Drowning or Making Love?

[CRH1223]

Ok so this has happened for about a month now. I have a boy pekin and a girl pekin and they are 5 months old. I put them in my kiddie pool and my guy duck gets on my girl ducks back and starts like pushing her head under water and biting the back of her neck. I do break it up because I don't want my little girl to drown! But if this is normal then I will let them be and let the boy have his way.

Sorry this sounds like a stupid question but I am just concerned and this is my first time having ducks.

Thanks for the Help.

 

[wolftracks]

Normal

 

[desertdarlene]

It's normal. The only thing is if he's holding her head under water for more than a couple of minutes, then you should be concerned. But, most of the time that doesn't happen, especially if it's just one male.

 

[FunnyBunnies12]

My male runner mix did that and now my girl laid a total of 30 eggs, I had to break it up several times because it got to be to much where he hardly would let her up for air and she would just quack and quack, and he still wouldnt let go of the back of her head so I would have to hold her head up and I'd try to get him off but he had a tight grasp on her or he'd snap onto me, or I had to flick his bill to let her go, and no sooner did I break it up turn my back he was on her again. At 1st I thought it was a dominence things before i really understood what was going on. My friend who is training me to rehab wildlife like squirrels and cottontails, she said and I really hate to use this word, because it's so graphic and violent, but in a way true, the drake could rape her to death. This to went on for well over a month. They hit 5mths and it's like power surge of hormones!

 

[sourland]

This is normal breeding behavior. Problems can occur if multiple drakes try to breed a hen in unison or succession thereby holding her head in under water too long and drowning her.

 

[72elizabeth]

Ok, now tell me about this. I have 9 female ducks. 3 are Black cayuga and 6 are Hybrid egg layers. All were raised together. Some are behaving like drakes, holding down a female by her neck, almost drowning her, while the others try and bite her bottom. I'm pretty sure they're all females, that's what I ordered. They were sexed, but that's not 100%. I don't see a curled tail and I'm puzzeled. They are laying eggs, I'm pretty sure the eggs are from the Hybrids. I get six every morning. The cayuga lay a blue egg and that I haven't seen yet. Sometimes, I find an egg without a shell, looks like just a membrane?, very soft. What do you make of that? The ducks are 5 months old. Have you ever had this happen? PUZZELED

 

[Snakeman]

I have 20 ducks in my primary flock. 5 are drakes and my females still do the 2 girl breeding display from time to time. It's normal. So are the membranes without shells. I got a couple of those when my young ducks started laying for the first time.

 

[72elizabeth]

Thanks snakeman, I appreciate your reply. I think it's one of the Black Cayuga's. All the brown Hybrids lay in one spot, before 8:00am. I found 2 of these w/out membranes, 1 in the pool and 1 outside the pen. It's not everyday. I do have oyster shells out for the guineas and I guess if the ducks feel they need it, they'll take it.

 

[katharinad]

Nothing to worry about. My male duck is usually very gentle, but once in a while he pushed their heads under too long. My girls usually dive their chest deeper and make him fall into the water right in front of them. Works like a charm. You have to worry when two males get one hen. They can drown her. One male not a chance.

 

[Knock Kneed Hen]

I just spoke with a friend who told me about her ducks dying. She had three black (don't know the breed) ducks and someone gave her a drake. She didn't think anything of it, just giving the guy a good home. First duck gets sick and her feathers begin turning white. Second duck she finds dead in the pool. She doesn't know what to make of it. She observed that after cleaning the pool the drake would get more excited than usual and try to mate the ducks in the pool. She didn't put 2 and 2 together immediately. The day after the second duck was found drowned in the pool she found the third duck also drowned in the pool. She then realized that the drake had drowned them while mating them. She only has the one drake so it CAN happen. Now she's left with a sickly duck and this drake.

I'd never heard of such a thing until today. It just happened this weekend and she's bummed. Her last flock was wiped out by a predator. She's done with ducks.