Drake mating with hen

[lovemychooksies]

Hello, one of my drakes has been trying to mate with my chickens for the last month. He seems to have a favourite hen to try and mate with, who technically is his mother as when she was broody I put 6 duck eggs under her to hatch, him being one of them. I am very concerned as i think he succeeded yesterday as i noticed blood on the feathers near her backside, so I am afraid he is going to hurt her, I did try to seperate them yesterday evening as i feel she/other hens are most in danger when i have them all penned in together, like whenever the weather is bad or when i am away from home, made a lovely little outside hut for the ducks to bed in but I just could not entice them into it no matter what i did, does anyone have any tips on changing duck house to other locations and how to get them into it in the evening at bed time? they were so determined to get to their usual little house inside the run, and they were getting distressed when i kept shooing them in another direction.
Please if anyone could give me some advice on this I would be grateful.
Thank you.

 

[pattyhen]

Please seperate them. He can kill the hen the duck has a penis and the chicken is not equipped to handle this. Is there anyway you can get him a couple of female ducks and have a pen of their own. I had the same problem with a male duck that was brooded with chickens. I had to keep him in a permanent pen away from the chickens.

 

[TLWR]

Ducks are creatures of habit. Just pick them up and move them to where they need to be now and after a few days, they'll get the change in routine. As said, a male duck can seriously injure or even kill a chicken hen by mating with her, so you want to separate them ASAP.

 

[naivetefarm]

You may want to also separate your chicken for a bit while she recovers so no one picks at her bottom - have you inspected her beyond just seeing some blood on her feathers?

When my female ducks were having trouble figuring out their nighttime housing, I used peas to entice them indoors and once there shut the door behind them. It took about a week until they figured out the routine and now they put themselves "to bed" each night without any cajoling.

 

[lovemychooksies]

Hello, thank you for responding to my question. Yes I must try to seperate them completley, I have only one large pen at the moment with the coop and duck hut in it but what I did in the last few days is let the ducks out of the pen before letting the chickens out in the morning, and they head for their pond, this gives my hens the chance to eat their breakfast and lay their eggs before I let them out of the run to forage free range, the drake does not seem to bother with the hens so much when they are all free range. I also have another drake and two female ducks, the drakes mate with the female ducks too, but for some reason only one drake is causing problems with the hens. The hen in question seems ok thank God, she laid an egg yesterday and today and no blood to be seen, I didnt inspect her rear yesterday but I knew there was something wrong when I saw the blood on her feathers coming from her bottom. I wish there was some way to stop the drake from doing this!

 

[lovemychooksies]

Hi there, thank you so much for replying. Yes will take all your comments on board and try to get them permanently seperated asap. As i said I have a lovely outdoor hut ready for them but failed to get them into it! but I will try your peas method!

 

[lovemychooksies]

Thank you for advice, I am going to do something permanent tomorrow, hate the thought of my lovely girls being hurt or traumatised by this behaviour.