Drakes on Drake Neck Biting HELP!!!!

[nolamimi504]

I’m hoping someone can help me with this issue. When I put two of my drakes in their house for the night, one will start bobbing his head, wanting to mount the other. He’s begun biting him on the back of the neck leaving scabbing and now balding. Is there any type of spray or anything I can use or do to prevent the neck biting, I know they sell a spray to prevent chickens from pecking one another but I’m assuming it’s not the same thing? Any home remedies...or anything I can purchase? I’m a little desperate.

 

[sourland]

It's 'that' time of year. It sounds like misdirected mating behavior. It may be necessary to separate them until the hormones cool down later in the breeding season.

 

[nolamimi504]

It's 'that' time of year. It sounds like misdirected mating behavior. It may be necessary to separate them until the hormones cool down later in the breeding season.

Thank you. We have. My husband just finished expanding our duck house since we’re adding 5 new females (born 3/17), we have just moved the 5 girls outside and have cordoned into 3 sections-one of my drakes and my adult female duck have one section, which they stay in at night, there’s a middle section-that we’ve been keeping the 5 females in until they’re a little older, and the back of end is for my two rapists LOL. They were in the middle until the expansion but the two ends each have a kiddie pool inside of them, with a larger one and small kiddie pool outside. Once they got into the part with the pool, my Khaki Campbell, Chocolate, stopped trying to mate with Half-pint. They both sleep against the screen where the 5 females are kept but today, my husband was in the front yard weed eating and we heard “Al,” honking, one of the new females (short for “Alert”); my husband rushed to the side and saw all 3 of the males trying to get on one of the other females, until today, the new females would never get in any of the pools with the drakes, not to mention Half-pint (aka. Osama lately) had just been chasing them around the yard or out the pool. We had intended to keep the middle portion as a sort of, Ad Seg, for any of the drakes who act out. I had my husband put the 5 females in half the house that had a pool since there’s ample room and they get to enjoy the pool at their leisure; my adult female (Goldie, Pekin) is in the other half with the pool, she hurt her little leg, which I’ve been using epsom salt and the non-stick wrap to help it heal and keep her off of it till it’s healed. Usually, the males lay in front of her cage while she’s in there....yesterday was the first day all the females were laid in front of her side by her and the males on the other side, which it looked like they could sense something was wrong. We usually keep one of our drakes, the Khaki Campbell and most aggressive, inside the kitchen, as of late in his half of the house as we noticed when he and the other two drakes are out together with Goldie, it would cause her unnecessary stress. Whenever she would want to go in her house, he would come out of his, so they usually had equal time for foraging outside. When will the 5 new females be mature enough to begin mating? Sorry for the novel, I always feel everything needs a backstory LOL.

 

[Miss Lydia]

Right before laying so usually between 4.5-5 months old