Duck/Drake ratio....

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BackYard Sheena

BackYard Sheena

In the Brooder
5 Years
May 2, 2014
70
9
43
Craigsville, WV
So I ended up with a ton of boys and just a few girls.... So I broke down and ordered me more girls. I am going to have way more duck poop than I know what to do with but I am sitting and thinking about the ratio and I have realized I still don't think it's going to be enough!!! Is there anyway that 14 girls will be enough for 4 or 5 boys???? I really don't want to give up any of my boys :( :( :( :(

I have 3 cayuga boys and 1 mallard, and I ordered 1 WH boy with all my girls because I would like to breed WH next year to help the population and to pay for the food bill!! (no one in my area seems to offer them)

I am hoping since none of my boys are the "overly horny pekin" I hear so much about, that someone will tell me I may be ok!!! But I do want you to be honest too so I can prepare now if something is going to have to be done. *sigh*
 
I would think that 14 girls would be enough for them (Boys) you might want to pay attention to how many each drake wants, there might be some females left over,given what their personality are in both sex,
 
Last year I had 5 pekins—two females and three males. That worked fine. This year I had four males and one female and in a very short time three males had to go because they were pulling all the feathers off the female's neck and she was hiding under trees and the like to escape them. The pair that are left seem fine. I do have 5 muscovy hens, but don't know if the pekin drake chases them or not. There is a definite difference in the level of aggressiveness among duck drakes. (I kept the smallest male.)

14 females should work out for the 4 or 5 drakes. As far as I can tell, the ducks don't pair off, so if you have an "overly horny" drake, there's still 14 females available.
 
It really depends on the drake. We had a horribly aggressive mallard drake at the same time as an overly mellow drake. We culled the aggressive and kept the mellow. We could have a hundred of our mellow with twenty-five ducks and our ratio would be fine because he is not aggressive at all and hardly ever mates. Whereas, we added a saxony fellow and he mates with every girl and tears out their feathers. He abuses the gals and he alone does the damage.
 
Thank you everyone for the responses!!! I think I am relieved?? At what age should you be able to tell if they are aggressive??? Or will i need to wait till next spring to see that??? My mallard has done so great with my pekin girls up to this point. (They were got together). They are 14 weeks old and I have seen them flirt and him jump on their backs but I don't think he knows what to do after that. They invite him though so I am not concerned.

Out of my second batch, they are the 3 cayuga males and a black swedish female. They are siblings hatched from a cayuga mom and pekin dad. All 7 weeks old. The black swedish is flirting with my mallard but he runs from her lol.

Does she know they are her brothers?? Or is it cause those boys don't show any signs of hormones yet?? Hopefully they stay mellow until I can get this next batch old enough to add to the flock.
 
I don't think that they really know who there brother or sister is unless they grow up together and form the best bond...
 
Ducks start to mate when they are fully mature meaning, going through his molt and looking really colorful.
 
2-3 ducks min per drake is the usual recommendation. Drakes are definitely individuals some work in multi drake flocks others simply don't. I run a fair number of drakes here.. i have sold drakes that have not been able to get along well with others or have been relentless with my females...

Usually you start to see trouble as they mature and drakes do so quicker than females in that mating regard... for instance my Pekin will be 6mths in Sept but i am already seeing the drake try mating and showing sexual maturity, the females are not laying yet... they are only turning 5mths mid month... for what it's worth he has 5 girls.

A wait n see approach is really all that can be advised, there is no one size fits all answer, i do see break downs in my flock.. certain birds run together.. they do not run as entire flock. My main flock consists of Pekin, Buff and Muscovy with some as young as 4 days old right through into years and just about everything in between.
 
Is it true with a smaller flock that it's okay to maybe have a 1:2 or 1:2 ratio? We have 10 ducks, and we're thinking we have 3 or 4 males (hard to tell with our baby pekins--still just a month and a half old and not that great at trying to vent them!).
 

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