Adding to the flock but my “dominant duck” keeps fighting with the new ones.

[clarka19]

I have slowly started introducing the new ducks. at first I let the new guys quarantine then showed them to each other so they could see them but not be with them. next I let them outside together and my less dominant duck kept going back and forth with the the new guys and his friend. After about a week of that i am trying to let them meet each other in a confined space to try and see if they could eventually be cooped up with each other and so far my dominant duck keeps starting fights with the newbies. Should I let this happen or should I keep separating them?

 

[Quatie]

If you don't see blood, you should let it play out. They need to work out the pecking order. them space so they can run away. I would put two water and two feed areas, then the duck can't dominate everything at once. You can also have them share the coop at night but with a barrier between them. You should see the fighting get less. Then let them completely share the coop at night. It will be hard first night no matter what you do. But after the first night in the coop together with no barriers, you should see the most improvement. It can still take a while before the flock will fully accept the new ducks. I have had ducks that integrate in days and others take a few months before being fully integrated.

 

[clarka19]

If you don't see blood, you should let it play out. They need to work out the pecking order. them space so they can run away. I would put two water and two feed areas, then the duck can't dominate everything at once. You can also have them share the coop at night but with a barrier between them. You should see the fighting get less. Then let them completely share the coop at night. It will be hard first night no matter what you do. But after the first night in the coop together with no barriers, you should see the most improvement. It can still take a while before the flock will fully accept the new ducks. I have had ducks that integrate in days and others take a few months before being fully integrated.

Sounds perfect! Thank you so much!

 

[Quatie]

I hope everything goes well.

 

[Percipen]

I'm going through this right now. It's been almost 4 weeks and my dominant drake is still going after my 6 new girls. They slept in the house together last night for the first time and he was picking on them for the first couple hours to the point where I was almost ready to separate him. But they calmed down and went to sleep. I do feel bad for the girls though. As soon as they see him coming they all scatter. Hopefully yours integrate a lot faster than mine.

 

[Quatie]

I'm going through this right now. It's been almost 4 weeks and my dominant drake is still going after my 6 new girls. They slept in the house together last night for the first time and he was picking on them for the first couple hours to the point where I was almost ready to separate him. But they calmed down and went to sleep. I do feel bad for the girls though. As soon as they see him coming they all scatter. Hopefully yours integrate a lot faster than mine.

My drake did that too with my new females. Now everyone is happy together. But it took a couple of months before it all settled down. It helped when they came of age and he started to see them as his girls. You just have to give it time. It can definitely be hard to watch. You raise them, love them, and hate to see anything happen to happen to them.

 

[Percipen]

My drake did that too with my new females. Now everyone is happy together. But it took a couple of months before it all settled down. It helped when they came of age and he started to see them as his girls. You just have to give it time. It can definitely be hard to watch. You raise them, love them, and hate to see anything happen to happen to them.

Thanks for the advice! So good to know that it will calm down eventually, not good that it will take so long. Ducks are as stubborn as they get it will be nice to one day have 1 complete flock again instead of these 2 mini flocks in the yard