ADVICE? I think I have too many boy ducks!

[pixielauren]

Hi all,

I bought six unsexed Pekin ducklings from Tractor Supply Co. a couple months ago. I admit that I was just overcome by their cuteness. I've had Muscovy ducks before (I still have one male left from that group), and I have 15 chickens too. So I'm a semi-experienced keeper of flocks.

My partner and I are vegetarians so we will not eat these ducks under any circumstance. Nor would we give them to someone who would eat them. Now that the ducks are old enough to quack I think I have 5 boys and 1 girl (literally the worst possible outcome, honestly).

I assume I'm going to have to separate the girl from the boys at some point.

Do any of you have experience with flocks where there are way more boys than girls? What have you done? I hate to think I'd have to put this girl somewhere by herself! -- that's so sad to me. Can I put her with my chickens, I wonder? Can I just give the boys a strong talking-to and tell them to be nice to their one girl? Because I live in Ohio I can't just go buy one girl duckling (through any legal channel anyway) because we have a six duckling/chicks law -- you must buy six at a time (which is how I ended up with six Pekins in the first place).

So ... Advice, stories to share? What would you do if you were me?

THANKS

 

[LillyAcresFarm]

You can put bed with the chickens and just let the drakes be on their own. They would definitely kill her during mating, they all would be on her. Before I bought more female ducks I had two drakes and my female Pekin stayed in my chicken run and she had her own baby pool. She is with all my other ducks now but I have a lot more females now. You’d either need to rehome her but with all those males you’d need around 4-5 ducks per drake.

 

[21hens-incharge]

I would be finding homes for those males asap.

You really need several females to each male in order for her to be even remotely safe.

Can she live with the chickens? Yes but she doesn't speak chicken. She needs duck friends.....and definitely not a bunch of rowdy boys.

I ordered duckling from Cackle hatchery and got exactly what I ordered. I wanted ONE drake and ordered ONE drake. I ordered 6 females and got 6 females.
While my guy is mating the females he has enough just to himself no one is getting beat up.

You may have to wait til spring to order females but you may also find some on craigslist. Lots of people get overwhelmed with the winter keeping and rehome them.

 

[AngelaY]

You can separate her and just one boy. The two of them will be happy together, I had one girl and one boy for a while and they got along great!

 

[HollowOfWisps]

You can keep one male, the female then add 6 more females and re-home the other drake's. You can re-home the female on Craigslist and keep an all drake flock. I wouldn't recommend keeping a single female duck with the chickens. Ducks need other ducks for socializing. If you could even find her a female on Craigslist then keep the two with the hens separate from the drake's that could work as well.

 

[MadamPoofyBrow]

If you are able to separate them, you could keep her with one of the males and keep the others in a drake flock. I successfully kept an all-drake flock for awhile and everyone seemed happy. Otherwise, you're going to need to rehome them or find a lot more hens.
I have also successfully kept a lone duck with chickens, but he was a rescue and grew up that way - I'm not sure how happy she would be leaving her duck friends to live with chickens.

 

[Critter721]

Where in Ohio are you?

 

[Critter721]

Where in Ohio are you?

Also, who told you about this 6 duck minimum? Never heard of it, and I've lived in Ohio for 15 years.

 

[swampfox440]

Where in Ohio are you?

Ohio where in Ohio?

 

[ChocolateMouse]

Also, who told you about this 6 duck minimum? Never heard of it, and I've lived in Ohio for 15 years.

Been here my whole life, it's a real law.
http://codes.ohio.gov/orc/925.62v1

Don't have a solution for OP though that doesn't involve separating the girl or removing a few boys. In nature the boys would fight and the spares would get eaten. Ducks are R strategists and there's no room for extra boys in the wild. Not sure there's a solution that makes OP happy. Could just rehome the girl....