So..last Spring we bought four Pekin Ducklings and twenty other chicks to add to our farm. I could not wait for those duck eggs! Well, it turns out my husband has a nack at picking out Drakes because that's what we ended up with ALL drakes! We did end up having to cull one that became lame, there was nothing we could do..chances are that was my one and only female. Anyway, as the ducks have come into age they are wanting to mate which is totally understandable BUT there are no female ducks to mate with so they have been going after my hens! In particular my Rhode Island Reds, one poor hen is so small because she hasn't been able to eat with the flock, she actually has to run for her life to the pig area and eats pig scraps
! I've been trying to find a home for them because we don't particularly like to eat duck but to no prevail, apparently nobody wants drakes and I have no good area for them. In the meantime, I've tried to brake this habit..of course I've had no success. Yesterday, I open up the coop and out come the chickens and again the Reds stay behind hesitant to come off the roost and sure enough when they do all three ducks go after them. Then when the ducks failed to get a Red they attack one of my Black-Laced Wyandotte hens, get on top of her and try to mate. They seem to do this as a group, so my poor hen has two ducks on top of her holding the back of her head down and climbing on her back. Well that WAS IT!
I told my husband,
"I don't care anymore, I tried to find them homes..They have to be culled or they are going to end up killing one of my chickens!" So, when my husband gets home I get everything ready for doing the deed. I get dress in coveralls (it's cold here in MI)and we go out to the run. Well, whoever said ducks are easy to catch must have never tried to catch one-those guys are faster than they look and they flap their wings to make it even harder. I eventually caught the first one that my husband had nicknamed Double D for "Dickhead Duck" (I know...I'm sorry! He has that name for a reason though, he is the alpha duck and to earn that title he had to be a bit aggressive with the other drakes, for example; the last nice weekend we had before winter really hit I had filled up their pool so they could get one last bath. He would not let the other ducks get in until after he was in and had first bath. So he earned DD). Anyway back to the story, I caught DD and handed him to my husband until I could get back over the fence..my husband handed DD back to me and he immediately nuzzles his head in my hair and laid his head on my shoulder...my husband was like, "Now that's too freaking cute" "ahhh, look how sweet he is.." and all the frustration and anger I had for these ducks melted away! Needless to say no one was culled! We caught each of them and built a temp house for them in my fruit garden area. I will have to figure out something else when Spring arrives but for now it will do. So...Double D threw his pride out the window and himself on the metaphoric grenade and saved his pack! He's not such a 'DD' after all! 
Anyway thought I would share that funny story. BTW: Does anyone know how many females I need with three drakes?
! I've been trying to find a home for them because we don't particularly like to eat duck but to no prevail, apparently nobody wants drakes and I have no good area for them. In the meantime, I've tried to brake this habit..of course I've had no success. Yesterday, I open up the coop and out come the chickens and again the Reds stay behind hesitant to come off the roost and sure enough when they do all three ducks go after them. Then when the ducks failed to get a Red they attack one of my Black-Laced Wyandotte hens, get on top of her and try to mate. They seem to do this as a group, so my poor hen has two ducks on top of her holding the back of her head down and climbing on her back. Well that WAS IT!I told my husband,
"I don't care anymore, I tried to find them homes..They have to be culled or they are going to end up killing one of my chickens!" So, when my husband gets home I get everything ready for doing the deed. I get dress in coveralls (it's cold here in MI)and we go out to the run. Well, whoever said ducks are easy to catch must have never tried to catch one-those guys are faster than they look and they flap their wings to make it even harder. I eventually caught the first one that my husband had nicknamed Double D for "Dickhead Duck" (I know...I'm sorry! He has that name for a reason though, he is the alpha duck and to earn that title he had to be a bit aggressive with the other drakes, for example; the last nice weekend we had before winter really hit I had filled up their pool so they could get one last bath. He would not let the other ducks get in until after he was in and had first bath. So he earned DD). Anyway back to the story, I caught DD and handed him to my husband until I could get back over the fence..my husband handed DD back to me and he immediately nuzzles his head in my hair and laid his head on my shoulder...my husband was like, "Now that's too freaking cute" "ahhh, look how sweet he is.." and all the frustration and anger I had for these ducks melted away! Needless to say no one was culled! We caught each of them and built a temp house for them in my fruit garden area. I will have to figure out something else when Spring arrives but for now it will do. So...Double D threw his pride out the window and himself on the metaphoric grenade and saved his pack! He's not such a 'DD' after all! Anyway thought I would share that funny story. BTW: Does anyone know how many females I need with three drakes?
