Galaxyfalcon
Songster
Hello!
We have 7 ducks. 4 of them are "ducklings" and this is their first adult summer/fall. For the most part, all of our ducks have molted and are well underway with regrowing beautiful feathers for winter. Most of the girls have already stopped laying, and the boys have calmed down and aren't very interested in mating any more.
However, we have one female duck and one boy, who are not following along with the rest of the flock. The female is still laying, and she hasn't started molting yet. The boy is still really randy and mate-happy, so he'll still try to chase and mate the girls. We've been keeping him separated a bit so he doesn't ruin the growing feathers on the other girls. We do keep him more often with his girlfriend, who is the female that's still laying (she's on the bottom of the pecking order). They get along swimmingly and he doesn't over mate her or anything. We are worried they might not molt in time before temperatures start to drop later in fall.
Are there any suggestions on helping ducks end their summer mate phase and transition into their molt time? Maybe we're getting ahead of ourselves since it's just October, but the fact that these 2 are the last hold outs had us a little concerned.
We have 7 ducks. 4 of them are "ducklings" and this is their first adult summer/fall. For the most part, all of our ducks have molted and are well underway with regrowing beautiful feathers for winter. Most of the girls have already stopped laying, and the boys have calmed down and aren't very interested in mating any more.
However, we have one female duck and one boy, who are not following along with the rest of the flock. The female is still laying, and she hasn't started molting yet. The boy is still really randy and mate-happy, so he'll still try to chase and mate the girls. We've been keeping him separated a bit so he doesn't ruin the growing feathers on the other girls. We do keep him more often with his girlfriend, who is the female that's still laying (she's on the bottom of the pecking order). They get along swimmingly and he doesn't over mate her or anything. We are worried they might not molt in time before temperatures start to drop later in fall.
Are there any suggestions on helping ducks end their summer mate phase and transition into their molt time? Maybe we're getting ahead of ourselves since it's just October, but the fact that these 2 are the last hold outs had us a little concerned.
