Duck kill other ducks??

[adlynch]

I have 5 ducks, 4 males 1 female who just recently started laying. They free range and have access to a pond during the day and are put up in a fairly decent size pen at night. This morning i found 2 of the males dead. There was no size of entrance into the pen. Both of them had wounds on their neck. I am aware that my male/female ratio is off. I know nothing about ducks and did not have time to properly prepare for them. I received them unexpectedly. I am ASSUMING that the larger duck (pekin) killed the other two. I am now wondering what to do. I have 3 left, the very large male pekin, a male rouen, and the female. Will the males kill each other or kill the female? Just looking for answers. They were all raised together from ducklings , no one was introduced later. Thanks so much!

 

[chickens really]

Yes, How unfortunate..Your Drake did kill them.
Separate The drakes. You need more hens. Even if you find a home for the one Drake? He will need more hens. Two too six hens per Drake is a common ratio. The more hens the better. I have four hens.

Sorry for the loss....We all learn as we go.

 

[TLWR]

I wouldn't immediately think a duck did it. You'd be surprised what can get into a pen at night depending on what you have.
Post a pic of your pen set up and if you looked closely, describe the wound on the duck's necks.

 

[adlynch]

Thank you so much for taking the time to respond. I feel horrible for learning this lesson at the ducks expense.

 

[chickens really]

No problem. Best of luck with the Ducks.
Only you know your set up and how many you will need to successfully raise your ducks.
Best wishes.

 

[Ghibli]

What were the wounds like? Did they look like something a duck could do? I wouldn't just rule it out immediately as that, if it was a predator then you'll need to make sure they're safe so it won't come back for the rest. What's their house like? How secure is it?

 

[adlynch]

I dont have a photo right now, and its already dark out. But they have a wooden house with a top, bottom and 4 sides, that is inside of a pen that is made with a heavy duty wire (with like 2×3 inch openings) and then on top of that we have chicken wire (because the holes are smaller) there is wire over the top of the pen and there is extra wire around the bottom that we buried so nothing can dig under. The door stays closed at night with a locking latch. I saw no areas around the perimeter of the pen that looked like anything got in.

The wounds were only on the neck. It didnt look like a predator tried to get them (or eat them) however the neck wounds were pretty severe on one of them. "Severe" meaning the injury was around the whole neck. The other duck had just a smaller area on the side if his neck.

This photo is older and was taken back in March, but its the best one i could find of all of them. I have drawn arrows to the ones who were killed.

 

[Katy_Loves_unicorns]

I am very sad for the ducks and very sorry for you, the best thing is to have more hens then drakes It would definitely be the drake, today I was feeding the ducks and letting them out of their pen, then I didn't know if the right drake was in the right pen so I let him out to see if the other male ducks would attack him....(That sounds horrible) I break them up straight away though!!! I watched because the other boy was trying to mate with the other drakes partner, and so the 2 drakes (who are brothers so they don't attack each other) tried to kill him, they both jumped on him and they were aiming for the neck and holding him down, the worst part was that they jumped on him in the water! So he would have drowned and been attacked on the neck!!! My lesson in now learned!!!!!
I wish you luck with your ducks, definitely get more hens!

 

[cleo72]

how old are your ducks?

 

[21hens-incharge]

how old are your ducks?

This thread is from 2016. The original poster has not logged in since February of this year.