Ducks coming of age

[TLWR]

So the 3 girls are coming up on 5 months old.
In the last week, the pool has been interesting - usually it is Blue on Cadbury, but the other day it was Blue on top of Ally and then Cadbury climbed on top of the pile and I had a 3 ring duck circus.
I assume this is kind of mating behavior, but somebody hasn't figured out that she's well, a she and won't get anywhere with climbing on top of somebody else and riding them around the pool. As long as I see the underwater duck being able to poke her bill out for air, I don't intervene, but when I haven't, I go push Blue off who ever she's riding.
Will they eventually figure out they are all girls and this is pointless or is this some dominance thing or something else or what?

 

[gryeyes]

Dominence thing.

 

[TLWR]

Do I need to fix it before Blue manages to drown Cadbury or Ally?


and if so, how?
Because she isn't like the dogs and doesn't listen to "Blue, get OFF Cadbury!"

 

[gofasterstripe]

Quote:

 

[Amiga]

Well, I'm no duck PhD, but while there may be a dominance component of the behavior, I think the girls just want to have a little fun.

Tough question about intervention. So far, I have only interrupted what I call "hop on top" a few times. I have read about ducks being drowned, however. So I would watch them a bit (although it's a strange sight, IMO), and see that no one gets hurt. Right now it's too cold for mine to have more than drinking water, so they just play on dry ground. A couple of times I was concerned because someone's neck was pressed against the edge of the drinking bowl, but they straightened that out pretty quickly.

They started this breeding behavior some weeks before they started laying. They seem to get fired up when there is clean drinking or swimming water. Which is pretty often, actually.

 

[TLWR]

Cool, so maybe we'll see eggs from them in the next month.

 

[gofasterstripe]

Im still sat here chuckling over the Blue, Get Off Cadbury bit...I dont care who you are, that thur was funny