Big ducks & little ducks together... questions

[donnavee]

We have a male & female Magpie & a female Blue Swedish. Then, we have 2 male & 4 female calls. They have all been brought up together and everything seemed fine until lately. The male Magpie has started mating with his "big girls" - no problem. Suddenly, he decided he likes one of the little call females who doesn't seem to care for this big lug chasing her around. He has caught her a couple times and seems to be trying to mate her, but we always intervene. We aren't sure if a duck that is so much larger could actually manage to mate with a little call, but we are concerned he could hurt her. Does anyone have experience with this? We would prefer not to keep them separated all the time. She can fly and he can't, but she doesn't fly away, which she could easily do. They free range in a large area, so boredom isn't the problem.

Thanks for any info/ suggestions.

 

[bt03]

There is a possibility that if he is larger than her that he could hurt her while trying to mate. The pressure of him on top could cause leg injuries if she is not positioned correctly or if there is something under her he could really injure her without knowing or meaning to. If she won't fly away it might be in her best interest if you separate them.

 

[Amiga]

Yes, when the mating urge strikes, it seems to cause drakes to disregard such things as size difference. I'd keep them separate, as much of a pain in the neck as that is likely to be.

 

[donnavee]

Yeah, we were hoping for one big happy family. Normally the male call keeps his girl protected, but he is molting right now and doesn't seem to care too much. I wouldn't mind getting rid of the big drake, but hubby is attached to him. So for now, we will keep them separated. It's funny, one of the little call females did this really funny dance, lowering her head and strutting around the big male today. I don't know if that meant she liked him or not - naturally, he was only interested in the one that had no interest in him. Ducks