A lot of quacking since separating

[Beth42]

Hi - I hatched some runners this year and now they have all reached maturity, I have separated them as I have 10 boys and 5 girls. I did this a week and a half ago, and a couple of the girls have been quacking a lot since, which encourages the quieter ones to join in. They would stop when the boys came to see them during their free range time, but we have just gone into 'flockdown' for avian flu so it has ramped up even more!

I have moved the girls into a run where they can see the boys today to see if that helps.

My next solution would be put one of the boys back in with them.

Just wanting to know from others experiences if this will help? or if they will settle down eventually?

many thanks

 

[_-Captain BRM-_]

They will definitely settle down eventually. Meanwhile just give them fun things to play with and distractions. I wouldn't add the boys back in as you will just have to restart the process of separating them.

 

[HollowOfWisps]

It takes a couple of weeks sometimes even up to a month for ducks to adjust to new situations. They will eventually calm down it takes my hens usually 2 weeks after separating from the boys in the spring and after that they act like they don't even exist.

 

[Beth42]

Thanks both - that's encouraging. We are semi rural but still have close neighbours and with many of them working from home these days, I don't want to annoy any of them!

 

[BabyGotQuack]

We rehomed the majority of our drakes a couple weeks ago. The remaining flock was acting weird for the first little bit, not so much quacking like you’re having, but they wouldn’t swim in their pool and wouldn’t hang out in their usual spots. Almost exactly at the 2 week mark they were back to their old selves swimming and in their usual hang outs.