Drake away... how long will egg be fertilized?

[nicoschill]

I have one drake and a hen. lately my drake is quite violent with the hen during mating and repeatedly he pulls the feathers from her neck and as a result a small wound was formed around her neck. Consequently I separated the drake from her by a fence to let some time for her to recover. Meanwhile she laid already 10 eggs and I want her to go broody. For how long will the eggs be fertilized after taking the drake away from her?

 

[Pyxis]

About two to three weeks.

The problem you have with her getting injured is because you don't have enough females. You need to have three to four females for every drake you have or the females end up getting overmated and injured, like what is happening to your girl. So I'd get some more females as soon as possible.

 

[nicoschill]

Thank you so much for your reply. It's being 3 weeks that they are together. If I bring more girls in the coop, will they be accepted easily by the couple?

 

[Krazyquilts]

Most people recommend quarantining new ducks to make sure they are healthy and don't have any diseases that your current ducks can catch. After that, lots of people have good luck with having a fence/barrier up between the new ducks and the your current ducks so everyone can see each other without being able to touch. That's what we did with our new drake, with supervised interactions until we decided it was okay to have him with our girls full time.

I'd also recommend getting at least two new ducks when you do so they aren't lonely while waiting to be with your current ducks. Henry was supposed to have a new female with him but she died unfortunately so he was by himself and absolutely distraught about being alone.

All of this is assuming that you are getting adult ducks. If you get ducklings, I think the usual advice is to wait to fully integrate them with your current ducks until the ducklings are closer to being full grown.

 

[chickens really]

Mating season is the wrong time to introduce Hens to a Randy Drake....Keep him separated From all the Hens and only introduce during Free Ranging...If he is too aggressive?...Lock him back up.....The Hens will set a pecking order and in general they get along just great....


Cheers!