Duck with a Chicken Obsession

[kahara]

We have a year old male Mallard drake who has a fixation on one of our Buff Orphington hens.

There is the Mallard drake and hen, plus four chickens that were all purchased at the same time. I raised them together and handle them every day. They are all very friendly, healthy, peaceful, and freerange together on about four acres. They are locked in a 10X10 coup at night for their safety and fed a well-rounded diet.

The drake has progressively become possessive over the Buff hen (who is the lowest in the pecking order) and tries to breed her literally every time he sees her. He will even catch sight of her 100 yards away and run as fast as he can to reach her. The feathers on her neck are missing now. He still breeds the Mallard female, and they are obviously paired together (they're never apart), but he will not leave the Buff hen alone. She spends a good part of the day avoiding him.

I locked her up for about a week for a rest in the coup because she gave us a blood-covered egg one day after we saw him on top of her (maybe he achieved penetration...we don't know) and didn't really want to go far. Of course he spent half the day walking back and forth around the coup and quacking at her.

I was wondering if any of you had any advice on how to deal with this and if there is anything we can do to help her or lessen his obsession with her? Purchasing more Mallard females at the time isn't an option, but we plan to eventually. I know he should have more than one female to him in his flock. He's a great pet duck otherwise and is not mean. I just wondered if any of you have dealt with anything like this before, why is he doing this with the specific hen, and is there anything we can do?

Thank you in advance.

 

[Rare Feathers Farm]

I have a Muscovy drake that did that to hens, roosters, you name it--he tried to breed it. He ended up killing two roosters of mine while "breeding" them...I now just keep my ducks separate from everything else. They may be your only option...I'm not sure there is much else you can do in that situation? My drake had 6 girls of his own & still went after my two extra roos which were penned with him....

 

[zatsdeb]

I have a kaki campbell that loves my RIR! Plus an EE chicken! We tried to get more ducks, he runs with the ducks, plays in the puddles, but still would rather try to mate with the chickens.
I don't know but I think since he was raised with chickens he thinks he is a chicken.

 

[kahara]

LOL it's good to know that we're not the only ones with a species indentity-challenged drake. Thank you for your replies.

Equibling - that's terrible he killed your roosters! omg I had no idea that they could get that violent. I guess ours really isn't that bad (yet).

zatsdeb - that makes sense with ours too. This is "his" flock; we don't have a rooster so he's the only male. He grew up with them since they were all less than a week old. Maybe he just doesn't notice the difference, since he considers the hens his. He protects and watches over them and everything too, like he should. Not just his "wife." Two of our chickens jump at him and peck when he tries to breed them though, so he wisely leaves them alone.

 

[Rare Feathers Farm]

Well, there's a BIG difference (literally) between a Mallard & a Muscovy. My drake is HUGE & has HUGE, SHARP claws...