Breeding Ducks

[protodon]

In the case of ducks, once they are bonded is there any reason to keep them in a breeding pen all day? Maybe just to collect their eggs? Because so far, I've yet to see any of my ducks mating with ducks of different age groups.

 

[froggie71]

I'm not sure about all kinds of ducks, but we have runners, swedes and khaki campbells. The runner drake mates with anyone and everyone.

 

[protodon]

I have more drakes then hens. During the summer i had 5 BS cross drakes 2 purebred BS and then 4 hens. They stayed in 3 different groups. The groups that they hatched in. I haven't seen any of the 6 month+ ducks mating yet, so I'm not sure if they will stay in their groups for mating as well. But I plan to keep some purebred pekins as breeders for meat ducks but I don't want them to be penned up so much.

 

[kawonu]

We have calls and they have to be kept separate as the drakes will mate with any of the others.

 

[CityChicker]

They won't stay separate. I am not sure what you mean on their sexes, but if you mean the 2 purebred Swedish are drakes too, meaning 7 drakes to 4 hens, you will almost certainly have fighting as well. I have not had a lot of issues with drakes fighting in my flock, but I always keep a minimum of 1-2 hens per drake (and sometimes like this year, I have some groups with up to 5 hens per drake) and never more than two drakes per pen. If you want to keep 7 drakes together, you will need a *lot* of hens to avoid fighting, probably upwards of 15-20. They are all going to mix and mingle regardless.

 

[protodon]

Quote:
Just to clear up, I have 4 groups of ducks all free range.

2 BS drakes, 1 KC hen and 1 Indian Runner hen.
2 BS cross, one of each sex(used to be 2 of each sex but i gave a pair away)
3 BS cross drakes
4 gold star hybrid hens. 4 cayuga drakes. These are only 3 months old so no mating yet.

The first 3 groups have never interacted mating wise. My two purebred swedish seem to guard their hens pretty well. They even thwart my rooster's advances on their hens and annoyingly there are many. I will be downsizing on the number of drakes I have though.

 

[CityChicker]

Whoa! So, you have a total of 10 drakes and 7 hens?

You are going to have fighting eventually unless you have a *huge* area and probably even then. Trust me. In a flock situation with 7 females, you might have fighting with even more than two drakes. Mine do well when I keep them in the groups they were raised in, but I still keep them separated by fences, no more than two drakes per group. Whether or not they have interacted *yet*, they will. If they all free range and are not physically separated, they will eventually begin to mix and mingle. That is what your question was, right? They *will* mate with each other. I can almost guarantee it.

Domestic ducks are very gregarious, sexual and otherwise. They do not form any sort of significant pair bond in the truest sense. Yes, they do bond on some level with the group they were raised with, but I have never seen what I would call a true pair bond where they won't mate with other birds. They may have their favorites, but I have never seen a monogamous domestic duck. If they can reach each other, they will mate with each other.