Drake suddenly attacking duck!!

[manybirds]

My ducks/drakes tend to kind of be 'racist'. they have there own groops by breed. They will chase other ducks drakes away (a drake will chase a duck away if it's not his) sometimes drakes will mate with ducks from other groups but it's very rough and cruel, not like how he mates with girls from 'his' group (dancing and talking etc). Is she of a different color? Sick? hurt? Does she attack any of the other ducks? If he keeps it up i'de sell him. Mean drakes do not stay at my house

 

[dorsetduckowner]

This is normal, and frustrating as once he has decided he wants her out of the flock there is not much you can do.

I have had this twice and eventually had to re-home the females in question, their lives just become miserable and they spend their days hiding from the drake.

Give it a few weeks, if he still chases her off and she is alone and doesn't get access to food/pond etc then you will have to think about re-homing either him or her.

Sad

zo
x

 

[Cariad]

Thank you all for your replies. I separated them again last night and she got attacked again as soon as they were let out this morning and is currently hiding under a bush. Our 3 runners are not related, but hatched together in our incubator, have been happy together for their 3 years and willingly mating. Fidget, the drake is silver, the bullied girl, Digby, is white and the other 2 black and brown. I've checked Digby all over and she seems fine and healthy - looking beautiful with her new set of feathers. I've always seen her as 'top' duck, with the others looking up to her and following her, but she has never been mean to others. This sudden change is astonishing!

The only other change I can think of is that we also have eight 15 week old chickens (4 male, 4 female) who are 'coming of age'. Maybe Fidget senses this and for some reason thinks Digby is now 'one of them'.

I'll watch carefully over the next few weeks and hope things settle down. I hope I don't have to rehome either of them. Thank you again for your fast replies from US. I'm in Wales, UK.

 

[dorsetduckowner]

It is weird how it suddenly happens, the additions to the flock do sometimes upset the pecking order, but sadly as I said once the drake has singled her out there is not much you can do.

I tried everything, even going to the lengths of having a hormone inhibitory implant in my drake and the said duck, but it doesn't seem to be hormone related at all and this made no difference.

I am also in the UK, so feel free to message me if you have any probs or need any advice.

The drakes wont do her any serious damage, but she will be miserable. Fingers crossed he stops when they have sorted out their pecking order again.

zo
x

 

[PaulSpain]

I have the exact same problem
It started 4 days ago.

I have 1 runner duck drake and 6 ducks.
No chicken's or any other pets
They live free range but are in an avoury at night.

The drake is signaling out a single duck and it's definitely an attack not anything to do with sex.

I have kept them separate for days now. But when I 'test' things by putting him back with them, then after about 10 minutes he will attack the same duck.

I have had the duck's for over 2 years. And some of the other female ducks for over 3 years.

This is not just pecking, it's a full on attack.

 

[Miss Lydia]

Your going to have to keep him separated if he doesn’t outright kill her the stress he is causing could. I have no idea why this happens. Can you think of anything that has changed in their lives that may have brought this on. Your sure this Runner is female and she is healthy. The other females don’t pick in her. A lot of member have to separate their drake during breeding season because the drake is so rough on the girls. And even though this aggression hasn’t to do with mating it is sure a good reason to separate him.

 

[quackiemama]

Your going to have to keep him separated if he doesn’t outright kill her the stress he is causing could. I have no idea why this happens. Can you think of anything that has changed in their lives that may have brought this on. Your sure this Runner is female and she is healthy. The other females don’t pick in her. A lot of member have to separate their drake during breeding season because the drake is so rough on the girls. And even though this aggression hasn’t to do with mating it is sure a good reason to separate him.

I hope Leonard does not start acting like this!

 

[Miss Lydia]

I haven’t seen it in My Runner drake to his females he’ll put his head down and make the female Muscovys get lost but no aggression other wise. My Muscovy drake doesn’t hardly acknowledge the Runner Buff females . He is busy with his own girls lol

 

[PaulSpain]

She seams healthy to me, The other girls all hangout with her in a large group (when he is not around)

And she is definitely a 'she' as we have had eggs from her.

There have been no recent changes that I have caused. Same food, same garden, same everything. We live in New Zealand and its very early autumn here. The girls are laying very few eggs at the moment.

We can keep him separate, but if he is never going to 'get over it' then we may need to sell him on, and that's not very easy for drakes.

 

[Miss Lydia]

Same here very hard to rehome drakes. I don’t know what to tell you. You don’t want him to continue to harass and injure your female. If you can separate and maybe change out your females with him. How many females total? Maybe do a rotation and see how that goes as long as he doesn’t become aggressive with any that are in with him. It’s not ideal I know and maybe try your one he has been aggressive with in at some point just to see if his behavior has changed any but separating and rotating but that would give you one female safety plus someone to hang out with and keep your drake relatively happy too.