Breeding/Parent raised ducks in a mixed flock?

[Nimure]

Hi all,

I have tried looking for threads with more info, but I’ve had little luck so I decided to post here. Feel free to direct me elsewhere if I’ve missed something.

I currently have a mixed flock of a few hens and a few ducks. They seem to get on well enough.

One female mallard I’ve had since last year lays her eggs somewhat reliably in the hen nest boxes. My welsh harlequins are ~3.5 months old now I believe. The boys are molting and starting to get their drake coloration. I am currently assuming one WH male will pair up with the WH female, and the remaining male will pair up with the mallard but I’m not sure.

They’re all in a coop at night, and out in an elec fenced portion of the yard with a small kiddie pool during the day. I used to allow free ranging but I’ve lost too many animals so I quit.

I’d like to be able to let them incubate and raise babies themselves, but I have a lot of questions about that.

When can I expect them to start laying potentially fertile eggs? If they lay outside the coop, can I move the eggs inside to a nest box or will the females abandon them? Will it be safe for them to have/raise babies in a mixed flock setting, or does the mom (and babies) need to be separated?

If it matters, my WH ducks are very tame and friendly and will even sit in my lap still. The female mallard was always more wary of me despite hand raising her and 3 other mallards. The welshies have convinced her to be a bit friendlier with me, but she is still a bit wary.

 

[citymeetscountry]

So I’m not really sure how many ducks you have (it sounds like 4? You said ducks and hens but ducks/hens can mean the same thing while drake is a male). If you have 2 females and 2 males that is not a good ratio and will likely cause problems (if not this year definitely next year). They don’t really care breed and will just mate with whatever female the male can get ahold of. As far as laying usually around 5ish months (and if you’ve seen mating you can usually assume fertile). Ducks don’t go broody in the same sense as chickens and need to have a full “clutch” before they sit, if they even sit. We were up to 20 eggs in our nest and our girls didn’t sit, I ended up incubating them inside. The downside to this is having to hand raise them. Some breeds the broodiness has been bred out of them. you can absolutely move the eggs and put them into a nest if your duck is broody. I would separate mom and babies from the drakes for sure.

 

[Nimure]

So I’m not really sure how many ducks you have (it sounds like 4? You said ducks and hens but ducks/hens can mean the same thing while drake is a male). If you have 2 females and 2 males that is not a good ratio and will likely cause problems (if not this year definitely next year). They don’t really care breed and will just mate with whatever female the male can get ahold of. As far as laying usually around 5ish months (and if you’ve seen mating you can usually assume fertile). Ducks don’t go broody in the same sense as chickens and need to have a full “clutch” before they sit, if they even sit. We were up to 20 eggs in our nest and our girls didn’t sit, I ended up incubating them inside. The downside to this is having to hand raise them. Some breeds the broodiness has been bred out of them. you can absolutely move the eggs and put them into a nest if your duck is broody. I would separate mom and babies from the drakes for sure.

Sorry for not typing that clearly. I have two drakes and two hens at the moment. I would like to add a few more hens but likely won’t be able to this year. I was supposed to have one male and two females with the WHs but I believe the breeder sexed by bill color and one of the ‘females’ ended up being a drake.

I appreciate the other tips!

 

[TwistedTayy]

The best ratio is a minimum of 1 drake for 6 hens. I have welsh and the males mate very aggressively (frequently). With only one hen I would bet that she would wind up being scared of the drake. Ducks can’t really be paired up like chickens. Some people have luck doing it more like you would with mammals… like keeping the females and males house separate permanently but letting them have supervised play dates for breeding. Check out tyrantfarms.com. They have welsh and they describe their set up.

 

[New duck mommy 2021]

My girls started to lay eggs at 4-4.5 months old and their eggs were fertile first lay but they had been mating weeks before the first egg
I did have my Pekin at 7 months decide to sit on her eggs and she did great the whole 4 weeks
Textbook perfect but her eggs were still on the smaller side and she didn’t know how to help them as the were stuck and couldn’t turn. Lost them all but one who I took to assist but mom wanted nothing to do with the baby after
I would recommend waiting till they are at least a year old so the duck is more mature and her eggs are a better size for hatching
I incubated a few weeks before my girl went broody and out of 6 eggs 4 of them needed assistance
My eggs were around 59-68 grams the two at 68 hatched themselves fine
Now my girl lays 74-78 grams and they have no trouble hatching as they have room to turn
The one that mom sat on tried to go broody a few days ago and I stopped her although her eggs are around 70 grams she is only 7 months old and I won’t make that mistake again.
I will let my girls try next summer if they want
I also agree get some more females as drakes can be nasty at mate season and will overbred the girls