Aggressive Drake

[Nyssa03]

I was just wondering if anyone has found one breed of drake to be more or less aggressive than another. We have Indian Runners, Saxony and Ancona. We kept the males separate until the last couple of weeks -( I want to gather eggs to incubate). There are two drakes and 10 ducks in the Saxony group, but the two drakes seems to gang up on the weakest female instead of spreading their attention around to everyone. That also happened at first with the Runners, but they have seemed to settle in with their girls and are still quite aggressive but not so much as a gang. The Ancona is a different story - he was raised with his girls and only separated for a short time, seems to stick mostly with his girls (they are in the same enclosure as the Saxony's)
Right now I have one Saxony girl in our "hospital" because they just wouldn't leave her alone and she looks pretty stressed (loss of feathers, trying to find places to hide etc.
I would just like to know how other people handle this kind of situation. I have read lots of books and have found nothing that really explains the best way to keep them other than the ratio of males to females. Is it better to keep them together all year? or is separating them the best plan?
Any ideas would be much appreciated. Thanks in advance.

 

[Amiga]

It depends on the drakes. I have heard that Pekin drakes have one of the worst reputations, and that runners can be rough, too. We have a buff drake and he is okay but he does pick on one buff so half the year we have two flocks. Bean and his two buff girls, and Romy the buff with the runner girls. Weird.

I have heard that Dutch Hookbill drakes are generally pretty mellow.

Separation is the way to go unless you can rehome someone. Often things cool down after mating season.

 

[lynnee]

I had a problem with my two drakes attacking the weakest duck and it got so bad the duck started to bleed so what I did was I kept the dominant male and culled the other and I haven't had any problems since and they are even quieter at night

 

[Nyssa03]

Since we only have the 2 drakes, and 10 ducks, I'm thinking the ratio is not really the problem. Has anyone any experience with trimming the (maybe not the right terminology) "spurs" of the drakes? Some of my ducks are actually getting scrapes on their backs and a lot of missing feathers. I have heard of some kind of "saddle" for chickens, but don't know about ducks - and with the number I have that really doesn't seem like a practical solution. Any other ideas?