Drake killed my duck yesterday.

[92rslt1]

Well as usual the ducks were antsy to get out of the pen, so I let them out and began doing my yard work. A hour or so later my wife tells that something's wrong with one of them. So I run over and see the littlest one is soaking wet and very weak and couldn't get out of the water so we took her out. She was very weak and almost unresponsive, I knew it was too late. She had water dripping out of her nose and could barely hold her head up. Our drake is very aggressive when he tries to mate, much like they all are. I think he was beating up on her because the others were strong enough to hold their own. Anyway she had bite marks on her head and the middle of her back had no feathers from where he was standing on her holding her under water. We tried to revive her but 45 minutes later she died. Since then the normally loud ducks haven't made a single quack, almost as if they know what he did. So now I'm at a point where I need to decide what to do with him. Do I get rid if him or risk him killing another one of my ducks? The worst part is she was the only freindly one of them all.

 

[Going Quackers]

That is a shame, i am sorry to hear that. I have heard of it happening though and can most definitely see how it could watching my own flock, generally this is why i am cautious on my sizing that they are not to far apart.

You could separate the drake from the flock if you desire, you say she was smaller how much smaller? what breed/s are we speaking of. I would assure the pools have good in/out access whether you keep him is up to you, hard to advise, because i own quite a few drakes i would remove any that harmed my ducks, their well being is my priority #1, but this depends on your dynamics and personal attachment to the drake.

Good luck!

 

[92rslt1]

The breed is khaki Campbell. They are all the same age, but the little one was just the runt of the flock. They all are over a year old. My duck pool is a kiddie pool, so it's not even very deep, they can hop right out. I think Donald the drake is going to be rehomed. If it happened again it would be my fault.

 

[Going Quackers]

I don't disagree, probably best it may have been an accident and/or an overly aggressive drake. Again, quite unfortunate, haven't heard anything standout about those drakes, for what it's worth i have Muscovy, Pekin and Call drakes here.. so get to see quite a bit of the behaviour.

Best of luck with the flock.