Do duck re-establish the pecking order? Sudden case of bullying.

[Galaxyfalcon]

Hi everyone,

This week I've noticed that my duck on top of the pecking order, Neptune, a big pekin boy who is normally extremely gentle and sweet has been chasing and sometimes biting at the neck like how they'll do when they establish dominance. He's not bullying #2 or #3 but has started chasing and bullying duck #4 on the pecking order (his own son, Triton), #5 (Freya, girl), and #8 (Eleven, girl). They're all 6mo "ducklings" that hatched in June and things have been very cordial between them all aside from the initial pecking order establishment when we introduced the ducklings to the adults full time, and some mating shenanigans (bursts of warm winter weather combined with fresh clean swimming water seems to make the ducks horny). I should note that there's also a duck #7 on the pecking order, Booster, who normally gets bullied a little all the time but that seems standard procedure. Booster aggressively eats all the peas and so the other ducks don't like him much because of that.

So in total, three new ducks are being pecked on this week and I'm not sure why. Particularly #4 and #8 on the pecking order have been singled out by Mr. #1. There's no new ducks and nothing has really changed. Could this be temporary? I've been keeping an eye on them to try and make sure it doesn't get out of control or anything.

Here's a photo of the offender soaking in epsom salt bath during a bumblefoot treatment.

edit: Neptune is 1 1/2 years old!

 

[indianaducks]

Don't have an answer to your question other than it seems possible. But that photo is really pretty damn cute.

 

[Crazy Maizie]

Sounds like multiple drakes in the flock and most likely he's establishing dominance.

The photo is cute. But it looks like a heat lamp is being used? Healthy ducks don't need a heat lamp once fully feathered.

 

[Luv Ducks]

I am in Ohio and it has been so warm that my young mallard drake and my Muscovy drake both think it is Spring! No snow, in the 50's and state workers mowing instead of plowing snow. Poor ducks are confused! They think Easter is coming, not Christmas! LOL

 

[Galaxyfalcon]

Sounds like multiple drakes in the flock and most likely he's establishing dominance.

The photo is cute. But it looks like a heat lamp is being used? Healthy ducks don't need a heat lamp once fully feathered.

Unfortunately there are multiple drakes... I'd like to send 1 or 2 to good homes but finding a nice forever home for boys is a bit of a challenge so we may need to employ drake jail if things get too bad (spring). Most of the boys were supposed to go to my in-laws but the 4mo ducks got eaten by river otters who broke into the duck coop so we took the 2 survivors back.

The heat lamp is on for the humans when we're doing foot soaking since we don't stay as warm as the ducks do

I guess we'll just keep an eye on it and see how it develops, things have been pretty peaceful up until this point so I'll keep an eye on it. Hoping it calms down again but...

 

[wendystrathearn]

Hi everyone,

This week I've noticed that my duck on top of the pecking order, Neptune, a big pekin boy who is normally extremely gentle and sweet has been chasing and sometimes biting at the neck like how they'll do when they establish dominance. He's not bullying #2 or #3 but has started chasing and bullying duck #4 on the pecking order (his own son, Triton), #5 (Freya, girl), and #8 (Eleven, girl). They're all 6mo "ducklings" that hatched in June and things have been very cordial between them all aside from the initial pecking order establishment when we introduced the ducklings to the adults full time, and some mating shenanigans (bursts of warm winter weather combined with fresh clean swimming water seems to make the ducks horny). I should note that there's also a duck #7 on the pecking order, Booster, who normally gets bullied a little all the time but that seems standard procedure. Booster aggressively eats all the peas and so the other ducks don't like him much because of that.

So in total, three new ducks are being pecked on this week and I'm not sure why. Particularly #4 and #8 on the pecking order have been singled out by Mr. #1. There's no new ducks and nothing has really changed. Could this be temporary? I've been keeping an eye on them to try and make sure it doesn't get out of control or anything.

Here's a photo of the offender soaking in epsom salt bath during a bumblefoot treatment.

View attachment 2931932

Drakes are very aggressive love makers, he has probably just achieved puberty, and will be wanting to mate. They do grab the girls on the back of the neck to mate, and prefer to be in the dam or on water to mate, where you could swear the male is trying to drown the girl, however the girls tend to survive, you need many girls to one boy or they can in fact injure the girl internally. Hope this helps, when I say they are aggressive they would be best described as relentless.

 

[Crazy Maizie]

Unfortunately there are multiple drakes... I'd like to send 1 or 2 to good homes but finding a nice forever home for boys is a bit of a challenge so we may need to employ drake jail if things get too bad (spring). Most of the boys were supposed to go to my in-laws but the 4mo ducks got eaten by river otters who broke into the duck coop so we took the 2 survivors back.

The heat lamp is on for the humans when we're doing foot soaking since we don't stay as warm as the ducks do

I guess we'll just keep an eye on it and see how it develops, things have been pretty peaceful up until this point so I'll keep an eye on it. Hoping it calms down again but...

Funny about the heat lamp.

They probably have more hormones running through them since they are 6 months old. But, observing and making sure no blood is being shed is the best thing to do.

 

[Galaxyfalcon]

Funny about the heat lamp.

They probably have more hormones running through them since they are 6 months old. But, observing and making sure no blood is being shed is the best thing to do.

Ahh just to be clear since I don't think I mentioned this in the OP: the #1 duck Mr. Neptune is actually 1 1/2 years old; that's the part that's confusing to me is that he's an adult duck and hasn't really behaved this way before (aggressive) to any of the other ducks, so bullying both boys and girls lower on the pecking order seems odd.

 

[Crazy Maizie]

It sounds like the younger ones are probably reaching the age of maturity and he is establishing his place. Drakes do this. They can change pecking order as well.

 

[KaleIAm]

I don't know much about drakes.

However, I can answer your question about the pecking order changing in an all female flock, as it happened in my flock. The short answer is yes!! It happens! Read on to hear the details.

Initially I had 5 ducks. Their pecking order went:

Pigweed
Clover
Thimbleberry
Nettle
Plantain

A few months later I adopted a young duck named Gingersnap and she was placed securely at the bottom.

When the ducks were about 9 month of age Pigweed and Clover amicably switched spots. Pecking order then went:

Clover
Pigweed
Thimbleberry
Nettle
Plantain
Gingersnap

About 6 months later Plantain and Gingersnap amicably switched spots. Everyone got along great and mated many times a day. Clover frequently requested Plantain "hop on top."

Years passed and slowly I lost 4 of my ducks to cancer and other diseases. But the pecking order stayed the same.

Pigweed
Nettle

Until this last summer. Suddenly Nettle, submissive for the last 7 years has started saying to Pigweed, "actually that's my food you can't eat that." And Pigweed, the dominant Lord of all Food says, "oh you are right. Sorry I'll just go over here and get out of your way."

So now I have two bowls so Pigweed can get enough food. Because my pecking order goes:

Nettle
Pigweed