Duck questions

[Freie Family Farm]

So 2 of our hens (saxony and a khaki) have decided to be little you know whats lately. Well 4 of our drakes are VERY willing to do the deed. I have a few questions as statements...
Since they've been mating, is it possible our first duck eggs could be fertile?
We are getting rid of 2 of the drakes this week/weekend. We have 3 other females, 2 muscovy and an appleyard but none of them seem in the mood.
When will the other 3 females start mating?
When will my muscovy drake come around to wanting to do anything?
And finally, we are searching for me females, just can't seem to find any within our price range currently due to covid.
Thanks for reading and have a great day everyone!

 

[Offshoreorca]

You’re first duck eggs might be fertile. Just a reminder here that Muscovy crosses are viable, but the offspring are sterile as muscovies are a category of duck unto their own genetically.

 

[Freie Family Farm]

I remembered that bit about the muscovies. Currently my 3 avoid the others any chance they get. Thank you for answering one of my questions! Itll be kinda exciting if they are fertile. If only I had an incubator or at least a broody duck lol

 

[Offshoreorca]

The other females will mate when they’re ready - I don’t have any advice for predicting this. And I would imagine that the male Muscovy will get around to mating in time. Ours took a bit longer to mature.

Muscovy crosses are super cute - we have both muscovies and runner ducks who occasionally cross breed.

And I’m sure your ducks will go broody in the spring. Our muscovies do so like clockwork every year.

 

[Freie Family Farm]

Nice! I cant wait! We want some runners too so hoping to find some females in the spring at this point. I had an extra question too, our appleyard is the only 1 and she's super snotty. Charging other ducks, super loud, semi aggressive about others maging with the male she wants and won't let others near him... any suggestions on mellowing her out?

 

[Offshoreorca]

How much space do they have? Sometimes too small of a space can lead to more aggression. Some birds are also just bullies, but usually I find it’s the males and not females. I haven’t had this problem with ducks, but with chickens we separate the bully out for a while in a cage (couple of days or week) and the reintroduce to see if this changes anything. Hopefully someone else can help you more specifically with this if they have some direct experience with the problem.

 

[Freie Family Farm]

Their area is a 100ft fence wrapped in a square plus an extra run thats 6x12

 

[Offshoreorca]

You need a minimum of 15 square feet per duck in the run. How many ducks do you have in total? And there are only ducks in the run? If space isn’t the issue, which it doesn’t sound to be (but you can do the math), then it’s likely a personality issue and will have to be dealt with.

 

[Freie Family Farm]

We are getting rid of 2 of the drakes soon so itll be a total of 3 drakes and 5 ducks until we find some more females within our price range