Aggressive Ducklings

[Firsttimeduckmumma]

Hi,
We have incubated 4 silver bantam ducklings which are now 10 weeks old and are now outside ... we have 3 drakes and 1 duck which we know is not a good ratio but couldnt bare to part with them so we"ve added some more ducks to the flock.
We are really surprised at how aggressive the ducklings are to the new adult ducks ... they chase and try to bite them and also wont let them drink or get to any food or water.
We initially separated them in the enclosure so that they could see each other for about a week now and every day spend a little time with the separation open (with me as supervisor)
Is there anything else we should be doing to make the coming together more smoother or should we be just letting them get on with it to find the pecking order ?
Any advice welcome

 

[nao57]

Would need to know age difference of the second group.

How much younger are they? And size is smaller too?

This would be a big deal because you have to have food and water to survive.

You could try to break up the core bigger group for a few days. Move some in an out in isolation. (They do this in prisons for a reason.)

 

[chickens really]

Set up different food and water stations. If the pen is large enough I would just leave them to figure it out on their own. My guess is you have introduced more Drakes into the equation therefore they are fighting. As long as no one get hurt just leave them together.

 

[Firsttimeduckmumma]

The new ducks are around a year old and are miniture appleyards so although bigger there is not a great difference in size , the silver bantams ducklings at the moment are almost at their size which would be slightly smaller.
That's a great idea about splitting the ducklings up and rotating the groups
Today I have let them all out to roam around the garden , they are staying separate but do seem much happier obviously I would love for them all to get along eventually because there is going to be time where the freedome of the whole garden is not practical.
Thanks so much for the advice x

 

[Firsttimeduckmumma]

Set up different food and water stations. If the pen is large enough I would just leave them to figure it out on their own. My guess is you have introduced more Drakes into the equation therefore they are fighting. As long as no one get hurt just leave them together.

Thank you for replying , yes I have provided lots of feed and water stations, the ducklings see the new ducks drinking and eating and then charge at them .... it does seem the duck out of my 4 ducklings is the worst for doing this and not the drakes although the drakes follow her lead , the new ducks I have brought in are definitely ducks, could this be the reason ? Is she feeling threatened by having more ducks?

 

[chickens really]

Thank you for replying , yes I have provided lots of feed and water stations, the ducklings see the new ducks drinking and eating and then charge at them .... it does seem the duck out of my 4 ducklings is the worst for doing this and not the drakes although the drakes follow her lead , the new ducks I have brought in are definitely ducks, could this be the reason ? Is she feeling threatened by having more ducks?

Yes it's possible. I would leave them. What looks bad to us is just normal Duck behaviour to them.

 

[Callender Girl]

When I chose my first four runner ducklings from a breeder, it turned out I had three drakes and one female. As soon as the boys got old enough to be "romantic," I added three adult runner girls to take the pressure off Quinn.

She seemed jealous and would try to run off the other girls when the drakes were trying to breed them. Eventually, everyone figured out how to peacefully co-exist. Good luck!

 

[nao57]

If they were teenagers you could give them math tests to crush their spirits.

 

[HollowOfWisps]

I have found that adding them in at increments helps. For example I will have my flock outside free ranging during the day and then add two of the new ducks with them where they have space to adjust. Then I keep them together for 1-2 days and then do the same thing with another duckling or two. Initially at first with any new additions there will be some picking at them, but with the smaller batches added in mine seem to adjust to th new ducks much faster.