Aggressive Male Pekin

[thedourkes]

Hi,

We adopted six Pekins earlier this year without initially knowing their sexes, but it turns out there are 4 females and 2 males. One of the males recently started being incredibly aggressive and has injured some of the females, and they now have patches on their necks that are almost bare. The entire unit is very bonded to each other and they all panic whenever any of them gets separated so I am hesitant to try and re-home him but we are unsure of what our other options might be other than separating them when we can. They are free range on our property/pond during the day and sleep in a coop at night. We adore our feathered little friend, but I don't want my sweet females to continue to be attacked. We have raised mallards in the past but this is our first batch of Pekins and we have been learning a lot. Any suggestions about how we can protect our females would be greatly appreciated!

 

[LT71689]

Your other option to separating them is to get a lot more girls (at least 4, 6 or more would be better)

Itll take some getting used to but eventually (a few days) the flock would get used to not having the ornery one around and he'd settle in to wherever he was rehomed to. People break up and add to their flocks all the time. They'd probably be a bit noisy about it for a little while but they'd be okay.

 

[Duck mommy 2019]

anyway you can make two coops? keep the girls in one and the boys in another. as long as the boys cannot see the girls, they will not fight.

 

[thedourkes]

Your other option to separating them is to get a lot more girls (at least 4, 6 or more would be better)

Itll take some getting used to but eventually (a few days) the flock would get used to not having the ornery one around and he'd settle in to wherever he was rehomed to. People break up and add to their flocks all the time. They'd probably be a bit noisy about it for a little while but they'd be okay.

Thank you for your response! We were hoping to keep the flock relatively small, so it sounds like we will just have to look for a new home for him. Hopefully he will settle in nicely wherever he ends up!

 

[thedourkes]

anyway you can make two coops? keep the girls in one and the boys in another. as long as the boys cannot see the girls, they will not fight.

Thank you for that suggestion! Most of the aggression seems to be when they are swimming in the pond during the day, which is strange. He is pretty well behaved when they're playing in the yard and in their coop. I think we might just end up needing to find a new home for the little troublemaker.