So...Whoppo was born around the middle of October. Whoppo, I don't know if the spelling is correct in Spanish, but it means "handsome". My Brother-in-Law is Chilean and names some of the barnyard critters around here.
He is a big boy. He is a heavy big boy. Recently, and I mean very recently, in the past week or so, he has very obviously matured enough that he runs after the poor ducks and chases them until he catches them. He has one thing on his mind. I have seen this occurrence several times now.
Last night just before supper I was finishing off some work around the chickenyard. I saw Whoppo running after Lovely Lady. He seems to really like her alot and is the only one that I have seen him going after. I wanted to see first hand what was going on, so I got very nosey and sat down on a piece of wood quite close to him and Lovely Lady. I watch intricately from the back of the ducks, and I saw every little bit of the action. It was interesting, to say the least. The process of copulation takes about two minutes. Not like the roosters that jump on and jump off almost within seconds.
When he had fallen off, that is the only way I can liken this to, is when a rabbit is finished the copulation, I have seen the buck fall off to the side, he walked away, very aggressively looking. Lovely Lady immediately went to the water and took a bath.
He was coming towards me hissing and hissing. I just watched him. I know that he has an aggressive nature, I have spoken to him a couple of times about this, but he is still acting this way. I think after mating, the hormone levels must be very high and he acts in a big way.
I was still sitting on my piece of wood watching him. He came close to me, about 2 feet away, arms distance, actually. Now I can see by the look in his eye that he is on a terrorizing spree. I don't think so.....picking on the wrong gal. I need to put this dude in his place.
As an aside...there was another time last week when he came after me. He was over by the gate with me and I walked over to the pail to put some water in it. I had walked about 20 feet and I turned around and he was right behind me. He must have ran after me when I had my back turned, I am not exaggerating one little bit. He was going to chomp on my calf, I know that. I was kind of shocked, but kept my cool and shooed him off. Later that day he came too close and I grabbed him by the neck and held on for about 10 seconds and let him go. He needs to learn that I am not afraid.
Ooops, back to the story, I just had to set a scene. Where was I? Right...I was sitting on the piece of wood and thought that I would turn my head and not have eye contact, but keep my left eye on him, in case he attacked, he thought I looked the other way completely and yes.....he did lung at my leg. OK, now this dude is out of control and I am peed right off. I grabbed him by the neck again. Lightly, but firmly, I don't want to cause any damage. I didn't let go for about 20 seconds. We'll see if this works.
Next time, if he tries to attack me, he will get picked up, (I must be very careful, Muscovys have very sharp, strong claws on the end of their great big webbed feet), turned upside down and tucked under my arm and carried around like that for a few minutes. This will be a very difficult thing to do, but I have heard that if one has an aggressive rooster, this will teach them who is the boss.
I won't stand for any nasty boys out the in the chickenyard. I spend too much time out there doing stuff and I refuse to have any critter that is not taller than 2 feet to run my life. Now, my Husband who is over 6 feet tall can run my life (if he dare, hee, hee), but not the little guys in the chickenyards, nope, nope.
When I was a young woman (oooh, can barely remember that, hee, hee) I had a really, really nasty Moscovy drake (some of you will remember this story, I have told it before). He had bit me a couple of times on the calf. I finally got fed up with that because it really, really hurt and made quite the bruise. I picked him up and swung him around over my head couple of times and sent him flyin'. He was a very well behaved drake after that. I am afraid that I will have to perform this same action if Whoppo continues acting like he does and if the drake under the arm doesn't work. Drastic measures must be taken. I am having fun with this regardless. Life with the barnyard critters is so interesting and I wouldn't trade it for the world. Have a beautiful and wonderful day, love our life. Cindi