Drakes Showing Preference

[linen53]

I saw a thread that was just what I needed answers to the other day but didn't have time to read it at the time. Today I tried to re-search for that topic and it won't come up (search engine on this forum isn't very good).

The problem is that my drakes are showing preference to 4 girls over the entire 14 girls that I have. I have separated my over-mated 4 girls for the past 2 weeks and tried to re-introduce them to the rest of the flock yesterday but the boys went for them within a minute for mating and I had to grabthe girls and put them back into isolation before the past 2 weeks were completely undone.

What do I have to do to get the drakes interested in the other 10 girls that I have?

A little history: I started out with 6 drakes and 3 girls last spring which I raised from babies. I acquired 5 more mature girls last July, added another 3 girls in August and another 3 girls about 8 weeks ago. My boys used to mate with their original 3 broodmates and the first 5 girls I added but now only mate with their original 3 broodmates and one girl of the first set I added in July. They just want to mate with these 4 poor girls. I was afraid the boys are going to kill the 4 girls they prefer from over-mating!!

 

[linen53]

Hello, anyone out there?

 

[evansacres]

Tried looking for the thread and couldn't find it either...

My suggestion instead of removing the four over bred girls...why don't you remove the boys completely from the entire flock for a week or two and reintroduce each one separately. Perhaps the flock will adjust differently when the boys come back separately. Worth a try?

 

[linen53]

Thanks for your input. Only problem is the two large dog houses I have set up in the isolation pen won't hold all 6 drakes and temps here have been down in the single digits for the past couple of weeks on and off. I may have to just be patient and wait till spring, but I hate doing that to my four sweet girls in isolation!!

I tried for the 10th time and found the thread I was looking for. In case anyone else is having this problem, here is the thread: https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=584506

Forgot to mention I have Muscovies which are large. That's why they won't fit in the dog houses.

 

[linen53]

Okay I read the other thread and really there wasn't much advice on my problem.

Today I set up two kiddie pools today and a lot of ducks got baths but no mating occurred. Whenever there was a girl in one of the pools and a drake sidled up to them the ducks took off. My drakes are 7 months old now and technically can be called drakelets. Might this be an inexperience thing? Will they get over this? Or am I looking at having to get rid of the drakes and getting new ones?