Curious drake behaviour

[Anna Ranieri]

Hi, I'm wondering if anyone can answer a couple of questions for me? Just recently the eldest of my two Indian Runner Drakes has started raising his head feathers at me - as far as we've seen he doesn't do it to any of our other duck and chickens nor has done it to any other family member, only me. We free range our birds for as many hours a day we can - usually the whole day - and we don't leave them unattended. I sit out with them the most, I feed/water them, clean their run/house/pools etc and is usually me who gives them their treats. If I am unable to sit out with them another family member will and if no one can we lock them in their run until someone is able to. So far it has been when I have re-entered the garden after having been absent for more than an hour or so - all the birds run up to me and if I've been absent for a while - they recognise me as being the feeder/provider/carer but as I've said, recently the elder drake puffs his head feathers at me usually about four/five times? Secondly, often when sitting out in the garden our chickens and ducks will come over to me and gently nibble at my legs, feet and my clothes, the chickens gently peck and will often jump up on my lap or shoulder and sometimes sit on my feet while the ducks gently nibble my legs, toes and clothes. They never do it for very long and usually do so a couple of times through out the day, then they'll toddle off either to drink, forage, bathe or nap - none ever hurt me, nor are they in any way aggressive and it actually tickles - especially on the toes! Any ideas what these behaviours might be for?

 

[Miss Lydia]

Sounds like they have accepted you as one of the flock

 

[Anna Ranieri]

Sounds like they have accepted you as one of the flock

Wow, that would be amazing! Thank you for responding - I hope you don't mind me adding but often when this happens if I don't speak to them straight away the elder duck rasps at me and my family say he sounds as though he's talking to me - makes me feel special

 

[Miss Lydia]

Very special. I see my Runner drake just standing and looking at me and when I speak to him he starts eating they really are a hoot aren’t they?

 

[Anna Ranieri]

Very special. I see my Runner drake just standing and looking at me and when I speak to him he starts eating they really are a hoot aren’t they?

Ohh yes, so very funny and so much fun to watch

 

[Miss Lydia]

I say they are the clowns of the barn yard. They always make me laugh.

 

[Anna Ranieri]

I say they are the clowns of the barn yard. They always make me laugh.

They certainly are very entertaining! Every morning I give our birds banana's - one of their favourites - this morning my 2yr old grandson decided he'd like to eat his banana outside while the birds ate theirs, as always the birds gobbled theirs up in record time lol, and stood watching as my grandson chomped on his, he turned away for a split of a moment at which one of our chicken hens plucked his banana out of his hand and preceded to run around the garden with the ducks hot on her heels trying to grab it for them selves. She ran for a bit then stopped suddenly dropping the banana on the ground, the ducks caught up with her and as they made a grab for it she quickly picked it up, sped off before the ducks could work out what was happening, she then sat in a corner chomping on it while the ducks where frantically searching the ground wondering where the heck it had gone - when it comes to out smarting the others, the chickens win hands down, lol, was so funny to watch.
We have two Indian Runner drakes, two Khaki Campbell hens and our two chickens are Rhode Island Red hybrids, both hens. What breed of ducks do you have and do you have any other animals?

 

[Miss Lydia]

Well I have 1 Indian Runner Drake. 4 female Indian Runner females and 2 Buff Orpington females that make up a flock these hatched together then I have 5 Muscovy ducks 1 drake in that group. Plus 2 geese and 26 chickens 5 dogs and pond gold fish and 1 dh. That is so funny your poor little grandson. I hope he wasn’t too upset at losing his banana lol. There’s no better entertainment that being with a bunch of birds.

 

[Anna Ranieri]

Well I have 1 Indian Runner Drake. 4 female Indian Runner females and 2 Buff Orpington females that make up a flock these hatched together then I have 5 Muscovy ducks 1 drake in that group. Plus 2 geese and 26 chickens 5 dogs and pond gold fish and 1 dh. That is so funny your poor little grandson. I hope he wasn’t too upset at losing his banana lol. There’s no better entertainment that being with a bunch of birds.

Awww wow - what a wonderful array of animals you have! I can imagine the amount of pleasure you get from having them all - I'd have loads of animals if I had the space but don't have the room.

Well I have 1 Indian Runner Drake. 4 female Indian Runner females and 2 Buff Orpington females that make up a flock these hatched together then I have 5 Muscovy ducks 1 drake in that group. Plus 2 geese and 26 chickens 5 dogs and pond gold fish and 1 dh. That is so funny your poor little grandson. I hope he wasn’t too upset at losing his banana lol. There’s no better entertainment that being with a bunch of birds.

Awww wow, what a wonderful array of animals you have - I can imagine the amount of pleasure having them all gives you and living in such a beautiful part of the world too - must feel like paradise! Do you have much problems with predators? The little I know of your country is that the amount of predators you get there are way more than we get here in England. The worst we have here where I live is foxes but for the 24 years I've lived in this home I have never had any foxes come into my garden, I often hear them at night (so noisy!) But they tend to keep in the woods and surrounding area they live in and have plenty of food - rabbits, deer and such like, so I don't see any reason they'd venture out to where I am, although we remain vigilant just in case - we get sparrow hawks and stoats and our Campbells and hens are still small enough to be at risk, so we don't leave our birds unattended when free ranging but our Runners are too big for the sparrow hawks now and although not unheard of it is very rare for a stoat to try at fully grown chickens or ducks, so will be less worrying when ours are fully grown. We only have the room for a small flock - we live in a bungalow and have the coop in our back garden, it is a fair size garden, well big enough for the size flock we have and we have room for two more but more than that would be over crowded. We are going to add two more eventually but at the moment our drakes and chickens are only 15/17 weeks old and our Campbells only 6/7 weeks old - ideally we'd love another two chicken hens but we are waiting to see how it goes with the two drakes only having two females as we have come to the conclusion it totally depends on the temperament and nature of the drakes as to whether or not one female each will be enough for them and how they will react to the chickens when they reach mating age. I know of someone who only has two drakes and one female and has had them for years with no problems at all, I know of two people who have two drakes and two females only, also with no problems what so ever - I also know of someone who's flock consists of chicken hens and drakes and they have never tried to mate with them and on this forum one told me they have 5 chicken hens and two drakes and no problems what so ever - I've also heard all the horror stories too, so we have decided to wait and see the outcome and if needs be we will get two more female ducks and make do with having only two chickens. We are optimistic though as our drakes are so soft natured and although there is the pecking order going on, they never bite at all. We've only had the Campbells a little over a week and from the very first day the alpha drake took to them and was such that we let them out of the holding pen after only two hours ( I know some would criticise us for that but we know our drakes well enough to know it was safe to do so) and they took to each other straight away and they are never apart - earlier I came in to use the bathroom, the flock decided they wanted to come in too, so followed me in, one of the Campbells hadn't realised the others were on the move and seeing them gone ran around quacking in a panic - straight away the alpha drake went to her and he always does, when either of them call out hes there quick as a flash. The other drake has been slower getting used to them but is coming around and yesterday for the first time he let them in the pool with him, although he still reminds them he is boss but never bites, harms or hurts them, none of the birds bite or hurt each other and never have, so hopefully all will be ok. I've realised I've typed loads - so sorry, I love talking about the birds and so easily get carried away. I love hearing and reading about other peoples experiences with their animals so thank you for sharing about yours (my grandson was fine btw, he didn't mind it at all)