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Author Topic: My up and coming mean ol' (young) Muscovy drake  (Read 4216 times)

Offline Cindi

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My up and coming mean ol' (young) Muscovy drake
« on: February 26, 2008, 10:20:15 am »
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

There are strange things done in the midnight sun by the men who moil for gold.  The Arctic trails have their secret tales that would make your blood run cold.  The Northern Lights have seen queer sights, but the queerest they ever did see, what the night on the marge of Lake Lebarge, I cremated Sam McGee.  Robert Service

Offline poka-bee

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Re: My up and coming mean ol' (young) Muscovy drake
« Reply #1 on: February 26, 2008, 12:34:12 pm »
Your "fireside chat" technique works for geese too!  I hold em & then kiss em on the head in front of all the girls, seems to calm em right down & they remember not to challenge this shorty again.  Had a silky rooster (Mr. Pimple..my daughter named him)that nothing worked for, finally played hockey with him w/a 1x6 as he flew up to spur me.  Amanda dyed him with blackberry juice when he tried to attack her... had him so terrorized he would run & hide his head in a #10 can when he heard her voice.  We could pick up the can with his butt hanging out the top like an ice cream cone!  Your drake sure is a handsome one tho.
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Offline Angi_H

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Re: My up and coming mean ol' (young) Muscovy drake
« Reply #2 on: February 27, 2008, 03:13:14 am »
Cindo try this it works for Ducks, chickens and turkeys. When one comes after you grab them by the neck like you do but then grab a piece of skin at the back of the neck and pen them to the ground with the skin in your fingers pinching. This is what they do to one another. And I tell ya it works for a while. The act of grabbing them by the nap of then neck and penning them to the ground and softly hitting them on the ground like they do when they fight will let them know who is boss. As this is what they do to one another. I wish I haddnt broke my digital camera as I picked up another Muscovy drake and 4 hens this weekend.


Angi

Offline Cindi

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Re: My up and coming mean ol' (young) Muscovy drake
« Reply #3 on: February 27, 2008, 10:20:22 am »
Jody, I liked that style, and holy smokers, that made me laugh when you said Amanda dyed him with the juice.  Good....those b.... need to be put in their place, especially with us shorties for sure.  Angi I liked your style even more though.  Yes, I have grabbed him by the neck, it is so long and easy to grab too.  But never thought about treating him just like he treats the ducks, they are rather mean to them, aren't they?  Hee, hee, nasty dudes.   Nice you got some more ducks and a drake.

I got my two turkey hens yesterday and have a contact for the Khaki Campbell drake I am phoning today, more good stuff coming here.  I am going to make a post to show the hens and Richard, he was in his seventh heaven.  Have a wonderful and beautiful, awesome day, Cindi

There are strange things done in the midnight sun by the men who moil for gold.  The Arctic trails have their secret tales that would make your blood run cold.  The Northern Lights have seen queer sights, but the queerest they ever did see, what the night on the marge of Lake Lebarge, I cremated Sam McGee.  Robert Service

Offline Brian D. Bray

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Re: My up and coming mean ol' (young) Muscovy drake
« Reply #4 on: February 28, 2008, 12:36:52 am »
Pigeons and Doves (aka Love birds) have very involved mating rituals.  The billing, cooing, struting, etc can take days before the deed is done.  I intracasy of it has to be seen to be believed.
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Offline Cindi

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Re: My up and coming mean ol' (young) Muscovy drake
« Reply #5 on: February 28, 2008, 01:02:55 am »
Brian, that is very nice.  Wonder why some birds have such grace, and others NOT!!!

Angi, Whoppo came at me again today a few times and I decided to try the technique that you suggested.  I could't quite remember exactly what you had said, but I had a pretty good idea.  Treat him like he treats the ducks.  Only re-reading your post now, I think I wasn't quite aggressive enough.  It is probably natural to be aggressive during breeding season, but not accepted in my eyes, like that.

He is one nasty dude, like I said and it has only surfaced in the past 10 days or so.  So, here he comes hissing and looking me straight in the eye.  Well, I'm lookin' him in the eye too.  Tough bird, we had quite the fight!!!  I tried to grab him and he kind of backed up and threw his feet at me forwards and flapped his wings for balance, caught me off guard.  So...now I know fully how they attack when confronted.  He got me with one of his hooked claws on the top of my hand at the let side of the thumb part and it hurt, a puncture wound.  Now he got me going big time.  Nope, not gonna let him win.  I managed to get around him and grab his neck and he is strong, let me tell you.  I pushed his head onto the ground with the other hand that was not holding his neck and then I grabbed that top of his head feathers and held him down for about a minute.  And then I let him go.  I didn't remember the part about pinching the top of his head like you said.  I just grabbed these feathers.  Off he went, quite quickly.

I carried about my business of going up to the house and cleansing this wound and packing it with propolis honey and a good strong bandage.  Back to the chickenyard to see if I was gonna have another fight.

Didn't see him anywhere, nor did I hear him hissing.  Good.  Carried on with some work.  After awhile I went in search of him.  He was having a bath in the little plastic sled.  He saw me and began hissing again.  Oh brother.  Didn't he learn that lesson well enough?  I ignored him but really kept a close ear to hear if he was going to come closer.  Which he did.  And closer and closer.  OK, so we go for round two.  I am not backing down, nor is he.  But he is a little bit leary of me, he must be learning something, he was not quite as aggressive in coming at me.  I walked towards him as he was walking towards me, that nasty hissing and then that kind of gurgling hiss that finishes up this aggressive hiss.  OK, so now I am right infront of him.  Eye contact is not broken.  I knew that he was still performing aggressive action towards me.  Need to stop this now, too much more of this and he is going into the oven, I have had a much nicer Muscovy drake, they don't have to be this aggressive.

I grabbed him by the neck again, it was more simple because I know what action he will try to perform, that lunging his feet at me while flapping his wings for balance.  Ha!!!  I have one up on him because I know what he is going to do.  And that was exactly what he did.  It was much simpler.  And you know what, when I pushed his head down on the ground, I actually did not feel an over abundance of reluctance, as the first time.  He was actually kind of submissive about this.  The first time it was very hard to get his head down there.  Anyways.  Action performed.  He buzzed off and he didn't bug me again the rest of the time I was out there.  He just hung out with the girls and stayed away.

This is a good thing.  I think that if he tries to bother me again, I will have this action of my part honed further and I will not get injured again by him.  I know exactly what he will do with his claws and I know how to avoid them.

I spend a great deal of time in these chickenyards and it is imperative that I can work in there safely.  We also have many young children and adults around too that go into the areas.  I must have them protected well. I cannot take a chance of a nasty drake attacking anyone at my place, nope, won't stand for that, completely unacceptable.

Time will tell that tale.  For now I have commanded some respect with him.  We will see how long that lasts.  Hopefully, a good long time.  I don't like to act that way towards animals, but let me tell you, when it comes to self-preservation, I am number one.  Have a wonderful and awesome day, love life.  Cindi
There are strange things done in the midnight sun by the men who moil for gold.  The Arctic trails have their secret tales that would make your blood run cold.  The Northern Lights have seen queer sights, but the queerest they ever did see, what the night on the marge of Lake Lebarge, I cremated Sam McGee.  Robert Service

 

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