Breeding Ducks???

[CountryGirl1984]

I have 3 male ducks. I would like to get some baby female ducks soon so the boys have girls to hang out with. I am worried they will fight over them if I dont get a female for each of them. I wouldnt put them together until they were older. I would also like some duck eggs..heard they were delish!

Anyone know if my males will fight over females?

 

[Megan Amber]

Yes they will. At least mine would until there is an established dominance. And it could drive the poor girl insane. I had that happen once! We had to kill the drake just to get her to come out of hiding!

 

[CountryGirl1984]

Oh my, I could never kill my guys..I do see them fighting once in a while over the kiddie pool..but they usually fight for a minute and go back to what they were doing. How many females and how many males do you have?

 

[Kevin565]

You will need at minimum 6 ducks for your drakes. Honestly that's probably not enough either. Multiple drakes will gang rape ducks and sometimes even drown them.

 

[Megan Amber]

Well now I have a runner mix and and I have one and a half ducks per drake! That's really not enough like the last poster said however they are much kinder and two of them dont breed at all!

 

[Going Quackers]

Drakes need at least 2-3 ducks per, some argue more. Right now i have 4 per... it is going up to 5 and i have 4 new ducklings that just hatched earlier this week, so any ducks from that hatch will stay, so that will increase the ratios again.

My drakes have their favourites, BUT no way, no how could you do a 1:1 as drakes mature that drive gets worse and you risk your ducks(females) being brutalized. Yes, some boys are gentle, my oldest guy is but even still variety is good, so for best results more is better.

For my breed storey's guide suggests 6-10 for best breeding, which i am still a bit short on, but i have successfully bred a few times despite the lower ratios.

 

[Miss Lydia]

Well now I have a runner mix and and I have one and a half ducks per drake! That's really not enough like the last poster said however they are much kinder and two of them dont breed at all!

I'd like to see a pic of 1.5 ducks please.

 

[Megan Amber]

Maybe this is why mine have never gone broody?

 

[jdywntr]

You've gotten great advice so far. I would say that you would be best to have 3 per male, so 9 females. 12 ducks is alot to have so it is something to consider. There would most likely still be some fighting over females, especially at first. And remember you would need to wait until the girls are VERY close to breeding age to introduce them. I would say that you would be safest at 6 months as drakes don't care how old or large the female is. They will sometimes try to breed with young ducks that aren't remotely close to breeding.

 

[Going Quackers]

They will sometimes try to breed with young ducks that aren't remotely close to breeding.

Yep, i have had a few advances to the little girls here, fortunately, they don't try that hard as they have more willing parties and give up.