Drakes Fighting

[nolamimi504]

I haven’t posted for quite some time. My mother is and mentally challenged niece have come to live with us a little bit as my mom recovers from a stroke she had in July, and over the holidays, we found out she has cancer. My ducks have been my happy place when I feel overwhelmed, which is often. Anyways, for those who remember me, I started with 4 ducks, each a different breed, we lost our Pekin-Goldie last year, the Cayuga (truly my baby), Midnight just vanished one night, a few months ago, I’m guessing an owl, and my Mallard-Half-pint, was killed recently by a feral cat that I can’t seem to trap and bring him to the SPCA. I have 1 of the original four, Chocolate-my Khaki Campbell. Goldie managed to give us a few eggs that we incubated, the first batch, I got 4 girls and a drake; my other drakes were being to aggressive with two of them, therefore I rehomed Jack & the Uh-Uh’s. That left me with my original 4 again; we incubated again and 2 hatched, very late and a day apart, they’re like twins, Frankie & Johnny, now Frankie imprinted on me, which was adorable at first. My husband added on to the duck house we had and divided it, each side has a kiddie pool, doors, windows, locks, latches, ramps and peepholes lol, as well as little porch lights. Frankie & Johnny finally wanted to go outside at around 6 months. They were housed in one side and my 3 drakes in the other side, in order to try and acclimate them. That didn’t work, we separated them and Midnight, Chocolate & Half-pint had the front yard and Frankie & Johnny the back. Midnight vanished one night, which left Choc and Half-Pint, these two were like peanut butter and jelly and Frankie & Johnny the same. We lost Half-pint to a feral cat a few weeks ago. I couldn’t leave Choc in the front by himself, so we tried integrating him with Frankie & Johnny and there was as a little fighting, it was the evening time so we just put them each in their houses. The next day, all three seemed to be getting along great. I was surprised, mainly cuz Chocolate is a bully. We removed the divider the day also, I should’ve waited a couple weeks, I guess…idk they’ve been getting along for the most part the past few weeks, until a couple days ago. Chocolate & Frankie would go at it and Johnny would jump in. I feel terrible keeping the separated again. Choc became the Alpha duck when Midnight disappeared, Half-pint was his sidekick. Frankie is the alpha between him & Johnny. Choc has managed to come between Frankie & Johnny by running Frankie off, now they’ve begun fighting and it’s 2 on 1, Frankie & Johnny on Chocolate, like they were trying to drown him in the pool, mind you the fighting started outside the water in the yard. Any advice on how I can get them back to where they were.

 

[ruthhope]

I have all drakes and they are currently all behaving (touch wood). However until the beginning of January, I had 2 other drakes that were rightly bonded and didn't get on with the main flock, no matter how I tried things, so they were permanently in drake jail. They shared a dog crate in the coop at night and during the day could only go in the coop and in a temporary pen I built from 2 dog exercise pens, round the coop door. It was a big enough space, they had their own wading pool and were happy.

But I decided to rehome them as I have no space for more rescues with those two boys. I found a great adoptive home with stables for three horses, lots of huts and secure pens and other pekins, like them. I dont know if the integrated but their new home was large enough for them to live together separately from the flock of Pekins there. My own four remaining ducks have been noticeably more placid since the two boys left.

I recommend trying to find a new home for yours rather than having him in drake jail on his own. Your others will be happier without a jailed drake in their environment.

 

[cheezenkwackers]

My drakes used to get along in the fall and winter but as soon as their hormones started to go up in late winter-early spring it was game on and usually resulted in drake jail until fall. I’m afraid the time of year may be your issue.

 

[Miss Lydia]

How are predators getting your ducks? are they locked up at night or is this happening during the day? maybe you need to put a secure cover over top of your pen to protect them.