Cayuga Drake Duck and 2 Khaki Campbell Hens

[Kebo53w]

Question about the Cayuga???

I have 3 ducks

The Cayuga is a Drake about 7 months old and The 2 Khaki Campbells are Hens about 3 months old.

When I put the Khaki's in the coop with the Cayuga they were fine at first they kept there distance from each other. I left them for about 30 minutes and came back and the Cayuga had one of the hens about dead she was floating in the pool on her side with a lot of feathers pulled out of her back.

Was the Drake trying to Mate or was he Territorial?

Any Help is greatly Appreciated.

Thanks
Keith

 

[Dances with Ducks]

He was definately trying show dominance, and maybe mating at the same time. Do you know his history, was he alone for a long time?
Usually when you introduce new ducks it looks really scary at first and loosing a few feathers is OK, but there are some drakes that are too aggressive to be safe with hens. After an event like that I would not let them together unless you can supervise. It's heading into breeding season soon and he may get worse so I think I would be nervous, unless he starts to really mellow out while you watch them for extended periods. Could be it was a one time thing but you should be careful with this guy after that.

I've never seen a duck floating on her side like you describe, can you tell if she has any injuries? How does she seem now?

 

[savingdogs]

I raised muscovy and cayuga together last year, had several muscovy drakes and one cayuga drake. We had to sell the cayuga because he was very aggressive and disruptive to males and females alike. He went where he had lots of cayuga ladies to himself so hopefully he is behaving himself now!

 

[Kebo53w]

The hen was injuried with bleeding on her back. When I got her out she was shaking like she was in shock for about 3 hours and then it was like she had to learn to walk and get her balance back. She is good now I have 2 sperate pins. The pin with the Cayuga has a 200 gallon pool and thought it would be good to let them swim for a while.

 

[Dances with Ducks]

Sounds like she is on her way to a full recovery! I don't know what to make of the balance problem, but it may have been what had her floating on her side. Maybe a blow to the head causing some temporary dizzyness?
The size of the pool shouldn't have created a problem, it's nice that you can provide that for you ducks.

Usually it's not that huge of a problem to introduce a hen to a drake, so don't feel bad. You did watch them for a while and assure yourself that things were going alright. But these are animals with their own innner workings that are sometimes unpredictible. I have had drakes that were really mean to just one particular hen. Once I separated a drake from the flock for that reason, but he got out while I was gone. I came home to find that hen hiding in the bushes on the other side of a fence that the ducks usually won't go over. Anyway, your drake might not react the same way with another hen. But the degree of injury you describe seems unusual to me and possibly indicates he may not ever be trustworthy. If so and you wanted to maintain him only for breeding you might have to just put in a hen for a few minutes daily and stay to moniter. Seems that could be traumatic for the hen but at least you could keep her safe if your setup allows you to get in to intervine if necessary. I would hate to ever put that particular hen in with him after what she experienced.

 

[chickenlady08]

Wow, I am really sorry that your Khaki girl was hurt. I got 2 khaki campbells last summer and of course didn't know what they were. We had one disappear so I was down to one that is a Drake we named Maxwell. I searched everywhere and noone had any khakis that were close by. So I found a Cayuga drake named Martin that someone in NJ brought down to me. So far they have gotten along just fine. I do notice that Martin freak my Embdem geese out. Still unsure of gender of my geese. All he has to do is walk by them and they scatter. I hope he isn't aggressive cause I want to get some Khaki girls and Cayugo girls this spring, but don't want them to fight like that.

I hope your girl is recovering and your drake is behaving himself.

Lisa