5 new ducks

[IGmom]

We recently acquired 3 ducks through some trading. I don't know what breed they are, possibly one is a Pekin and the other two look mixed. We already had a Mallard Drake that someone gave us as a baby this spring. Well, now someone gave us a Mallard hen. Apparently all the ducks given to us were hatched out this spring as well.
Everyone goes into an enclosure at night as we have coyotes and owls. The Mallard drake has always had a large dog box with bedding to go into and he uses it at night only. A day or so ago I cleaned out their enclosure and put down fresh straw and added extra straw to the dog box. Well, I found an egg in there and thought the chickens were laying in there as they frequently go nosing around in the duck house. Not knowing how long it was in there I pitched it. Since I cleaned out the box and put in fresh straw there have now been two eggs in there and I noticed they are a strange blue/green color. I think it is the mallard hen laying but it is going to turn cold here in November.
Can someone tell me if I should take the eggs until she lays in the spring or is it normal for mallard hens to hatch out babies in the winter?
Also, I think I have 3 males(2 large mixes and 1 mallard) and two females(one large mix and 1 mallard). Will that be a problem during breeding season? Everyone appears to be getting along fine, we don't see any fighting at all at this point.

 

[Amiga]

More drakes than females can be a big problem during mating season. You need to be aware, and remember the ducks (girls) depend on you for their lives. It can get that serious.

Some choices are to separate the drakes, rehome some drakes, get more ducks (females).

 

[IGmom]

omg. Well, I traded my naughty geese for them so I hate to get rid of the little buggers. They don't cause any problems. I guess I better get some more girls. My pen is approx. 35x50. They share with the chickens. Do you think that is big enough to add more? And how many more girls do I need?
Thank you for replying. Greatly appreciated.

 

[needlessjunk]

Usually a good starting point is 3 ducks per drake. Sometimes you need more sometimes you can get away with less, but more is better especially since you have a few drakes not just one.

 

[Jessica89]

I have the same problem too!
I have two drakes and two ducks. They get along fine now but I am going to have to build a seperate enclosure and split them up and buy two more females!
I just can't get rid of the drakes!

 

[IGmom]

oh golly. I will try to find the people we traded our geese with and see if they have some females we can swap for our males. if that doesn't work I guess we will be restructuring our living qtrs. for the little cuties. Getting 7 more females just doesn't seem like a good option.

 

[IGmom]

I just caught one of the big ducks mating or trying to mate with my mallard female in the pool!!! He is sooo big and he completely submersed her. I chased him off but now I have to do some urgent separation. Can't decide if I should make a bachelor pad and leave the big girl with the two mallards or leave the three big ducks together, that would make 2 males and 1 female.

 

[Amiga]

I just caught one of the big ducks mating or trying to mate with my mallard female in the pool!!! He is sooo big and he completely submersed her. I chased him off but now I have to do some urgent separation. Can't decide if I should make a bachelor pad and leave the big girl with the two mallards or leave the three big ducks together, that would make 2 males and 1 female.

Since the females' lives and health depend on you, yes, you need to intervene here. Two males to one female sounds very very risky.

 

[Amykins]

Even a 1:1 ratio is dangerous when dealing with different breed sizes. It's not unheard of for a male to drown a female from overzealous breeding, even in the wild. Have you thought of getting more females, or do you not have the space for more duckies?

 

[IGmom]

We have the space, I'd guess about 2000 sq ft. that is shared with some chickens. But, I'd like to rehome the 3 big ducks, two males and one female. Originally I got them to keep my lonely male mallard company but through a trading process or 2 ended up with a male and female mallard and 2 large males(one big fat white one, and one mixed), and a mixed female.
We just separated the two males and put the two females in with the male mallard. She seems happy enough but the two males are just beside themselves. Changing their pools and separating them has really upset the ducks applecart. Maybe I should put the large female mixed duck back with the two other males?IDK, seems there is always a predicament with these males but at the time we got them we didn't know if male or female.