Drake Issue!!

[mollieee]

I have 2 pekin drakes. They have been together since they were a few days old when I got them from TSC. About a month and a half ago, they started to "fight" or "attempt to mate". 1 of them is smaller, which is almost always the aggressor. He chases the larger one until they are both out of breath or until he can get the larger one to the ground. I have tried separating them, which doesn't work because once they are back together, they are back to fighting. I have gotten some hens but they don't care about the hens and still fight.

I have someone who will take one of my drakes, however, will my other drake get depressed or lonely without his drake companion? It breaks my heart to separate them but I don't want them fighting to end up in a death of one of my drakes.

 

[RosemaryDuck]

I have 2 pekin drakes. They have been together since they were a few days old when I got them from TSC. About a month and a half ago, they started to "fight" or "attempt to mate". 1 of them is smaller, which is almost always the aggressor. He chases the larger one until they are both out of breath or until he can get the larger one to the ground. I have tried separating them, which doesn't work because once they are back together, they are back to fighting. I have gotten some hens but they don't care about the hens and still fight.

I have someone who will take one of my drakes, however, will my other drake get depressed or lonely without his drake companion? It breaks my heart to separate them but I don't want them fighting to end up in a death of one of my drakes.

Right now it's getting into the height of breeding season. Drakes get very aggressive during this time. If you do end up rehoming one, you'll need to get the other a few females. Ducks can't be kept alone.

 

[mollieee]

Right now it's getting into the height of breeding season. Drakes get very aggressive during this time. If you do end up rehoming one, you'll need to get the other a few females. Ducks can't be kept alone.

I stated I have gotten hens..

 

[RosemaryDuck]

I stated I have gotten hens..

Oh I apologize I didn't see that. Then the other one should be fine without the other drake.

 

[cheezenkwackers]

The sooner you rehome the second one the better. I waited with disastrous results.

 

[Amitch062]

Hello, new to this forum. I have the same issue. 2 drakes, one is a pekin and one is a khaki Campbell. I got them at a few days old from the farm store. I’ve never had ducks before. Separate them then not long after being together they will fight. I do not have any female ducks. The drakes can also be peaceful together and forage together without any problems.
I’ve been working from home and have to return to the office soon. I do not want to come home to a dead duck. Would females help the situation or make it worse? If I get females, I could make 2 flocks and keep them separate but I worry about the drakes missing each other. They hate it when I separate them. Any advice is appreciated

 

[Isadora]

Hello, new to this forum. I have the same issue. 2 drakes, one is a pekin and one is a khaki Campbell. I got them at a few days old from the farm store. I’ve never had ducks before. Separate them then not long after being together they will fight. I do not have any female ducks. The drakes can also be peaceful together and forage together without any problems.
I’ve been working from home and have to return to the office soon. I do not want to come home to a dead duck. Would females help the situation or make it worse? If I get females, I could make 2 flocks and keep them separate but I worry about the drakes missing each other. They hate it when I separate them. Any advice is appreciated

As long as they are with other ducks, they will be fine. If you plan on getting a batch of females for each drake, I wouldn't get less than four per drake, that way the hens don't get overmated.

 

[DukesDucks]

A common topic. I like to suggest that you use the search function (top right of this screen). Choose Advanced Search. Type in "drakes" and "jerks". You will see you are not alone.
Each spring, I have to separate my flock into 2 groups, with 1 drake and 4 females each. Does mean maintaining 2 coops through breeding season, but no one gets hurt. Everyone lives together happily by end of summer through the winter.
As long as your one drakes has females, he will be happier mating than fighting.

 

[Amitch062]

Thank you for the advice! So now I’m wondering how much space that many ducks would need. I have a 5x6 shed that could be divided for night. Then I have a 1000sq ft fenced in area with aviary netting over the top to keep the hawks out. The fenced in area has a kiddie pool, large doghouse that sits inside a duck tractor type shed for them to access during the day.

 

[plasticlobster]

A common topic. I like to suggest that you use the search function (top right of this screen). Choose Advanced Search. Type in "drakes" and "jerks". You will see you are not alone.
Each spring, I have to separate my flock into 2 groups, with 1 drake and 4 females each. Does mean maintaining 2 coops through breeding season, but no one gets hurt. Everyone lives together happily by end of summer through the winter.
As long as your one drakes has females, he will be happier mating than fighting.

I was going to start a thread asking about this, as I have 6-week-old straight run ducks (2 runners, 4 khaki campbells, 2 rouens). The straight run has ended up providing 3 drakes, 5 hens. Both rouens (They're getting huge) and a khaki turned out to be drakes. My runners are so much smaller than the other ones, and I'm concerned about the size difference in addition to the fact that there are too many.

I really don't want to re-home or cull. Would it make sense to build a separate house for the drakes and fence off half the run during mating season to separate them? I've read a ton of stuff on this forum and everywhere else on the Internet, and it seems Drakes only fight when they have direct access to hens (And obviously they'd need direct access to hens to over-mate them). Is this a solution people use, or do I really just need to bite the bullet and make my flock balanced?

One upside to doing it this way is I'd have room for MORE DUCKS (Duck math checks out)