Bachelor pen for too many drakes

[Waddlewoods]

We have been duck owners since June of last year so we are going to be experiencing our first mating season. We had terrible luck with both our hatches and now have 6 drakes and only 4 hens. I know this is not good but they are pets and my kids are very attached. I told them we could try a bachelor pen for the boys and see if that works out before we decide to re-home.
We are in the process of building the bachelor pen which isn't the easiest of tasks in the Canadian winter so it's been slow. I keep a very close eye on the ducks and so far they seem to get along good but over the last few days I have noticed one of the drakes being a major bully to the other drakes. He chases them away from the food and water. I make sure they get their share though.

I personally would like to re-home some of the drakes as I obviously want more hens for eggs but I'm hoping to do so in the Spring when I can hatch some ducklings for the kids to hopefully help them accept the rehoming.

My questions are - will this behaviour change when they are in their bachelor pen? Does he need a time out? Any tips or tricks to making it work with this many drakes? How soon will mating season chaos begin?

 

[Miss Lydia]

Many on here have to put their drakes in Drake jail once hormones get going. I may even have to this year since I now have 3 Runner drakes [thanks to my females hatching 2 more drakes this past summer.] There was a member who at one time had a drake flock I think 4 he put up fencing where he had the 4 separated from each other but still by each other they just couldn't get to each other this was doing high hormone season. Sometimes they will zero in on one drake to the point of raping him. So being very observant is important
Mating season here in Mountains of Western NC usually starts in mid Feb.

@New duck mommy 2021 lives in Canada and she might be able to help more on when breeding season starts there.

 

[New duck mommy 2021]

It’s so hard cause done drakes don’t get along once hormones start
A lady took 4 drakes from me to have just a boy group
At one years old things went crazy
They started ti bully one really bad
She removed him for safety then the next one got bullied
She separated into 2 sets of pairs
Tbey would spend all day running the fence line arguing
She finally caved and got girls
I have had to re home 2 drakes
I had to many so one went to a friend
The last one was a great drake just to big for some of my girls he liked to mate
I worried he would hurt them by accident
I now have 4 drakes and 15 girls
2 of my boys for some reason want to fight often and they don’t even mate the others ones girls
But it’s never to bad and my geese or my top drake tend to break it up quickly
Or I will grab them both and give them a lecture while having to sit on my lap looking at one another ( they hate this lol)
What I do to keep things running smoother is I have 3 heated water buckets and 3 feed dishes in the feed area
This way if one gets pushed from a dish there is multiple options
Out if the feed area I many water buckets or swimming areas to keep them busy
These things seem ti work well for me
Breeding season hasn’t stopped here yet this year with all the nice weather but usually around zero to negatives they settle
But come spring they get crazy
With each year my boys get less crazy ! First year drakes are terrible
I do have an outside smaller pen if I do need to separate a group
One of my girls seems to be everyone favourites
So I often have to give her safety in high mate season
I also have separate pens for sleeping
My ducks will be a big flock but have groups within that flock
I house my 2 geese in one
A drake with his ladies in one ( 2 groups like this ) and my bigger group with 2 drakes ( who never argue ) with all their ladies. This prevents night fighting where they have nowhere to run and ganging up
Everyone gets a safe nights sleep
I honestly would suggest only keeping 2 drakes for the 4 girls
Hatching doesn’t always get you more girls
I learned this the hard way
One batch was all boys
That’s how I ended up sending them to a lady as all boy crew and a few others were sold separately
It’s better if you can find girls

 

[Waddlewoods]

It’s so hard cause done drakes don’t get along once hormones start
A lady took 4 drakes from me to have just a boy group
At one years old things went crazy
They started ti bully one really bad
She removed him for safety then the next one got bullied
She separated into 2 sets of pairs
Tbey would spend all day running the fence line arguing
She finally caved and got girls
I have had to re home 2 drakes
I had to many so one went to a friend
The last one was a great drake just to big for some of my girls he liked to mate
I worried he would hurt them by accident
I now have 4 drakes and 15 girls
2 of my boys for some reason want to fight often and they don’t even mate the others ones girls
But it’s never to bad and my geese or my top drake tend to break it up quickly
Or I will grab them both and give them a lecture while having to sit on my lap looking at one another ( they hate this lol)
What I do to keep things running smoother is I have 3 heated water buckets and 3 feed dishes in the feed area
This way if one gets pushed from a dish there is multiple options
Out if the feed area I many water buckets or swimming areas to keep them busy
These things seem ti work well for me
Breeding season hasn’t stopped here yet this year with all the nice weather but usually around zero to negatives they settle
But come spring they get crazy
With each year my boys get less crazy ! First year drakes are terrible
I do have an outside smaller pen if I do need to separate a group
One of my girls seems to be everyone favourites
So I often have to give her safety in high mate season
I also have separate pens for sleeping
My ducks will be a big flock but have groups within that flock
I house my 2 geese in one
A drake with his ladies in one ( 2 groups like this ) and my bigger group with 2 drakes ( who never argue ) with all their ladies. This prevents night fighting where they have nowhere to run and ganging up
Everyone gets a safe nights sleep
I honestly would suggest only keeping 2 drakes for the 4 girls
Hatching doesn’t always get you more girls
I learned this the hard way
One batch was all boys
That’s how I ended up sending them to a lady as all boy crew and a few others were sold separately
It’s better if you can find girls

Uuggg. It's so hard. Yes I've noticed that with the warmer weather they seem to be more frisky. I keep a close eye on them and really it's just the one bully drake. Would removing him help or do you think the next drake in line will fill in as the bully? It's just crappy because the bully drake is my 5 year olds favourite. Sure enough each of us has a different favourite.

My plan is to have 2 runs and 3 coops. So technically I can split the boys and girls and have a breeding area or "jail" if needed. I would then rotate who gets to free range our property each day. I did find that adding more water buckets and feed bowls helped but the bully drake is still just mean to all the other boys asides from 1.

 

[New duck mommy 2021]

Uuggg. It's so hard. Yes I've noticed that with the warmer weather they seem to be more frisky. I keep a close eye on them and really it's just the one bully drake. Would removing him help or do you think the next drake in line will fill in as the bully? It's just crappy because the bully drake is my 5 year olds favourite. Sure enough each of us has a different favourite.

My plan is to have 2 runs and 3 coops. So technically I can split the boys and girls and have a breeding area or "jail" if needed. I would then rotate who gets to free range our property each day. I did find that adding more water buckets and feed bowls helped but the bully drake is still just mean to all the other boys asides from 1.

I have been so lucky not to have a bully drake
My top drake is really good about keeping them all in line without being a jerk
But if your bully is gone another drake will step up and take the top drake spot but maybe be a gentle boy
Not all drakes become really bad
Maybe separate the bully with his favourite girl
That way he isn’t alone and he won’t pick on his number one lady
See how the others act with him moved
Once you add more girls and get ratios better try to reintroduce him. He may try to get top spot or he may be put in his place
The biggest worry is at night when locked in
They have no way to run away
I just made separation with chicken wire or hardware cloth panels
It doesn’t need to be built perfect as this is not to keep predators out
My coop is 100 % safe with it being a single garage with a cement floor
The ducks don’t break through
At bed my crews know exactly what pen is theirs and they head right in

 

[Miss Lydia]

It's so hard to part with any of my birds I get so attached. Then to have your 5 yrs old attached to one makes it even harder Hopefully you can work out a solution and keep the favorite one. Keep us updated on how it all goes.

 

[DasanAcres]

I've had a drake flock (up to 12 thanks to terrible luck at Tractor Supply) for a couple years now. Spring/mating season is the worst. I've had luck separating a bullied male and a friend from the rest of the flock for a few months and then reintroducing them to the flock in the fall without issues.

Your mileage may vary, but my experience has been that they tend to chill out on the bullying once it gets to fall and winter. And as long as nobody is getting too banged up or is picking on anyone smaller than them, I tend just to monitor things.

 

[nao57]

The fact that you have 1 drake already bullying the others, shows that you already have a problem. You can't ignore it. They will escalate their bullying behaviors.

You need to do something while the problem is manageable.

Now... what you can do...

You want to get rid of the BULLYING drake. YOU MUST. Because a drake like that is more likely to injure the hens than other drakes.

You can also watch which drakes are more gentle as you try to figure out which to keep.

You can try to put up an free ad to try to trade your excess drakes for some other birds like extra chickens, or some other pet or bird! (This seems fun to try!)

You could also ... I haven't tried this yet myself but there are people that say you can't take your poultry to meat processing places and they'll 'process' them for you for free. (Even if its not cheap its better to not DIY. And the kids don't need to know this.)

You could also try trading some of the birds for something like quayle or other things. This would let you build more knowledge to help your family, be more self sufficient and so on.

I did hear you say they are mostly pets. But this is a good time to at the same time have fun with learning to be more self sufficient, and trying to branch out into other areas of 'DIY'. Especially now that the economy is going down so badly so fast. Do something now while you still can.

Another option to try is see if someone will trade you some of the extra drakes for extra feed, or stored grain. A lot of people used to keep wheat stored in buckets or bins in their basements in this country. And that's still the case.

It will be fun to hear what you end up doing and I hope you feel the responses we gave you helped support you to find more than one option.

 

[Waddlewoods]

The fact that you have 1 drake already bullying the others, shows that you already have a problem. You can't ignore it. They will escalate their bullying behaviors.

You need to do something while the problem is manageable.

Now... what you can do...

You want to get rid of the BULLYING drake. YOU MUST. Because a drake like that is more likely to injure the hens than other drakes.

You can also watch which drakes are more gentle as you try to figure out which to keep.

You can try to put up an free ad to try to trade your excess drakes for some other birds like extra chickens, or some other pet or bird! (This seems fun to try!)

You could also ... I haven't tried this yet myself but there are people that say you can't take your poultry to meat processing places and they'll 'process' them for you for free. (Even if its not cheap its better to not DIY. And the kids don't need to know this.)

You could also try trading some of the birds for something like quayle or other things. This would let you build more knowledge to help your family, be more self sufficient and so on.

I did hear you say they are mostly pets. But this is a good time to at the same time have fun with learning to be more self sufficient, and trying to branch out into other areas of 'DIY'. Especially now that the economy is going down so badly so fast. Do something now while you still can.

Another option to try is see if someone will trade you some of the extra drakes for extra feed, or stored grain. A lot of people used to keep wheat stored in buckets or bins in their basements in this country. And that's still the case.

It will be fun to hear what you end up doing and I hope you feel the responses we gave you helped support you to find more than one option.

So since posting this thread we had a fox attack our flock. Luckily I saw it and scared him off but we did have an injured duck and drake which we brought inside for a week to heal up. They are totally fine now and have since been put back with the flock.
Funny thing is this bully drake has completely changed since the incident. He's so friendly and sweet now. So weird. Our drake bachelor bad is now nearly complete so hopefully that prevents anymore issues from arising. If not I will re-home.

Thank you for the replies!

 

[nao57]

Um... if you had a fox visit it will come back. They are too smart for their own good. Sorry to tell you that. You are going to have to strengthen and fortify the pen now. They can drop in from above also.