Adult male Duck breeding with my 7 week old Baby ducks

[fourgirls4us]

So, I just witnessed the rape of my 7 week old ducklings by my adult Mallard/ Peking Drake. Since about 3 days my huge, fully feathered yet still only 7 week old Peking ducks are now outside with my adult ducks. They are actually bigger than my 4 adult ducks but they are still only 7 weeks old. I was expecting some feather pulling and nipping while they get use to each other but not that my Drake already would breed with them. Is this ok? They love being outside on a 1/4 acre and have enough room to run away , but should I separate them? Can he " hurt" them? These are our first baby ducks.

 

[Kevin565]

. If he's raping them then yes I would advise separating them for awhile more. They are much too young to be worrying about mating.

 

[jdywntr]

I agree with Kevin. They are MUCH to young to be bred. They could be injured or killed. The drake is going by size, not age. They need to be protected and should not be with him until they are at least 4 months old.

 

[HollyDuckFarmer]

X3 Yep, 16weeks is the rule here too. But oh I saw the funniest thing today, mom mom who just "adopted" babies, she totally stomped on my drake for just getting near the babies. She bit him and really showed him who was boss. I had to break it up 4 times so he wouldnt get hurt! All the same, the babies won't be unsupervised around drakes for another 14.5 weeks.

 

[fourgirls4us]

The thing is they are bigger than he is! They are HUGE and fully feathered. He is a Mallard mix and they are Pekings, they dont seem to be getting hurt and I have no where separate to put them where they wouldnt be in a small pen and they love outside.