Duck Drama

[GypsyMama13]

We have a lone drake Pekin after his hens disappears one by one over a year. He was so lost after the last one was gone. Our rooster is an adversary of his already, they chase each other, so no companionship there.

My ranch mate bought a couple of ducklings when Tractor Supply was selling out for the season, along with a bunch of chicks. The chicks were sexed, but the duckling weren't.

Needless to say, one is female and one is male. Dang... They were raised in the coup with the chicks and a couple of weeks ago, we started free ranging. Of course, our older drake is giving the younger one a hard time. He is already mating with the female and the younger drake is very isolated...

I'm guessing that I either need to get more hens or rehome one of the drakes?

Sigh...

Thanks

 

[Pyxis]

Yes, you're correct, you'll need to get more females or rehome one drake. Probably both if you don't want to get five more females - you should have three to four females for each drake.

 

[GypsyMama13]

Thanks, that's what I thought. My husband isn't convinced the other one is a boy though. He's seen our drake try to cover it. If it's a female, maybe she's just not as mature as her sister, because "she" wants nothing to do with him...

 

[Pyxis]

Thanks, that's what I thought. My husband isn't convinced the other one is a boy though. He's seen our drake try to cover it. If it's a female, maybe she's just not as mature as her sister, because "she" wants nothing to do with him...

Males will also mount other males as a show of dominance, so that could be what's going on. Have you sexed them by voice?

 

[GypsyMama13]

I wondered about that. It was the first "duckling" that he went after when we first introduced them, so we thought it was female.

By voice? Well, we thought we had, but frankly the young drake/not drake is super quiet. Shy and unassuming. Always has been. (In sharp contrast to his/her sister, who is loud as hell! And also to our older drake, who's very vocal.) I thought we had identified that his/her cadence what that of the female, but now I'm not so sure. Gonna study it harder this evening during HDTV. Hens and ducks television.