Confused ducks?

[quinkerton]

I have two peking ducks, 1 male and 1 female that are living with my 30 hens and 2 roosters. All of a sudden they have become very territorial and chasing my hens around the yard. Today I caught the male holding the hen down ripping at her head, while the female was pecking at her. It almost looked as if he was trying to breed her. I don't know what to do about this. They are my children's ducks, but I can't have them hurting the chicken's. Any advice would be helpful. I see roasted duck in my future....

 

[dianaross77]

You need to separate them. Drakes are very randy creatures and will try to mate hens. Hens aren't built to handle male duck parts and it can damage a hen severely if the drake is successful. Are you sure the second duck is a female?

 

[quinkerton]

Well I thought she was. I took them from my sister because she had 4, 3 males and 1 female so I took 1 male and the female because she was taking the brunt from the 3 males. She looked terrible. She is smaller then the male, and more feminin looking then him. He is a lot thicker then she is and his tail curles up? I know nothing about ducks really, was just told that male ducks tails will curl? I must sound like a total noob! I am a chicken person.

 

[Amiga]

We all need to start somewhere! You're savvy enough to know you have a situation that has to change.

Female ducks quack, and loudly. Males have the curly drake feather and have more of a whispery, raspy voice.

Aggression is not a good thing. Can you set up a separate run for them? This may sound bizarre, and I'd love to hear other opinions, but might having a couple of additional female ducks help the social situation?

 

[dianaross77]

Amiga is totally right. We all have to start somewhere. Until I joined here last year I didn't know anything at all about chickens or ducks. I only asked if you were sure she was a girl because I had 2 drakes but one didn't have the drake feather for quite a while. I had to get on the web to find recordings of duck voices because I just couldn't be sure what a "real" quack was supposed to sound like. So don't feel silly for asking questions, we're all here to help, and we all keep learning in the process.

 

[sourland]

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