I have a 5 month old male duck that has been displaying some pretty aggressive behavior lately. I'm not sure if it's part of his mating technique but he's been chasing the hens and pullets, capturing them by seizing their neck and proceeds to yank and shake violently at it. Sometimes he'll do it while giving the appearance of mounting them, other times not. I've never seen him display this sort of violent behavior towards his mate, though. Just with the hens, pullets and one of our cockerels. He nearly killed our poor little Sebright and probably would have if we hadn't stopped him. Oh, and a few weeks ago, we found one of our EEs dead. It was in the middle of the day, we had just seen her walking around fine and then just dead. No injuries or anything. Just dead. We think Earl(the drake)may have possibly broken her neck. That's just a theory, though. But what do you all think? I don't want to keep an aggressive drake that will make my flock miserable. As if life in general doesn't stress chickens out enough and keeps them from laying, I'm sure an abusive duck will definitely decrease their egg production. Do we need to sing Goodbye Earl? 
I believe in hands that work, brains that think and hearts that love. - Elbert Hubbard
I believe in hands that work, brains that think and hearts that love. - Elbert Hubbard
