Drakes Killing Eachother

[ruthhope]

So yesterday my son and I got out there and made an “isolation pen” with some leftover fencing. It’s a temporary structure but it held up to a bad storm last night. We put the Peking’s in it yesterday , then today we let them out and only put our mallard drake in it. And now the flock (minus the mallard) are doing great! So unfortunately, our mallard is the problem and he is my favorite . Probably will look for him a new home

@Cmiller1122 your mallard my be this week's problem, but ducky allegiances change all the time. It's not kind to keep the mallard on his own so give him the other drake as his drake jail mate and go with it for now. In a month they may be all friends again, and in the spring you can get some more females. Don't rush to rehome your favorite drake!

 

[Cmiller1122]

@Cmiller1122 your mallard my be this week's problem, but ducky allegiances change all the time. It's not kind to keep the mallard on his own so give him the other drake as his drake jail mate and go with it for now. In a month they may be all friends again, and in the spring you can get some more females. Don't rush to rehome your favorite drake!

I was actually going to put the other drake with my mallard this morning, but my son came in from outside saying mallard and khaki drake were fighting. I put mallard in the isolated pen and the khaki kept trying to bite him through the fence. After talking with my husband, I ordered a duck diaper and we are going to see if Sky (the mallard drake) can stay inside with us for a few months. That’s our last resort before re-homing him which I don’t want to do because me and my daughter love him so much.

 

[Luv Ducks]

Some people have luck having drakes together. I put my Mallard/Rouen drake with my huge Muscovy Drake. They were together for a couple of months when I found my Muscovy Drake actually on top of the Mallard mating him! He was so heavy that I thought he would kill him so I rehomed him and I hated doing it as he was my favorite. He was very hard on my nine hens though. I now have 4 little call drakes instead of my other 4 big drakes and am wondering if it will be better for the Hens, all bigger in the spring.

 

[Cmiller1122]

Some people have luck having drakes together. I put my Mallard/Rouen drake with my huge Muscovy Drake. They were together for a couple of months when I found my Muscovy Drake actually on top of the Mallard mating him! He was so heavy that I thought he would kill him so I rehomed him and I hated doing it as he was my favorite. He was very hard on my nine hens though. I now have 4 little call drakes instead of my other 4 big drakes and am wondering if it will be better for the Hens, all bigger in the spring.

Oh my daughter wants call ducks so bad and they are so cute!!! Initially we had a HUGE jumbo Peking named Bruce and we did Rehome him because he was so big and definitely would have hurt the hens. We will be sticking to smaller ducks now. The Peking’s came from a random clutch of ducklings from the feed store when we didn’t know much about ducks.

 

[Luv Ducks]

Oh my daughter wants call ducks so bad and they are so cute!!! Initially we had a HUGE jumbo Peking named Bruce and we did Rehome him because he was so big and definitely would have hurt the hens. We will be sticking to smaller ducks now. The Peking’s came from a random clutch of ducklings from the feed store when we didn’t know much about ducks.

I was so lucky. I found my Calls on Craigslist and the guy I got them from traded my big Khaki Campbell, 2 huge Mule Ducks and a huge Muscovy for them. I just love them. They chatter all day long but since they are boys they are very quiet. I guess girls are very loud and I live just feet away from my neighbors. Good luck on finding yours. I also got a young female Muscovy and a young female Khaki Campbell in the trade. The Khaki however is very loud and can wake up the neighborhood when she hollers because she sees me. It was a good trade for me.

 

[Mama_Arty]

7 ducks total: 3 male , 4 females

Speaking from my limited experience... you need at least 4 girls to each male. They don't care if they are old friends and grew up together.
We have 5 drakes and 20 females and there are still arguments over mating rights from time to time.

I think the safest bet is to separate them from the females all together until you can get more mature females for them or to downsize the drake population all together.

Ducks live in their own world... it's a challenge. I hope you find a solution that works for you. Have you looked online for anyone selling mature females?

 

[ruthhope]

I think the safest bet is to separate them from the females all together until you can get more mature females for them or to downsize the drake population all together.

@Cmiller1122 Will I ever be able to have them all together ever again? Not until you get more females!!!

How are your doing? Is your mallard drake in the house with you?

@Mama_Arty is right about separating them, but you could leave your mallard with the females and separate the other two drakes in the temporary isolation pen if you are planning on getting more females.

The problem with removing the mallard is that the other two drakes may well start fighting over the females until there are more females for them to share

 

[Kimmyh51]

You need to separate them to keep your victimised drake safe. I have not had this with my flock of hundreds of ducks and rescued ducks. Ive heard of it but the only drake fighting I have encountered is a lot of mean feather pulling. However I have ahd drakes gang rape other drakes which is horrible. Your drakes injuries are not typical of that though.
I have just posted elsewhere asking anyone if they would find it useful to have a device that would possibly reduce or prevent drakes raping other drakes or ducks. This device might also help with drakes attacking other drakes, as long as the drakes were in a large or free range situation (it would not work if you had all the drakes together in a smaller area ie anything smaller than maybe 4m x 8 m.) If you would like to be updated on my progress testing out this little device feel free to pm me or looking up my other post in the ducks forum. I have been rescuing ducks since 2016 and as a result I have large numbers of drakes along with all of the fun and games that come with drakes during spring, and this is he reason I have been trying out this device the idea for which, I discovered by accident recently.
If i do manage to develop it to a point where I feel it is reliable, safe, and effective, I may look at selling it online, in order to fundraise for my duck rescue. If. It does work, it will be an absolute game changer for me, which is the main reason im thinking if it does i will look at selling it. As while i have bills of hundreds a week for my duck rescue, which mostly come out of my pocket, I am not very good at fundraising or just asking for money, but if thise little idea I am working on, pans out, then I know for a fact it will be a massive game changer for anyone who has drakes and struggles with the spring rape or aggression, but does not want to put the naughty drakes in the freezer (or even does not want to put all the naughty boys in the freezer). If it works out ill look at selling it online for a reasonable price to cover the costs of making and shipping it with a small margin.