KHAKI CAMPBELL - HE IS, SHE ISN'T

LovesAGoodYolk · Nov 10, 2015

I have one hen age 5 1/2 months and one drake of same age. He has begun fulfilling his male needs, but she is not yet laying. I assume she will begin laying soon. Am I correct? Am I going to have to get another hen, or do you think she will be able to handle being his only love? They are in with my chickens and get along just fine. Has anyone ever know a duck to try to mate with a chicken? Just curious.

Orca5094 · Nov 10, 2015

Female ducks typically lay around 6 months old, so I'm sure she'll start soon. Though, depending on where you are in the world, winter might be about to set in? If that is the case, she will likely wait until Spring to start laying.

The ideal ratio for ducks is one male to at least 3 females, but sometimes a pair can do alright. You'll just have to watch them and make sure your female doesn't get over-bred. The most obvious sign will be injuries to your female, usually to the back of the neck (it will be come bald and possibly bloody if he's breeding her too much). So if she starts to get bald on the back of her head/neck, you really need to get more females to help share the burden of putting up with a hormonal male.

You have to be very careful with male ducks and chickens as well. If he tries to mate with them, he can injure and even kill them. Ducks and chickens are not made the same way. Male ducks have a penis, whereas male chickens do not. So, female chickens are not made to have something shoved in there, if you know what I mean. That can really injure them, so please be careful. Male ducks are known to breed with chickens if they do not have enough female ducks around to satisfy their needs.