Rehoming drakes

[SlipperyGoose]

So I have 3 drakes and want to get more ducks. I'm well aware of the male:female ratio. I'm super attached to one of the drakes, so my only option is to rehome the other 2 drakes since I don't have the room for 9 females to join the flock. I have a duck house that's 16 sq feet, a covered enclosure that's 32 sq feet, plus a large fenced backyard and 5 acres that we plan to expand said back yard into so that about a full acre is fenced. With that said- do y'all ever worry that the ducks you raised will go to homes where they aren't loved on like pets? I have 2 daughters and I'm staying at home right now so our ducks are handled every day, pretty much all day. So I worry that if I got 5-6 straight run ducklings, if I ended up with too many drakes I'd be worried about who adopts them.

 

[Amiga]

It is something that has to be dealt with regularly - It can work out, but one needs to be cautious when rehoming.

There is a Free Rehoming forum, but it involves careful review of the person expressing an interest in taking the animal...

That's one reason I don't want to hatch any eggs - it would be rough to deal with extra drakes.

 

[Duck Drover]

We have enough ducks that we can put unrelated ducklings together into breeding groups and keep most of the drakes alive that way. We sell all our ducklings as a straight run but I can sex then very young so as long as there are equal numbers of hens and drakes I will call it a straight run and even mark which ones are which for the buyer.

If someone only wants hens the price is double so the buyer basically pays for a straight run but doesn't take the drakes. That gives us the ability to discount the drakes at a later time if necessary. Every now and then I sell drake groups as ornamental but sometimes they go for meat at the discounted price. We pick out the lowest quality drakes as a drake group since they won't be bred in order to keep the best drakes in breeding programs.

We also do drake trades. This allows us to put together breeding pairs using unrelated lines and it also gives us the most genetic diversity possible if we end up keeping any of our trades to breed with our flock. I only do this when I know the breeder to make sure the drakes are purebred and healthy.

So many people want the hens for eggs so I encourage them to get a pair and hatch ducklings so they can keep all their hens and sell the drakes or give them away. There are bird auctions where you can take surplus boys and the meat buyers will deal with them but I prefer to save drakes from the stress of an auction if they are going to have to die at the end of the day. It is a sad reality with birds that the males are the ones that are eaten while the females live to lay eggs.

Drake groups are ideal for certain people so you just have to find those people who want quiet working ducks that don't take maternity leave. People who have predator issues sometimes want to test their pens with "disposable" drakes before they invest in what they really want. I would rather they learn on the drakes than start with hens.

Drakes really are the best for people who want pet ducks they can diaper and walk on a leash. No egg laying in duck diapers or flighty nesting behavior that way! Drakes make great lovers while hens have female hormones on the brain, lol.

We want all of our ducks to have long lives so we do what we can to find a win-win situation but sometimes you might risk giving away drakes if you think it will make the drakes more appealing. People can tell you what you want to hear and leave with a duck dinner so you kind of need to accept that there is only so much you can do while the drakes are in your care.

 

[SlipperyGoose]

[quote name="Duck Drover" url="/t/1130699/rehoming-drakes#post_17471010"People can tell you what you want to hear and leave with a duck dinner so you kind of need to accept that there is only so much you can do while the drakes are in your care.[/quote]

I think that's what I'm going to have to focus on. I have 3 drakes because I wasn't sure I was ready to take on the tasks of caring for hens and collecting eggs and of course the risk of maybe not finding some and then I suddenly have more ducks! lol. While I'm now aware that it's unlikely that surprise babies will show up, I was still worried about it.

So I was considering having an all male flock. I'm still torn between the ideas of having all males or rehoming some males and getting all females next...

I don't plan to purposely breed my ducks, they're really just pets. Females give the added bonus of eggs (which we eat a lot of store-bought chicken eggs as it is) but the idea of having ducklings every spring sounds fun and like a great memory for my daughters to grow up with.

I'm just gathering the pros and cons of each scenario. Yall's advice is invaluable and I appreciate all of it! Thank you so much!