Newly rescued ducklings - need some educated guessing from you. ;)

Note: the KC's have only been with us since Monday (3 days). Am I not giving the situation enough time? Or do you think it'll just get worse? ...I think those are my biggest questions.

Ducks have a fairly long lifespan so I feel it is important to think carefully about what will be the best solution longterm. It may not be worth disrupting the harmony you had before bringing in the newcomers.

RacerWife7 said:

Note: the KC's have only been with us since Monday (3 days). Am I not giving the situation enough time? Or do you think it'll just get worse? ...I think those are my biggest questions.

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When I introduced 3 young mallards (two girls and a boy) to my two older mallard drakes a few years ago. I kept the "babies" in a smaller pen inside the run so they could all get used to each other, along with supervised free range time together. I think that went on for a couple of weeks until I was pretty confident that things would be okay. The young ones would chase and torment the older ones, which I thought was crazy because I would've assumed it'd be the other way around. They get along great now...after we lost Bullwinkle (one of the older boys), Rocky (the other older one) and Dexter (the younger one) became best friends. They are almost always near each other, never fight, and they protect Ruby from Tony together....it's very sweet. So I would definitely say give them some time.

Oddly enough, I don't recall any issues introducing Tony and Roxy the next year, or the Golden Girls the year after that. Pretty sure after a few free range intros I just plopped them all in the pen together and everybody was fine, lol.

Also, having so many drakes may not be the disaster you fear it will be. Other than everyone ganging up on pretty little Ruby (who often has to be kept sectioned off to recuperate), I have the other 4 girls and 3 boys together and no one else is over-mated or hurt in any way, other than the occasional foamy eye for a day or two.

Thank you, cymbaline! I'm taking a wait and see approach right now. They've seemed to relax a bit over the past couple of days. This morning, after I let every one out, Sophie (my mallard hen) jumped into the pond with one of the KC's. Then, Harry (mallard drake) stood on the side, seemingly watching over the 2 in the pond. Soooo... maybe things will iron out over time. *fingers crossed*!!!