Follow along with the video below to see how to install our site as a web app on your home screen.
Note: This feature may not be available in some browsers.
2 drakes can and will gang up on a single duck and drown when both try to mate at the same time.Sorry for your loss. You'll have to watch your drakes around your hens too. When hormones are raging some don't care who they breed with and it's a death sentence for a chicken hen.It started last spring of 2015, I bought three little ducklings and four little barred rock pullet chicks from Atwoods, to add to my flock of three rhoade island red hens and a rooster. I was not exceptionally particular what kind of ducks they turned out to be, I was hoping they were pekin females. As they grew from cute little yellow fuzzy ducklings, into bigger yellow ducklings I noticed the feathers growing in were not white but more of a beige color, initially they looked like female buffs then they started to show the line around the neck and then the curly feathers showed up on their tails, all three. Since my plan was to add duck eggs to my mix, I ordered ten sexed female buff orpington ducklings from a hatchery and received them through the USPS. My mentor into chicken keeping, since my father's death, had coyotes clean her out, all but one buff drake. I could already see that one of my drakes was smaller than the other two, and was picked on already, so in order to get her started again, I gave my mentor one drake and five ducks. That left me with five ducks and two drakes which until a couple of weeks ago appeared to be working well until I found one of my ducks drowned in the swimming tub. I have yet to find any duck eggs, but I am still getting three to four eggs a day from my nine other hens. My ducks and chickens all live in the same enclosure and seem to get along great.
I did not deliberately pick buffs but after researching the drakes I had, they are beautiful ducks and have good history for what I hope to achieve.