Can my duck house get me through the winter?

[Colley12]

You might be right that the less dominant one will be more gentle but he may be holding back because of the other one. If one is smaller that might be your answer as to how to pick. Otherwise, just pick your favorite. The girls will be happy either way.

That's a good point, and the more gentle one is quite a bit bigger, so it's been a relief that he hasnt tried mounting.
And if my drake I will keep becomes a nuisance, he may have to go too.
Thank you for the replies, I knew this was always going to be the solution, but it helps to talk it out.

Now to break it to my kids that Gerald is going to go live at Auntie's.
At least they will still see him on occasion.

 

[Miss Lydia]

Having 2 drakes with 2 females isn't going to work. I had 2 Runner drakes with 9 females and Father and Son got along great no wear and tear on the girls either. The dad would try to push son around and son would pretty much ignore him so they got along great. Then this past Feb I lost the son. I still miss him. Drakes can learn
to live together but the main thing is to have enough females for them.
My Muscovy drake has 3 females and doesn't abuse them, so sometimes 3-4 each per drake can work. But that would mean adding onto your coop for space enclosing the porch would most likely work. Waiting till next spring and then deciding which to part with is also an option. Always up to you.

 

[Colley12]

Having 2 drakes with 2 females isn't going to work. I had 2 Runner drakes with 9 females and Farther and Son got along great no wear and tear on the girls either. The dad would try to push son around and son would pretty much ignore him so they got along great. Then this past Feb I lost the son. I still miss him. Drakes can learn
to live together but the main thing is to have enough females for them.
My Muscovy drake has 3 females and doesn't abuse them, so sometimes 3-4 each per drake can work. But that would mean adding onto your coop for space enclosing the porch would most likely work. Waiting till next spring and then deciding which to part with is also an option. Always up to you.

Thank you. My sister happen to call last night, she has 4 turkeys that are going Nov 2nd. She had 2 ducks that hatched at different times this summer, and got really attached to the turkeys instead of her duck flock (her kids call them the "durkeys"). She thinks Gerald will fit right in with those 2. So he will go to her house end of the month, which will give my kids some time before saying goodbye.

Now that we have a plan for him, we can focus on coop situation.

 

[Aunt Angus]

Thank you. My sister happen to call last night, she has 4 turkeys that are going Nov 2nd. She had 2 ducks that hatched at different times this summer, and got really attached to the turkeys instead of her duck flock (her kids call them the "durkeys"). She thinks Gerald will fit right in with those 2. So he will go to her house end of the month, which will give my kids some time before saying goodbye.

Now that we have a plan for him, we can focus on coop situation.

That's SO SMART that you had a plan for your drakes BEFORE you got ducks!!! So few of us do that! You deserve a *Responsible Pet Parent* award. Seriously.

 

[Colley12]

That's SO SMART that you had a plan for your drakes BEFORE you got ducks!!! So few of us do that! You deserve a *Responsible Pet Parent* award. Seriously.

Thank you, I thought it would be so easy just to pick the 2 I liked and which combo of sexes, once we knew. Man, oh man....I didn't realize how attached you get to them!!

My sister's house is only about 15-20 mins away too, so she is close!

She was so sad she couldn't give me 2 ducks this summer. Now she is super excited that I got runners, she has a mixed flock, with a couple runners.

She is excited to get some guaranteed runner fertilized eggs for her incubator this spring, or if one of mine go broody, which I know runners aren't likely, but if it happens I can let her sit on them and then my sister would take the ducklings with open arms!

Teamwork...or maybe enabling on both of our parts

 

[Aunt Angus]

Teamwork...or maybe enabling on both of our parts

Nah. Codependency.

 

[Colley12]

Nah. Codependency.

Lol! Yes!!

 

[Colley12]

Got my husband to enclose the other part of the coop. Still need to paint and fine tune some things.

Had to catch him before the week started, he was less than enthused to work on it, but he did. We are going to be out of town on he 20th and have family coming to take care of the ducks and wanted it done before then. Now to work on a run. But in the meantime, they have free range during the day and don't plan on stopping that. Just for the future, it will be good to have.

Baby steps....

 

[Aunt Angus]

Got my husband to enclose the other part of the coop. Still need to paint and fine tune some things.

Had to catch him before the week started, he was less than enthused to work on it, but he did. We are going to be out of town on he 20th and have family coming to take care of the ducks and wanted it done before then. Now to work on a run. But in the meantime, they have free range during the day and don't plan on stopping that. Just for the future, it will be good to have.

Baby steps....

This looks pretty good! What's the square footage now?

 

[Colley12]

This looks pretty good! What's the square footage now?

It's 6.5' x 2.5' (a little over 2' width on the door end, it's slightly more narrow).

We will be going down to 3 (1 drake going to my sister's at the end of this month).

So just gets me over the 4ft/duck when I have 3 ducks.

We looked at other options of adding on, but with the time constraint, we felt easiest to enclose their porch.

We will be selling and moving onto property, anything bigger than 0.25 acres in a year or 2. At that time we will build a completely new, nice and large one.

For now we will stick with this, and I will limit myself to the 3 ducks. We left the door that can close in the center. That way if the drake is being too much for the girls we can still separate them in the spring and summer at night to give them a break.