at the front door of my home. One of the ducklings seems to isolate itself from the rest. It eats and drinks. Appears to be very inquisitive like the others. It just seems to want to be alone unless the group runs to Mama to sleep or seek protection. Is this behavior normal?
Ducklings do have their own separate personalities so it would be considered within the spectrum of normal or “natural” (even if it’s due to the duck hen rejecting this particular duckling, or the ducklings own personal behaviors it was born with), but behavior traits like that are usually “self selecting” as it makes them more prone to being picked off my predators.
So yes, normal, for mother nature.
I live on a horse farm and in June one of our boarders came up and told me there was a weird looking bird next to our pond. I went to look and found a large white and brown duck just hanging out in the grass. I had no idea what it was an after a bit of research I found out it was a Muscovy and figured he had just followed the annual flock of geese that spend the summer on our pond. Well it’s been 3 months and he’s still here. We named him Boris, and everyone loves him.! He appears in the morning when we feed the horses hangs around the pond all day and disappears at dusk. He’s quite the character, very social, and marches up to the barn to get treats daily. However, the geese left a few days ago and he has not been as social since they left. Not that they were ever “friends” but I think he felt like he was part of the gang even though he kept his distance. The kids have all grown attached to him and I fear he’s going to be a bit more vulnerable to predators without the easier to catch geese and goslings there. We don’t want to mess with nature and we are not planning on breeding ducks. He is wild and he chose our place and may leave to find greener pastures somewhere else but we’d all be a bit sad. Would introducing another younger male friend possible? Would love your thoughts. He’s just been such a presence at the farm we’d just love for him to stick around if possible. Thank you!
Bachelor flocks can work so long as you don’t have any female ducks (be they muscovy or otherwise) around! But as you said he may not stay and may move on eventually. Obviously a predator proof coop would decrease the risk of predators, but that is ultimately your decision.
HI there. I had a male and female muscovy that were found as ducklings. I’ve fed them and sheltered them for 4 months. Sadly the female flew away and has not returned. I feel bad for the male, I fear he is lonely and needs companionship. I contacted and animal rescue farm, and they said they would be happy to take him in. They already have a higher ration of male to females, and warned me that he would have to endure the “pecking order” before finally finding his place.
My question is, will he suffer? Will he eventually be accepted by the mostly male flock. I think all together there are about 40 ducks. I got emotionally attached and worry about finding him the right place to be. Is he better off completely alone , if I keep him?
So flocking animals like ducks (and chickens and geese) will always be happier with their own kind. Bachelor flocks absolutely do work, BUT they need to not be around the females if they’re in an enclosed space. However, if they are all free ranging then so long as your male duck has places to run away from the others, it will be fine. I would be more worried for their female ducks, as a high male to female ratio can cause a lot of injuries to the girls (males are relentless during mating season.)
I just moved to South Fl on a lake, and noticed about 5 males and 3 female Muscovies plus a pair of Egyptian Geese. I have been putting out wild bird seed and now they wait by my door every morning. It has taken a few months for recognition, but now the big male bobs and hisses and pushes the others out of the way so he can stick his beak into the small container to take food right out of my hand. Just last month we noticed a clutch of eggs behind the bushes near our front door. Unfortunately, the next morning they were all broken up and scattered around by some animal. This morning I noticed a single egg, and, being a city boy, I would really enjoy watching them hatch. How can I protect the nesting area from predators.
Hey there, so it really depends on what you mean by protecting them—in Florida, muscovies are considered a non-native invasive species so to keep and proliferate them with the intent to let them run around free is illegal. This is a bit of a grey area of what you want to do. Also, just because some lay eggs in that location doesn’t mean they’ll actually sit and hatch them (brood) so unless a duck hen is brooding the eggs, it’s kind of counting your ducklings before they hatch, so to speak. Predators of muscovy ducks, eggs, and ducklings include animals that can climb, dig, fly, etc. so unless you fully enclose in the nesting spot, it’s impossible to protect them from every kind of animal that could eat/attack them unfortunately—then you’ll need to feed the hen, provide water, etc. since she’ll be stuck inside the enclosure which brings us back to the first point of whether or not this counts as “your” ducks and whether or not it would be illegal to release them after they hatch. Not sure if this is the kind of undertaking you’re looking for.
NO, I don’t want to raise them. I just wanted to give the eggs a chance to hatch, but I will let nature take its course and just enjoy them if they survive. By the way, your website is very informative and interesting.
i have a pekin magpie mis and two female muscovies why is one of my females aka darkwing duck keeps Peking at my drake peking while hes tries to eat then they all eat together is that her trying to say she the boss do i have to show her whos the boss? im adding two silver applegates female for my drake peking will they be ok with my two female muscovies will they fight?
They do have their own pecking orders, as long as the ducks have the ability to escape from each other they should be fine.
We have a couple of Muscovies in our NC neighborhood. Instead of staying in or near the pond, one of them has started sitting next to a parked car and peck8ng at the tire rim. I’m afraid it’s going to be hit by another car. We tried chasing it back to the pond, but it returned to the street and sat back down next to the car. Any explanation for this behavior, or suggestions for how to stop it?
Hi, I have an 8-month-old, male muscovy duck. In the last week or so I have noticed him grabbing one of his wings with his beak (as far back as he can on the wing), holding on to it and walking round in circles for a couple minutes at a time. Is he just trying to remove a bothersome feather, or could this be indicative of something more serious?
Likely just a silly tic it developed but you can examine the feather for breaks to check if it’s bothering him. Otherwise if you see no blood or mites, it’s fine to just leave him alone.
Hello! I’ve had a Muscovy duck in my yard for about two months (Nov. & Dec.) out here in Califormia (Silicon Valley). I found him wandering our neighborhood streets, almost getting hit by cars before he made it into our front yard. I read they are not native to this area, and wasn’t sure where it came from, as there are no farms around here. I began feeding it slugs and such that I found in my yard, along with unsalted corn and peas. I then added birdseed, which it now prefers. This has helped with it’s runny stool. I wanted to nurse him back to health until I had time to take him to a Wildlife relocation center. It seems happy, but I feel it needs friends. Are Muscovies okay with being alone, or do they need friends? Also, I noticed when the weather got colder, it stopped coming out of it’s shelter. He will eat if I bring food for him, but it will not come out to look for food as it did before. I’m not sure if it’s due to the colder weather, or if it got spooked from a cat at some point. It did get chased by an opposum one night when it chose not to sleep in it’s shelter. He learned to come into his shelter once it got dark after that incident. Any information on it’s behavior would be appreciated. Thank you!
It sounds like it’s ill or injured because just keeping itself in the shelter is not normal so a wildlife rehabber would definitely be a good call. They are not native to California so it’s likely an escapee or a dump.