Drake aggressive to chickens

[elly12]

Hi everyone
I run a flock of about 20 chickens and 40 ducks, free-range but in sheds at night as we have a lot of foxes in the area. A local lady could no longer take care of her 2 ducks and 2 drakes, as she's going into hospital, so now they're under my wing. One of the drakes is an appleyard drake, and he seems to have an issue with my hens, especially the ones that are broody. He just doesn't like chickens for some reason, completely fine with ducks. He grabs their heads, and I need to wedge his beak open. I'd like to integrate him with the others eventually, would anyone have any advice on how to do it? I can't rehone him as he's not exactly mine. I've got three sets of large yards, however it will be good if I could still free range him with everyone.
Thanks a lot!

 

[Callender Girl]

Sometimes, it does seem like no good deed goes unpunished, doesn't it? Good of you to take care of her ducks.

Occasionally, one of my runner drakes will take issue with a chicken when everyone is out together, but it's never been so intense that I've worried about anyone. I would be tempted to separate the problem child from everyone else. Can you just jerry-rig some kind of temporary pen so he can still see everyone but not wedge their heads into his beak?

Hope someone gives you a workable solution.

 

[elly12]

A bit of an update, my Australorp rooster is an angel and is pretty protective over his girls, so now that it's been a few days, I think the rooster has put him into place. Nobody's injured, and he no longer bothers the girls which is great!