Pet Ducks Dumped in Neighborhood Pond, Help?

[shawluvsbirds]

Hatch every egg they lay and have the funnest neighborhood in the world

More like the smelliest

 

[shawluvsbirds]

Oh. . and birth control regarding birds just means gathering their eggs daily and not letting them sit and hatch them.

 

[Texag87]

there is no way your going to stop them from mating besides separating them, sorry. Even if you did they would be very unhappy. Ducks are extremely sexual creatures.
A fertile egg is not an embryo until incubation begins. . just gather your eggs daily just like you would chicken eggs and there is no baby inside.
My Cayuga ducks laid eggs all summer long. . that would be hundreds of eggs to hatch if I hatched them all!
Gather them daily and eat them. . give them away to your neighbors to eat. Duck eggs are yummy! It's not inhumane.. No incubation, no embryo. It's totally fine. You'd be surprised how many fertile eggs you've probably eaten from the grocery store and never knew!

 

[SansDuck]

there is no way your going to stop them from mating besides separating them, sorry. Even if you did they would be very unhappy. Ducks are extremely sexual creatures.
A fertile egg is not an embryo until incubation begins. . just gather your eggs daily just like you would chicken eggs and there is no baby inside.
My Cayuga ducks laid eggs all summer long. . that would be hundreds of eggs to hatch if I hatched them all!
Gather them daily and eat them. . give them away to your neighbors to eat. Duck eggs are yummy! It's not inhumane.. No incubation, no embryo. It's totally fine. You'd be surprised how many fertile eggs you've probably eaten from the grocery store and never knew!

Thank you so @shawluvsbirds, your words have made me feel so much better!

We were very worried that refrigerating fertilized eggs were inhumane.

Though that does lead to one more question. If one or two of these eggs hatch, will we have to worry about gender?

We will obviously keep the chicks with us, until they were big enough to go with Downy and Fergus.
But if we got boys, will they fight with Fergus?
Will the boys try to mate with Downy?

Should we give the boys away, and just keep two females?

That seems kinda cruel, but I dont want Downy to get hurt.

If we got two females, will Fergus mate with them and give Downy a well deserved break?

And lastly if we end up getting one boy, one girl. Can all four live peacefully together?

Sorry if this is a lot of questions at once, but I know everyone here has bigger flocks then we do. And I'm curious, how they all get along?

Fergus and Downy orginaly lived with two other ducks, one we think was male, and the other female. If that information helps anyone.

 

[shawluvsbirds]

Thank you so @shawluvsbirds, your words have made me feel so much better!

We were very worried that refrigerating fertilized eggs were inhumane.

Though that does lead to one more question. If one or two of these eggs hatch, will we have to worry about gender?

We will obviously keep the chicks with us, until they were big enough to go with Downy and Fergus.
But if we got boys, will they fight with Fergus?
Will the boys try to mate with Downy?

Should we give the boys away, and just keep two females?

That seems kinda cruel, but I dont want Downy to get hurt.

If we got two females, will Fergus mate with them and give Downy a well deserved break?

And lastly if we end up getting one boy, one girl. Can all four live peacefully together?

Sorry if this is a lot of questions at once, but I know everyone here has bigger flocks then we do. And I'm curious, how they all get along?

Fergus and Downy orginaly lived with two other ducks, one we think was male, and the other female. If that information helps anyone.

You know, every flock is different. Anything is possible. . But in general it's recommend to have a minimum of 3 or 4 females to one drake.
Unfortunately yes, drakes will fight over females.
Yes they will mate with their mothers sisters brothers. .ducks don't care. You'll even see girl on girl and boy on boy action if you watch a flock long enough
Yes you will have a problem if you end up hatching all boys. Sorry to be a downer but it is the truth.
I actually re homed one of my Cayuga drakes jus today because they started fighting already getting closer to spring.
I have 4 females. It wasn't bad yet.. But I wasn't willing to wait around for one of them to get seriously injured before I made a hard decision.

 

[SansDuck]

You know, every flock is different. Anything is possible. . But in general it's recommend to have a minimum of 3 or 4 females to one drake.
Unfortunately yes, drakes will fight over females.
Yes they will mate with their mothers sisters brothers. .ducks don't care. You'll even see girl on girl and boy on boy action if you watch a flock long enough
Yes you will have a problem if you end up hatching all boys. Sorry to be a downer but it is the truth.
I actually re homed one of my Cayuga drakes jus today because they started fighting already getting closer to spring.
I have 4 females. It wasn't bad yet.. But I wasn't willing to wait around for one of them to get seriously injured before I made a hard decision.

Thank you again for the quick reply.

Yes, I would rather not put Downy or Fergus health as risk.

We will keep the females, and any boys we will find good homes for.

So hopefully we get lucky and not have any boys, I know that's not likely, but fingers crossed.

 

[Texag87]

You know, every flock is different. Anything is possible. . But in general it's recommend to have a minimum of 3 or 4 females to one drake.
Unfortunately yes, drakes will fight over females.
Yes they will mate with their mothers sisters brothers. .ducks don't care. You'll even see girl on girl and boy on boy action if you watch a flock long enough
Yes you will have a problem if you end up hatching all boys. Sorry to be a downer but it is the truth.
I actually re homed one of my Cayuga drakes jus today because they started fighting already getting closer to spring.
I have 4 females. It wasn't bad yet.. But I wasn't willing to wait around for one of them to get seriously injured before I made a hard decision.

Never seen the boy/boy so far.i have seen to drakes on the Pekin hen followed by the KC hen on the Pekin. I have seen a Rouen hen get on the KC hen. I believe ducks have three things on their mind in spring in this order. Sex, water/mud, and food when they have time.

 

[shawluvsbirds]

Also if your eggs hatch you'll need to prepare a brooder to raise them in until they are big enough to go outside at around 4 to 6 weeks depending on the weather.
You will have to introduce them to the adults slowly, They won't know those are their babies. It's best to start introducing them in a separate pen where they can see but not touch for a while. . work your way up to supervised visits.
Keep your drake from mounting a young hen until she is fully grown say around 3 months at least? *someone please correct me if this is still too young* they can get injured getting mounted too young.

 

[Texag87]

We are taking a chance with 4 hens and two drakes right now. I would not bring it down to two drakes and two hens. It is going to take someone getting hurt for me to convince the wife that one more drake has to go

 

[shawluvsbirds]

Thank you again for the quick reply.

Yes, I would rather not put Downy or Fergus health as risk.

We will keep the females, and any boys we will find good homes for.

So hopefully we get lucky and not have any boys, I know that's not likely, but fingers crossed.

Your very welcome. Keep the updates coming! I've enjoyed chatting here and reading this thread