Do
Drakes or Ganders fight?
Drakes: Drakes will fight to assert dominance.
Once this has been done they will cohabit to a degree. The lesser drake
will never reach his full potential and will not be in his prime. If it
can be avoided try to keep drakes separated, especially in the breeding
season.
Pairs are the only accurate way to
tell where your good or bad birds are coming from. However it is often
best
to run 1 drake with 2 or 3 ducks, this enables the ducks to stay in
better condition.
Muscovies should be run with 1
drake to 4 or 5 ducks to prevent damage to the females.
Geese: Geese if permitted will
mate for life. Once they are mated it can be hard to split the pairs,
and often can only succussfully done if the birds are taken out of honk
range, so they can not hear each other. Once they are paired, multiple
pairs will co-habit in a paddock, tending to keep to themselves. In the
non-breeding season they will become one large family again. When
introducing new stock, expect some initial pecking order problems.
These will usually settle with time.