4 week old ducklings, one drake is suddenly attacking all the rest

[damiansarah]

We've got 7 bantam Silver Appleyard ducklings, 4 weeks old as of today. I'm pretty sure we've got 3 drakes in the bunch, and one has all of a sudden started attacking everyone else as of yesterday, and it seems worse when I'm within sight. He's terrorizing all of them constantly, not letting anyone else in the pool and if one dares to come in he immediately swims over and rips out the feathers on their back as they're fleeing. On the ground he's constantly nipping all of them if he can get close enough, he pulls out some feathers, grabs a wing and hold on, it's terrible. All of a sudden my sweet little flock is agitated and constantly harassed!

They are eating excellent organic feed mixed with some oats, they still have a red heat lamp at night as it's still cool up here but it's only keeping their little house at about 15 degrees Celcius so it's not too hot, plenty of yard space, greens every day, a pool, lots of water. I can't figure out what on earth is the problem, and why is he worse when I'm in sight? I tried spying on them today and everything seemed calmer but as soon as they saw me this same one starting going after everyone again.

Any ideas? I feel so bad for the rest being terrorized but I don't know what to do, and I miss my visits with the flock :-( - they would take turns sitting in my lap and sleeping on my feet and my arms.