I have three pekins (a duck and two drakes, I believe--yep, I am adding more female ducks, see below).
I also have 15 assorted half grown ducklings (saxony, appleyards, 1 cayuga, 4 runners). They are almost fully feathered.
I also have a large pond for them.
Yesterday, I took the ducklings for their first "big pond" swim. They loved it! However, the pekins (who actually hate the pond and won't go into it unless forced to), were herded into the pond with the others. Then the pekins became obsessed with pushing the ducklings under the water to the point that we got the pekins out of the pond and kept them away from the ducklings and out of the pond until we herded the ducklings back to their pen. It was very reminiscent of wolf pack behavior--creating chaos by rushing into the group. Stragglers just had to hope that the bigger ducks did not see them.
I think the pekins (who are about .....two months older?) are more sexually mature, BUT the boys won't mate with the girl right now (seriously, she keeps trying to entice them and they scoot away from her to drink out of mud puddles), and she was one of the pekins that was forcing the ducklings under water without the low "seductive run" that she does. So i would say this was more aggressive-aggressive than mating aggressive, kwim? They also have shown some non-mating aggression before with the ducklings, but I thought it might be a one-off.
Ok, now the 15 ducklings are actually my core plan stock. I can remove the pekins (they are actually sort of just lawn ornaments--not wanting to be in the pond, not eating bugs, just trying to field strip my blueberry bushes and hang out by the door of the run so they can go back in). However, if this is just norm and the ducklings will be fine, then I am not in a particular hurry to get rid of the pekins. But I have no heartburn with getting rid of them either.
Are the ducklings in danger? Do we have to keep them separate?
If-then....
We need to add some more females to the entire group. The 15 are a straight run, but I am going to bulk up with many females and get rid of a few drakes (though, tbh, it is sort of difficult to tell by voice who is who....I am still a bit new to this). I plan to make my next order of ducklings within a week. How can one integrate ducklings with ducks if this is the behavior that happens? I don't want ducks killing off my ducklings or creating bad behavior patterns.
Thank you for any help you have.
I also have 15 assorted half grown ducklings (saxony, appleyards, 1 cayuga, 4 runners). They are almost fully feathered.
I also have a large pond for them.
Yesterday, I took the ducklings for their first "big pond" swim. They loved it! However, the pekins (who actually hate the pond and won't go into it unless forced to), were herded into the pond with the others. Then the pekins became obsessed with pushing the ducklings under the water to the point that we got the pekins out of the pond and kept them away from the ducklings and out of the pond until we herded the ducklings back to their pen. It was very reminiscent of wolf pack behavior--creating chaos by rushing into the group. Stragglers just had to hope that the bigger ducks did not see them.
I think the pekins (who are about .....two months older?) are more sexually mature, BUT the boys won't mate with the girl right now (seriously, she keeps trying to entice them and they scoot away from her to drink out of mud puddles), and she was one of the pekins that was forcing the ducklings under water without the low "seductive run" that she does. So i would say this was more aggressive-aggressive than mating aggressive, kwim? They also have shown some non-mating aggression before with the ducklings, but I thought it might be a one-off.
Ok, now the 15 ducklings are actually my core plan stock. I can remove the pekins (they are actually sort of just lawn ornaments--not wanting to be in the pond, not eating bugs, just trying to field strip my blueberry bushes and hang out by the door of the run so they can go back in). However, if this is just norm and the ducklings will be fine, then I am not in a particular hurry to get rid of the pekins. But I have no heartburn with getting rid of them either.
Are the ducklings in danger? Do we have to keep them separate?
If-then....
We need to add some more females to the entire group. The 15 are a straight run, but I am going to bulk up with many females and get rid of a few drakes (though, tbh, it is sort of difficult to tell by voice who is who....I am still a bit new to this). I plan to make my next order of ducklings within a week. How can one integrate ducklings with ducks if this is the behavior that happens? I don't want ducks killing off my ducklings or creating bad behavior patterns.
Thank you for any help you have.
