Ancona Ducks

[QuackerJackFarms]

Thats how it goes durring winter, once the grass is up good and the bugs are out they really start foraging a lot. The girls are better foragers than the boys though.

Well he seems pretty happy. My kids just love him. This morning he tried to fly to the feed area like the mallards do, only ... he got about 6 inches off the ground. I literally laughed out loud. And he's not sure what to think of my dog. My other 3 stay close to her all day and he's like.. "Hey guys, you know that's a DOG right?" I'll try to get a picture of it. Too Funny!

Ducks are so therapeutic.

 

[m.kitchengirl]

My Ancona drake has begun stalking & attempting to mount my chickens. He won't leave them alone.
I think he may need to move on to somewhere with more ducks for him. I don't think my two are enough for his appetite.
Any suggestions?

(I have locked the chickens into an area of the yard where he can't get to them, but the girls are all a tither back there & I am worried he will hurt or kill them if this continues.)

 

[QuackerJackFarms]

My Ancona drake has begun stalking & attempting to mount my chickens. He won't leave them alone.
I think he may need to move on to somewhere with more ducks for him. I don't think my two are enough for his appetite.
Any suggestions?

(I have locked the chickens into an area of the yard where he can't get to them, but the girls are all a tither back there & I am worried he will hurt or kill them if this continues.)

Get him another girlfriend? (or 5)

 

[m.kitchengirl]

I am working on getting more gals, but they're a few months off & won't be big enough ladies until the fall.
I am keeping the chickens & ducks separated for now. The ducks go out in the morning, and I herd them into their enclosure in the afternoon so the chickens can get some time in the yard, too.
I am watching his ladies, and if he goes after me again like he did this morning, we'll have some real considering to do.
I picked his little behind up & paraded him all over the yard for all the species to see. He has been much less tough since, but we'll see how he is tomorrow.
I won't abide him attacking me.

 

[Chicken Crazy12]

Never had one attack a person before

I have one that is a butt to the young drakes coming of age, but he won't mess with the girls or me, so as long as he doesn't have to share his flock with young drakes he is perfect. I'm going to be moving him on though, because I have many I'll be hatching out next month and I'm going to bring in some silver anconas in April so I will have young drakes around and he can't be a bully to them while I'm deciding who to keep and who not to keep.

 

[Chicken Crazy12]

Oh, by the way I just listed an auction for hatching eggs in the other poultry and hatching eggs section

I'm going to ship out whatever is laid by wednesday.

The girls are laying like crazy and my incubator is full of eggs that won't be hatching till the 8th of Feb. Now is the time to get hatching eggs from me! I'm going to do a quick chicken egg hatch after the duck eggs are out, but then I'll be filling the bator back up with these eggs. I'm going to see about getting another incubator built so that I can set eggs weekly and use my old incubator as a hatcher, but that could be a while

So for now though I'll be selling hatching eggs!

 

[m.kitchengirl]

My naughty drake is at it again.
Yesterday morning he did his big dip two times, then ran at me. When I put my hand out he tried to bite me & was quickly carried around the yard in front of all the birds.
Today, same thing, except he did his big dip and then ran right for me when I opened the door to bring them their water.

My ducks are partially pets, but I don't want to breed more stand-offish, semi-aggressive ducks.
I understand that it is breeding season & he is just feeling his oats, but at what point do I give up the goat on this one?
Half the people say to roast him ASAP, that the thing with the chickens is dangerous, and another group act like I am trying to re-home my eldest son.

He has been a nice enough boy until now, but I would not classify him as friendly. With new females not arriving until May, and then only as ducklings, I see a long spring of keeping the chickens & ducks on separate rotations (he is firmly planted by the chicken coop right now, in fact, riling up the entire yard because they want OUT like they used to be able to do before he was caught accosting one of them) which is fine, but would YOU all breed from a drake with these traits?

I am not too enthusiastic about re-homing a duck like this either. It is a tough spot to be in.
Do most drakes behave this way? He came to me late & poorly socialized. Was it maybe just too late for this guy? (I re-homed his brother & sister because they were extremely aggressive and at that time Mr.B. was a very passive, if not fearful, little guy. Since they left he has become the big man on campus, rather than the recipient of their abuse.

Sorry to prattle on. I used to read other people's posts about this stuff & think, "Not my duck," now, here I am, asking questions I probably know the answers to.

 

[m.kitchengirl]

Friends to the rescue! A good friend of mine is bringing me a dog house to keep him cooling off in if he over breeds the girls. She says her boys are doing the same thing, and to get a big stick to walk around with.
I feel much better.

 

[crystaldegallina]

My personal belief is to cull anything mean or aggressive(to humans or their kin). Don't want to perpetuate a trait like that, nor do I want my animals to be stressed. Stress causes other issues too, low fertility, can effect egg production, immunity, etc. Not to mention I have a toddler, and while I never leave her unattended with any drake, rooster, animal, I just don't need to knowingly keep around something that is.

 

[toadbriar]

I just want to chime in to say that none of my boys have exhibited any sort of human aggressive behavior, so I don't consider it normal at all. The one who was rough on his girls was still fine with people. (But he went to the pot too, when he started chasing his 'favorite' girls off their nests to jump them... while a crowd of other girls were begging for his attention.)

There's always a drake surplus in the world, and lots of them are sweet tempered guys, who don't chase and bite. You really have the privilege to choose a fantastic drake, and it's a good thing because he'll father the entirety of your next generation. You can squeeze in a wonky hen here and there, but your boy mates everyone and really ought to be stellar.

What's especially obnoxious is that your guy doesn't have any other males around to ramp up his defensiveness. He's got a Hugh Hefner thing going on over there! He should be sitting pretty, not biting the hand that feeds him. Even when my boys were in the midst of testosterone madness, they were wrestling each other, not me!

NOT telling you what to do - just offering a perspective. It's nice when the flock reaches equilibrium, but it takes some doing to get there.