Drake killed duck ! ...*@#

[coolchickens]

I am SO upset with my Indian Runner cross drake. I hand raised two I.R. ducks and they were a yr old and my pets. I have a drake I.R. cross a friend gave me as a 4 mos. old and he has gotten very aggressive with his breeding lately. It doesn't seem to bother the large Pekin ducks but it was scaring my young I.R. I was hoping to get some young ones from these two but today I found her drowned in the tub and I know he must have done it breeding her. In Sept. I found my other young I.R. duck dead in the tub and thought maybe she had died of something and wondered if it could have been a drowning. Now I know and I'm really thinking of getting rid of the drake within the next 24 hrs. Does anyone else out there have trouble with their drakes drowning the ducks during breeding? I really don't see how I can keep him since he's done this horrible thing to them and think that if I want bably ducks, maybe I'll just buy them from the hatchry rather than take this chance again. Any ideas would be helpful re this drake, otherwise, he's HISTORY!!

 

[BlackBrookPoultry]

That's terrible! If you really believe it is him doing it you should get rid of him. I had 2 of my male mallards gang up on a call drake one day and they were trying to drown him. I had to get them off of him. I sure your drake isn't drowning them on purpose, but you don't want to keep sacrificing hens to him.

 

[chicks4kids]

So sorry about your duck, but if the only place that they swim is in the tub, then maybe you should just give him seperate swim time from everyone else if you don't want to get rid of him.

 

[Wifezilla]

There are too many nice drakes in need of a home to put up with one that is so aggressive it kills the hens. I say make soup out of him and get yourself some new Runners.

 

[treldib]

A Runner Drowned its mate??

I have to agree with Wifezilla...unless he's really docile around humans or unusually good-looking....he goes to freezer camp.

 

[secretquail]

I triple the freezer camp idea. Too many wonderful ducks out there to keep a serial killer!

 

[coolchickens]

Okay.... I've calmed down a little now and thought about it. The Pekin girls really love him but I'm thinking he is just too large for the Indian Runners so when he mounts them in the water, he must hold them down and drowns them accidently. (Gross's me out to think about it). My choices are either to get rid of the larger water tanks and only allow sm. swimming pool tanks, or not add any more Runners to the group (I love the Runners), or "post him as a free duck to go". Probably the latter is the best idea. Right now I have only one 3 mos. old Indian Runner left and I keep her locked in the chicken pen with a Campbell duck I just rescued so they will stay there until I decide what's next. Seems all the threads talk about drakes being very insistent on breeding so maybe no drake is the good idea to save my girls. I wonder if they drown females out in the wild when they mate........

 

[duckking]

I've had those same concerns about my Rouen drake. I have a female Rouen, but also 3 Mallard hens. He keeps trying to mount them in the pool, but they just scoot out and want nothing to do with him. It seems like he's not terribly aggressive. But if he killed one of my hens, even accidently, as beautiful and sweet as he is....it's OUT the door for him!

 

[Buffducklover]

I think that is normal very sad though

but my drake Cayuga gets on my Muscovy and buff and there heads go under but I think they are big enough so they swim around to get him off but never any drowings and my buff recently hatched 12 little ducklings so cute

 

[Deleted member 94844]

Problem is, if you rehome him he is going to continue to drown someone else's girls. These birds were bred for consumption, so even though I keep my boys as pets and would never eat them I have no issue with justified culling. Bad behaviors and extreme aggression in domestic ducks needs to be flushed out of the gene pool. Serial killers especially. My young drake is very aggressive with me and I am finally considering getting him an implant (chemical castration) to chill him the F out. My ankles and calves are covered in bruises from him biting me and I'm sick of it. Have threatened him with being dinner many times to no avail. This is an option if you really want to keep him... your drake shouldn't be bred anyway.