Drakes raping my little hens / (male ducks raping female ducks), they are injuring my females! HELP!

[KAZROB]

Hi,

if it happens to be the one that is sitting on eggs, it will be due to the fact that they pull their own down feathers out to create their magnificent nests! or it could be due to rough mating?

Cheers

 

[MarysAviaryHeartAndZoo]

Hello Kazrob,

Thank you for responding. Now that I think about it, she is always preening her belly feathers. Maybe she is actually pulling her down coat. I first noticed the problem on her wings. I just want to make sure it's not medically related. Thanks again!!

 

[subhanalah]

They pull from the breast, not their wings or head (how would they reach their head?) As far as I know lol.

 

[KAZROB]

LOL so true, but I know they pull them out from somewhere for the nests...The head ones could be from rough mating....Oh and I thought they pulled from their wings as just from the small amount of experience I have had, my mother ducks always tend to look shabby after sitting and pulling feathers, anyway I am no expert and when you said how would they reach there head I had to have a laugh when I gave some thought to that lol lol

 

[Starfire669]

I have a crested mallard, named Ebony, who was raped and permentanly injured by a Pekin drake. The drake was twice her size, and he had 3 crested Pekin females as well as Ebony for mates. He still chased Ebony down, caught her, forced her down and raped her. I heard her frantic calls, came around in time to see him biting her head and neck while climbing on her. She was struggling, pumping her legs, and calling out. Her hip muscles in her right hip tore, and she has a permanent limp from his abuse. I re-homed the drake and it took a month of pool therapy to get Ebony where she is now.

I am telling you this story because it was a single drake that raped her. If it had been more than one, she would have been injured much worse. Also, she was attacked on land, if a couple drakes catch a female on a lake/pond/kiddie pool and fight over her, she can drown. This happens a lot in the wild. I hope that this does not happen to your mallards. Good luck.

 

[MarysAviaryHeartAndZoo]

Thanks for sharing your story. I'm glad to hear that ms. Ebony is doing better and SURVIVED! When I heard two drakes fighting loudly, I ran to separate them only to find Tulip laying on the ground paralyzed. I thought she was dead. After I brushed the rapist off of her, I had to lift her head up to see if she was still alive. She was! I quickly lifted her up and took her inside where it was cool. I gave her electrolytes and water bc I thought she was in shock. Her body literally just gave up and her face was buried in straw. It was the saddest site ever. Luckily after 5 days of bathtub rehab, she is perky and back to shaking her little tail feathers. She is probably the more attractive female (welsh harlequin) so all 5 drakes try to get a piece of her beauty. Poor baby.

 

[Starfire669]

Thanks for sharing your story. I'm glad to hear that ms. Ebony is doing better and SURVIVED! When I heard two drakes fighting loudly, I ran to separate them only to find Tulip laying on the ground paralyzed. I thought she was dead. After I brushed the rapist off of her, I had to lift her head up to see if she was still alive. She was! I quickly lifted her up and took her inside where it was cool. I gave her electrolytes and water bc I thought she was in shock. Her body literally just gave up and her face was buried in straw. It was the saddest site ever. Luckily after 5 days of bathtub rehab, she is perky and back to shaking her little tail feathers. She is probably the more attractive female (welsh harlequin) so all 5 drakes try to get a piece of her beauty. Poor baby.

I am glad to hear that Tulip is recovering. Have you thought about re-homing a couple of the drakes? Or maybe putting them in a separate pen to keep all your hens safe? You could put the drake of your choice with the ladies for breeding, but keep the extras away to prevent more injuries like Tulip's. I can't watch over my crew all day, so I choose to separate or re-home trouble makers to keep my ladies safe and give myself fewer headaches from worrying.

 

[MarysAviaryHeartAndZoo]

Hello everyone!!
So I gave two of my drakes away to the neighbors...not the best idea bc they seem to have found their way back home. They walked/ran/ swam over 5 acres and a lake to get back to our yard.

Also, butterscotch doesn't want to sit on her nest any longer. She sat on it for almost two weeks and today I noticed that she had eaten one of her eggs. It could be possible that her two hen-roommates ate it. Is there anything I can do??

 

[Finny]

Hi all! So I currently have three drakes and I was looking into getting some females for them and I thought this would be a good thread to ask a drake/hen question. Could a flock of three drakes and three female ducks work? We don't have much room at the time for more than three more ducks. Will the drakes fight and possibly hurt the females during mating season? I have heard it would be best to have two ducks per drake but I had ordered two female welsh harlequins from metzer (i had to cancel the order because i found out the three ducks i had that i thought were females were actually drakes) and someone at metzer told me i could keep a flock of equal amounts of males and females. I was just wondering if you guys think this is true?

 

[HollyDuckFarmer]

@finny
Nope, I am sorry, I don't think it will work. With 3 drakes, if you have a large area, and by large I mean 25sq ft per each bird, then you *might* get away with 6 ducks, so a total flock number of 9. But if it was my place, and my flock, (& I have exactly 24sq ft of pen space per bird here, plus 3 covered nesting areas, as well as free range) I would not go any fewer than 9 female ducks, so a total flock number of 12.