Can a 50/50 split ever live in harmony?

[katehesser]

Hello, everyone,

I have 20 khaki campbell ducks, who are 14 weeks old, and as of today I can tell we have 10 males and 10 females. I am home and within earshot and eyeshot of them all day and we have not had any problems or altercations. They swim in a pond and play in the reeds all day (from about 7am to sundown) and then we put them in a barn at night. I have seen some mating in the water, but nothing that got violent. In general, they are a sweet little community and spend most of their time all together.

Would I be seeing problems already or are they still yet to come. Do you think there is any chance I could keep all of them?

Thank you!

 

[Duck mommy 2019]

any chance you can make two coops? one for the ladies and one all bachelor flock. the drakes won’t fight as long as they have no girls.

 

[Isaac 0]

. the drakes won’t fight as long as they have no girls.

I'm sorry, but stating this as a fact is just plain irresponsible for anyone who actually takes this to heart and spends generous amounts of money, and time to separate the males and females just to find out the males fight.

All male flocks, can and will fight on occasions. It all depends on your setup, how they were raised, and each birds personality.

 

[Duck mommy 2019]

I'm sorry, but stating this as a fact is just plain irresponsible for anyone who actually takes this to heart and spends generous amounts of money, and time to separate the males and females just to find out the males fight.

All male flocks, can and will fight on occasions. It all depends on your setup, how they were raised, and each birds personality.

all ducks will have dominance fights every once in a while. they won’t fight much though and will be much happier without having to compete for girls. sometimes there may be a drake that doesn’t get along with the others of course, but that happens in normal flocks too

 

[Duckmom27]

Hello, everyone,

I have 20 khaki campbell ducks, who are 14 weeks old, and as of today I can tell we have 10 males and 10 females. I am home and within earshot and eyeshot of them all day and we have not had any problems or altercations. They swim in a pond and play in the reeds all day (from about 7am to sundown) and then we put them in a barn at night. I have seen some mating in the water, but nothing that got violent. In general, they are a sweet little community and spend most of their time all together.

Would I be seeing problems already or are they still yet to come. Do you think there is any chance I could keep all of them?

Thank you!

Problems are likely to come next spring when they are all full grown for the start of mating season. Right now they're still young and mating season is on its way out for the year, so it makes sense you're not seeing a lot of aggression yet. It's highly improbable that ratio will work for that many ducks come next year though. I've read where 1:1 works sometimes for like a single pair of ducks, but for 20 ducks... going to be a lot of competition going on and probably going to be some females getting picked on more than others and it'll lead to ducks getting hurt

This is my first year with ducks, and mine are still young too so I don't have personal experience with full grown drakes and mating season yet, but that's my input based on what I've read

 

[Dees ducks]

I have a similar issue in that in my latch hatch I got 5 boys and one girl (what are the odds!) These 15 week old ducklings are now altogether with my 6 older girls and 1 drake. Which means I have 6 drakes and 7 girlies.
There is the odd harmless squable but nothing serious yet. I may wait till next spring to see how the land lies. Good luck with your flock!

 

[katehesser]

all ducks will have dominance fights every once in a while. they won’t fight much though and will be much happier without having to compete for girls. sometimes there may be a drake that doesn’t get along with the others of course, but that happens in normal flocks too

Thank you all so much for your replies. I really appreciate it. I think what I am hearing is:

We should probably be okay until the spring/mating season and at that point will likely need to separate the males and the females or keep a 1:3 male to female ratio together.

Is that correct?

 

[Duck mommy 2019]

Thank you all so much for your replies. I really appreciate it. I think what I am hearing is:

We should probably be okay until the spring/mating season and at that point will likely need to separate the males and the females or keep a 1:3 male to female ratio together.

Is that correct?

yes 10 to 10 won’t work in the spring. but i think it would be fine during winter