Pet Ducks Dumped in Neighborhood Pond, Help?

[Duck mommy 2019]

I have one female and 3 males and they all get along fine. They were born late March so I don’t know if it’ll change when they get older. Also one male is smaller than the others (he’s a Mallard/Cayuga mix) but they grew up together and get along great so I’m hoping it countinues like this. They also live in our neighborhood pond during the day (it’s right behind our house and they come in at night) since we do not have any fish/turtles in it and hopefully won’t. Please update pictures soon!

 

[SansDuck]

I am so sorry I don’t always get tags. I am happy for you that you have found a home for the drakes. I sure understand how you all are feeling about letting them go, I think most of us have been there. Just keep in mind your doing this for the safety of your girls. And remember how hard it was if you decide to let anyone hatch eggs in the future. That is what keeps me from letting my girls just hatch anytime they like. As for Fergus try them together that should let you know if he can be with Downy and behave himself. Again remember it’s our responsibility to protect our females from abuse. If he can see her and the other females he’s okay. Many on here have to separate their drakes from their females till end of summer. It just means your s responsible duck owner. Love to see some pics of your flock. When you get time.

Its okay Miss Lydia I'm just glad you are doing well, it was a little sad to let the drakes go, but not as bad as I thought it would be.

I think it's because the person we found seems perfect, and he has a granddaughter that is going to name them and everything.

I do have a question, I know you free range your flock durning the day but when you lock them up at night do your drakes get a long okay? Or do you separate them at night in different pens?

 

[Duck mommy 2019]

We let our flock stay together at night but once they start mating we have a second coop for the boys to go into (we have 3 boys and 1 girl but they are all very bonded so we are keeping them all and we rescued another *hopefully* female

 

[SansDuck]

We let our flock stay together at night but once they start mating we have a second coop for the boys to go into (we have 3 boys and 1 girl but they are all very bonded so we are keeping them all and we rescued another *hopefully* female

Thank you for the reply and for the reading the thread!

Our new ducks were brought home in March too! They grow up so fast.

Thank you for telling me about your nightly routine, have your babies started to show signs of sexual activity?

Before we rehome the two drakes, they were starting to show interest in the ducks.

Right now we have Fergus the large horny pekin drake, who we think is a year old. He has his own section of night pen to himself.

And then we have Downy (the large female pekin, again, we think shes 1 year old) three ancona females (I'm thinking of Huey, Dewey, and louie as their names) that are going to be five months old in five days and a Welsh Harlequin drake that is the same age as the ancona ducks.

They all sleep together in the other section of night pen.

We haven't given the Welsh Harlequin an offical name yet, as we are not sure our flock will work out and as we might need to rehome him I dont want to get attached.

I know we could technically rehome the Welsh drake and get a Welsh duck, but in some way we are a little attached and because the ancona ducks have grown up with the Welsh drake nearly their whole lives.

I know the preferred ratio of drake to ducks is 2:6 and right now we are at 2:4 ratio

And getting two more ducks is out of the question unfortunately, I got this lucky that everyone in my home was okay with suddenly becoming a mini farm.

Another reason is because with their combined day/night pen is 150 sq feet, this gives each duck 25sq feet each. Any more ducks would give everyone less space, and again, building a larger pen is out of the question as nearly half the backyard is dedicated to the duck pen lol

The last reason is a little selfish but it's a lot easier to keep track of six ducks vs eight, even giving away the two drakes made a huge difference, we use less food, less work, and again it gave everyone a lot more space to duck around in, and less chance of trampling over each other when they decide to do a group duck run.

We dont currently free range but we are thinking of doing supervised hourly free range sessions in the side yard, but not sure yet.

I really do hope our flock can work out but if sadly not, the previous man who took in our two ancona drakes says he has room for our Welsh Harlequin too, so at least we know hes going to a great home and he'll be with two other drakes he has grown up with his whole life.

 

[Texag87]

We were working with a two to four ratio until the K/C started overmating our Pekin. We did not think the runner was mating very much. The eggs we hatched a few months ago proved us wrong. Now @Raenh has the k/c drake. I saw the runner push the K/C off a few times but they never fought. It was a tough decision but Mocha had to go.

 

[Duck mommy 2019]

Thank you for the reply and for the reading the thread!

Our new ducks were brought home in March too! They grow up so fast.

Thank you for telling me about your nightly routine, have your babies started to show signs of sexual activity?

Before we rehome the two drakes, they were starting to show interest in the ducks.

Right now we have Fergus the large horny pekin drake, who we think is a year old. He has his own section of night pen to himself.

And then we have Downy (the large female pekin, again, we think shes 1 year old) three ancona females (I'm thinking of Huey, Dewey, and louie as their names) that are going to be five months old in five days and a Welsh Harlequin drake that is the same age as the ancona ducks.

They all sleep together in the other section of night pen.

We haven't given the Welsh Harlequin an offical name yet, as we are not sure our flock will work out and as we might need to rehome him I dont want to get attached.

I know we could technically rehome the Welsh drake and get a Welsh duck, but in some way we are a little attached and because the ancona ducks have grown up with the Welsh drake nearly their whole lives.

I know the preferred ratio of drake to ducks is 2:6 and right now we are at 2:4 ratio

And getting two more ducks is out of the question unfortunately, I got this lucky that everyone in my home was okay with suddenly becoming a mini farm.

Another reason is because with their combined day/night pen is 150 sq feet, this gives each duck 25sq feet each. Any more ducks would give everyone less space, and again, building a larger pen is out of the question as nearly half the backyard is dedicated to the duck pen lol

The last reason is a little selfish but it's a lot easier to keep track of six ducks vs eight, even giving away the two drakes made a huge difference, we use less food, less work, and again it gave everyone a lot more space to duck around in, and less chance of trampling over each other when they decide to do a group duck run.

We dont currently free range but we are thinking of doing supervised hourly free range sessions in the side yard, but not sure yet.

I really do hope our flock can work out but if sadly not, the previous man who took in our two ancona drakes says he has room for our Welsh Harlequin too, so at least we know hes going to a great home and he'll be with two other drakes he has grown up with his whole life.

I would rehome him right now if I were you so he doesn’t have to be rehomed later and reintroduced to the other drakes (if he is there will be a risk on fighting) with our 3 males we may have to rehome them all since we only have 2 females. So if you’re sure he’s a male rehome him now so he can be with his brothers before he forgets them

 

[SansDuck]

I would rehome him right now if I were you so he doesn’t have to be rehomed later and reintroduced to the other drakes (if he is there will be a risk on fighting) with our 3 males we may have to rehome them all since we only have 2 females. So if you’re sure he’s a male rehome him now so he can be with his brothers before he forgets them

Well we also have another reason for not rehoming the Welsh Hariquen just yet, Fergus might end up staying in drake jail.

The ancona girls dont seem to like Fergus very much, they will run away from him and he will catch and force them to mate.

But if the Welsh Harlequin shows interest with head bobbing, the ancona girls have no problem mating with him.

When Fergus was introduced to the flock for a few short days, he spent them terrorizing the ancona girls and totally ignoring Downy.

The flock went from being peaceful, to three ancona girls always running away from a huge horny drake.

Fergus might be in permanent drake jail, not sure if that makes me a bad duck owner. I feel its a better solution then going to freezer camp or getting rehomed and potentially being someone elses issue to deal with.

Dont get me wrong I love Fergus but he can live by himself, and the rest of the flock can live in peace and harmony.

I know the Welsh harlequin is young and not as horny as Fergus, but even seeing the W/H mate with the girls the few times he has is so much more gentle then Fergus. It might be because the W/H is a smaller breed of duck and not as rough, or because this Drake has a gentle personality.

I know i have the tough decision to either,

Keep the Welsh Harlequin, and keep Fergus in drake jail and let the flock live in continued harmony

or

Rehome the Welsh Harlequin and risk having to keep Fergus in drake jail, if he is way to aggressive with the girls.

The only reason we got more ducks in the first place, was so Fergus could have more girlfriends and stop over breeding Downy. But after seeing these last few days of interaction with other ducks, I'm starting to realize Fergus might not have the best personality in the world and no matter how many girlfriends he has he seems to get obsessed with just one duck, and ends up over matting them and ignoring the rest of the group.

 

[Miss Lydia]

@onaharley can speak about permanent drake jail. And it does not make you a bad duck owner. You have to do what you do for the safety and peace of your flock. Maybe by end of fall Fergus will have calmed down enough that he can be with the flock once in a while. As long as he is close and can see everyone that is best you can do.

So you kept one WH drake back?

 

[Duck mommy 2019]

Well we also have another reason for not rehoming the Welsh Hariquen just yet, Fergus might end up staying in drake jail.

The ancona girls dont seem to like Fergus very much, they will run away from him and he will catch and force them to mate.

But if the Welsh Harlequin shows interest with head bobbing, the ancona girls have no problem mating with him.

When Fergus was introduced to the flock for a few short days, he spent them terrorizing the ancona girls and totally ignoring Downy.

The flock went from being peaceful, to three ancona girls always running away from a huge horny drake.

Fergus might be in permanent drake jail, not sure if that makes me a bad duck owner. I feel its a better solution then going to freezer camp or getting rehomed and potentially being someone elses issue to deal with.

Dont get me wrong I love Fergus but he can live by himself, and the rest of the flock can live in peace and harmony.

I know the Welsh harlequin is young and not as horny as Fergus, but even seeing the W/H mate with the girls the few times he has is so much more gentle then Fergus. It might be because the W/H is a smaller breed of duck and not as rough, or because this Drake has a gentle personality.

I know i have the tough decision to either,

Keep the Welsh Harlequin, and keep Fergus in drake jail and let the flock live in continued harmony

or

Rehome the Welsh Harlequin and risk having to keep Fergus in drake jail, if he is way to aggressive with the girls.

The only reason we got more ducks in the first place, was so Fergus could have more girlfriends and stop over breeding Downy. But after seeing these last few days of interaction with other ducks, I'm starting to realize Fergus might not have the best personality in the world and no matter how many girlfriends he has he seems to get obsessed with just one duck, and ends up over matting them and ignoring the rest of the group.

If this is the problem you can maybe rehome him to someone who wants just one duck (somepeople only want one but most places have a 2 at a time limit) or you can just keep him in the cage but it definitely sounds like he needs to be alone.

 

[SansDuck]

@onaharley can speak about permanent drake jail. And it does not make you a bad duck owner. You have to do what you do for the safety and peace of your flock. Maybe by end of fall Fergus will have calmed down enough that he can be with the flock once in a while. As long as he is close and can see everyone that is best you can do.

So you kept one WH drake back?

Good morning Miss Lydia, it's just such dramatic change in the flock once Fergus is separated, it's so peaceful and the whole flock act like ducks, swimming in the pool, foraging in the grass and just doing general duck stuff.

When Fergus was introduced just two days ago, everyone except Downy spent those two days running away from the huge terrifying Fergus. And if he did manage to catch one, it would always be the same ancona duck never the other two.

He completely ignored Downy, he'd rather spend energy chasing the same ancona girl each time when he can also give her a break, and mate with Downy when shes standing right next to him.

Plus Downys the only duck who doesnt run away from him in fear, and the same size as him. Its makes no sense to chase after the faster ancona girls, just to spend more energy to mate.

It was so heart wrenching hearing the poor ancona girl cry out as Fergus caught her for THIRD time that day.

Not only did Fergus grabbed her eye a few time but she would literally try to pull away from him as he was holding onto her neck, I honestly thought she was going to break her neck trying to pull away.

When Downy and Fergus started to mate, it was way more consenteral, with both parties head bobbing and getting close to one another.

This was just horrible to watch, I knew I had to separate Fergus.

And yes we kept the one Welsh Hariquen, so we have two drake, one currently in drake jail and four ducks living with the calmer, smaller drake.

The WH treats the ancona girls the way they should be treated, and mates with them so gently. And more importantly he gives everyone attention, and not just focuses on one girl.

Right now the wh and the ancona girls are in the kiddie pool and he is helping them clean their feathers and they are cleaning his feathers, it's super cute.

@Duck mommy 2019

We rescued Downy and Fergus when they were abandond in our neighborhood pound with another duck who passed away from a predator attack, I feel a duty to be their forever home so they never get abandoned again and face the risk of being predator food.

Besides, Pekins are common ducks for people to kill and eat.

Also Fergus was either born with a birth defect, or was attacked before he was abandoned here as he has one wing noticably shorter then the other, and unfortunately I dont see many people wanting a pekin with a wing defect that huge.
And I feel that puts him more at risk at being a meal for someone.

Pekins are also so common you can find them everywhere (tsc is a common place) pekins that dont have a wing defect or personality issues, so I dont see a lot of people wanting Fergus, no offense to him.

I placed an ad on craigslist for the ancona drakes and in less then 22 hours someone had called multiple times wanting them, and paided the price I asked. I was able to put the history of the ancona drakes in the ad listing, and was able to answer any questions anyone had.

But since I didnt raise Fergus, I'm completely guessing his age, and I cant answer any questions on his personal history before he came into our lives. I just feel rehoming him would either lead to him being abandoned again or potinaly eaten by his next owner.

At least at my house, he gets clean water, fresh food everyday. Pool privilege on the weekends, and when they all get locked up at night, he gets to sleep by the flock separated by a fence of course.

It might not be the idea life, and he might not get all the girlfriends he wants. But if Fergus cant behave himself and cant treat his ladies like queens, then he dosnt deserve them in my opinion.