2019 Spring Ducklings are here!

[SailorNoMore]

@Magnolia Ducks = Looks like the cat would rather you named her dinner.

Of the two cats I have, this is the one I am sure that would attack the duckling by watching how intent he watches a bird outside of the window. I would not be comfortable with either cat being alone with the duck.

 

[Texag87]

I semi trust our Lab with the ducks but not the ducklings (7 weeks) he won’t be a problem unless they try to fly. In fact, my drake was so frustrated about not being able to get to the ducklings that he bit my lab as he walked by. My Lab just looked back at me as to ask what he should do.

 

[Magnolia Ducks]

Both my cats find the ducklings boring from day old on. One of the cats is fascinated by the hatching eggs but as soon as they hatch loses interest. The other cat is good at killing things outside, squirrels and rabbits, but doesn't touch ducklings. He will flock with The older ducks if they are out. The dog is protective.

 

[SailorNoMore]

Surprise is 5 days old. Being a single hatch she is socializing with us very well.

 

[Maddog_photog]

My Swedish Blue bb’s are cozying up to me despite having just come home on Friday, they are so much more imprinted? Bonded? than my Pekins before them. I have no idea how that happened other than I feel much more confident handling them than my two Pekins (first ducks EVER!)

 

[Magnolia Ducks]

My Swedish were always the sweetest.

 

[Magnolia Ducks]

@SailorNoMore she's so cute. I want her.

 

[SailorNoMore]

I have a question. I am trying to integrate the four I incubated on 4/30 into the flock with their mothers and the drake. The four mothers get along peacefully, for the most part, with their four kids. The drake will occassionally charge toward the group of three drakes and one hen that I call the juveniles, and veer off after they start moving away as a group. That I can accept. Where I get mad is when he tries to breed the hen, she is less than three months old, I do not feel that she is ready. The drake does not chase his flock of four hens when he mates them but he sure chases the young hen. If I am around I will blast him with the water hose. If I see it on camera I will go out and chase him into the coop. So far he has spent two nights in the drake jail (dog crate inside the coop) and today will make the second night in the back half of the coop building where he can hear but not see the rest of the flock. I will let him join the flock again tommorow but as each day passes he comes closer to being removed from the flock to either being raised by himself until early spring before breeding the flock for us to inncubate in spring or else to take him to the auction house. I have three younger hens in brooders in the house growing up to integrate with the rest of the flock later. I need any advice about how to get the drake to accept the new additions to the flock.

 

[Texag87]

I have a question. I am trying to integrate the four I incubated on 4/30 into the flock with their mothers and the drake. The four mothers get along peacefully, for the most part, with their four kids. The drake will occassionally charge toward the group of three drakes and one hen that I call the juveniles, and veer off after they start moving away as a group. That I can accept. Where I get mad is when he tries to breed the hen, she is less than three months old, I do not feel that she is ready. The drake does not chase his flock of four hens when he mates them but he sure chases the young hen. If I am around I will blast him with the water hose. If I see it on camera I will go out and chase him into the coop. So far he has spent two nights in the drake jail (dog crate inside the coop) and today will make the second night in the back half of the coop building where he can hear but not see the rest of the flock. I will let him join the flock again tommorow but as each day passes he comes closer to being removed from the flock to either being raised by himself until early spring before breeding the flock for us to inncubate in spring or else to take him to the auction house. I have three younger hens in brooders in the house growing up to integrate with the rest of the flock later. I need any advice about how to get the drake to accept the new additions to the flock.

I feel your pain there. My old drake bites his kids if they get through the temp fence separating the pens of the old ducks and the young ones. He crooks his head through the welded wire fence to do this. This week @Magnolia Ducks gave me a sweet, pretty WH so Bandit would have a 4th hen. He was mean to her, pulling feathers and such so I put her in with the younger ones. Drakes can be so bad

 

[WannaBeHillBilly]

I have a question. I am trying to integrate the four I incubated on 4/30 into the flock with their mothers and the drake. The four mothers get along peacefully, for the most part, with their four kids. The drake will occassionally charge toward the group of three drakes and one hen that I call the juveniles, and veer off after they start moving away as a group. That I can accept. Where I get mad is when he tries to breed the hen, she is less than three months old, I do not feel that she is ready. The drake does not chase his flock of four hens when he mates them but he sure chases the young hen. If I am around I will blast him with the water hose. If I see it on camera I will go out and chase him into the coop. So far he has spent two nights in the drake jail (dog crate inside the coop) and today will make the second night in the back half of the coop building where he can hear but not see the rest of the flock. I will let him join the flock again tommorow but as each day passes he comes closer to being removed from the flock to either being raised by himself until early spring before breeding the flock for us to inncubate in spring or else to take him to the auction house. I have three younger hens in brooders in the house growing up to integrate with the rest of the flock later. I need any advice about how to get the drake to accept the new additions to the flock.

Young drakes are like young male humons: Once the hormones take over, the brain is meaningless. The only way to keep your young ducks safe is to keep either them or the drake on a »see but no touch« protocol. - Meaning divided by a fence, with a mesh too small for the drake to fit his head through. Sturdy posts, you wouldn't believe how much energy a drake can develop when he wants to impress the gals, last year Erpelchen my Buff Orpington drake snapped off the (thin) bamboo posts i had used to fence in the tomato plants, to let the ducks feast on the tomatoes. - He would the stand guard and raise the alert when i came out.
Is your drake able to flap over a fence? If yes, you may want to have a higher fence or build an aviarium for him as a temporary dwelling.