Drake to hen ratio

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ridgefire

ridgefire

Songster
12 Years
Jan 8, 2008
561
3
161
Northern Michigan
looks like out of the six ducks I have 2 are going to end up being drakes.

I have 3 rouens that are a few weeks old, 1 is has started to quack more so Im pretty sure its a female. The other two I think one is a drake, it still has a very quiet peep to it, the last one will quack when chased, so might be a female.

I ordered 3 Pekin from Cackle and they are in the brooder, I bought 2 hens and a drake, so they are sexed.

Is 2 drakes too many for 4 hens?
 
I actually have about a 1:1 ratio on ducks and drakes, and don't have too many problems. I have read that in smaller flocks (>20 birds), 1:1 ratio is okay, but larger flocks need at least 1:3 ratio.
 
right now I've got 8, yes 8 drakes(though I've been thinking of rehoming my crested pekin, and a couple calls..), well 9, but I don't really count my muscovy as he never really tries to mate any other hen besides my muscovy hen, but she's brooding.

and 7 breeding age hens(total 9 hens, not counting the female muscovy), and I don't really have a problem with mating, the only real problem I get is when the boy boys want to mate the mallard girls :hmm, but it doesn't hurt them.
 
Quote:
You sound like me! I have 7 breeding age males, and 5 breeding age females, sort of. 1 of the males and one female are about 5 1/2 months old, so they are kind of breeding aged! Plus I have 3 other females that are a month younger than those are. I plan on getting rid of some of the drakes though, if I can catch them. They are starting to get a bit more aggressive, especially when my broody rouen comes off her nest. She gets everyone's attention, poor girl!
 
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no, the drakes don't fight like roosters, they do alot of chasing, neck wrestling(where they bite the feathers/skin on ones anothers necks, and try to push each other over), and wing beating(flapping the wings to hit each other with them)...oh! and if theres water, they'll try to drown each other
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...but fight like roosters?, no...it's a bit more civilized LOL
 
mine used to fight a lot. 3 drakes and one hen. now we have 2 drakes. they are really well bonded and never fought. the other drake though....yeah problems. when spring started to come, they would fight like crazy, holding on to the feathers on their necks and beating each other with their wings. the dominant drake would grab the others by the neck feathers, and they would reach over and try to grab the feathers on his back. in water, they would also peck each other on the butt, then grab them and start fighting again. needless to say, we seperated them. i heard 1:1 is sometimes fine, depends on the drake. otherwise, 1:2 or 1:3 is normally just fine. some drakes need more ladies than others.
 
Looks like I will have 3 drakes and 2 hens, apparently my try at vent sexing only had a 25% success! lol Anyway, if I can keep all the drakes, I'd like to but am afraid of fighting. They're only about 8wks old right now so they get along fine. Should I make a separate enclosure for the drakes? If I separate drakes from hens, will they behave or do I need to separate the drakes from each other if they fight? Sorry, I don't really get how this works.
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