Cred
In the Brooder
- Oct 31, 2015
- 17
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I have 6 8-month old ducks, 1 Cayuga drake and 2 hens and 1 Welsh Harlequin drake and 2 hens. I'm aware of the recommended 1 drake to 3 or more hens but we lost 2 hens to predators in early summer.
I watch them carefully to make sure this 1:2 ratio remains civil and from what I had observed had been working well. And I wondered if free ranging helped as the females have space to get away from the males.
However, within the last week I've been finding many feathers in the coop when I let them out in the morning. I'm concerned that the males are being too agressive while they're confined and the females can't get away. This morning I noticed my one female welshie looked rather disheveled and am now worried about her.
Since its winter and we live Ontario, days are well below freezing so I had been leaving them in the coop until 10am once they were just finished laying- so they would lay indoors and I could get them right away before the eggs froze.
Some of my questions are, is this happening because:
- the coop doesn't allow the females to get away from the drake and they should be separated overnight?
-is it that leaving them in the coop until 10am is too long? And they might fare better if I let them out earlier?
-is that it is just now becoming a problem because they are getting older and more aggressive and thus need to be separated from the ducks while locked in the coop?
And as a final question, how do you separate and herd your ducks and drakes in at night when they've been mixing during the day?
I watch them carefully to make sure this 1:2 ratio remains civil and from what I had observed had been working well. And I wondered if free ranging helped as the females have space to get away from the males.
However, within the last week I've been finding many feathers in the coop when I let them out in the morning. I'm concerned that the males are being too agressive while they're confined and the females can't get away. This morning I noticed my one female welshie looked rather disheveled and am now worried about her.
Since its winter and we live Ontario, days are well below freezing so I had been leaving them in the coop until 10am once they were just finished laying- so they would lay indoors and I could get them right away before the eggs froze.
Some of my questions are, is this happening because:
- the coop doesn't allow the females to get away from the drake and they should be separated overnight?
-is it that leaving them in the coop until 10am is too long? And they might fare better if I let them out earlier?
-is that it is just now becoming a problem because they are getting older and more aggressive and thus need to be separated from the ducks while locked in the coop?
And as a final question, how do you separate and herd your ducks and drakes in at night when they've been mixing during the day?