Cull this male call duck?

[PowellAnimals]

Newer to ducks, have never had a male. So we found a pair of call ducks close to home. They seemed perfectly nice in quarantine but ever since we let them loose with the flock, the drake will not leave our other three domestic ducks alone (a Pekin, Swedish, and a runner). He's pulling feathers trying to mate them, which they don't want, and they are now afraid to go into the coop and stay as far away from him as possible. I think the Swedish may have hurt a leg trying to get away from him. He mates the other call duck regularly and she seems willing. I do have two other runner hens that are growing up. Will six females be enough for him so he can stop being so violent, is this how ducks are, or should we get rid of this one and look for another?

Thanks for the help!

 

[arrowti]

Drake hormones are raging right now. Drakes are also notorious for farming 'racial biases' against ducks of different species and colours. Our pekin males were super gentle with our pekin female, but extremely rough and aggressive with our cayuga females... our cayuga drake is mean to the pekin, but fortunately, not vicious like the pekin males were.

Having more females may help - or it may not. Ducks can form these strange things where they specifically target one or two females in particular, whether the female wants them or not.

Separating him temporarily until the other females are of age might help keep the females safe and regrow their feathers.

On the other hand, if you think he is getting more aggressive and is causing damage (routinely injuring a female's leg in mating, bleeding wounds, balding on the neck, back, or head) you may just want to cull him. Sometimes they're just too hard on the girls.