DUCKS FIGHTING OR MATING

[KaylaLee]

hi - yesterday i saw my female duck literally on top of my male duck, the male was laying on the floor and the female was like standing on top of him. i googled this and im pretty sure they are mating? but i did more research and i guess mating is when the male is on top, so i am super confused.

the female started laying eggs a few days ago, could that have been a reason for this? this morning i saw the male aggressively pushing/poking the female. they have always been nice to eachother so i dont know why this is happening.

they are 6 months old now. can someone help please? thanks!

 

[Chickensandhorsesforlife]

She was probably asserting dominance. Are you sure they are a male and a female?

 

[KaylaLee]

She was probably asserting dominance. Are you sure they are a male and a female?

the female started laying eggs so im sure about her, but i dont know if the male is actually male, i did research and i think he is male but i could be wrong, he doesnt have a drake curl yet but his voice sounds like a male quack

 

[Bigtom Turkey]

If it does not have a curl at 6 months old then he is most likely female. But I am not good with ducks so I hope other ppl come soon.

 

[Isaac 0]

i did research and i think he is male but i could be wrong, he doesnt have a drake curl yet but his voice sounds like a male quack

Drakes do not QUACK, they make raspy noises. If you're hearing a quack, the drake is actually a female.

http://www.majesticwaterfowl.org/artquacks.htm

At their age roles are not always established well, so sometimes it is not uncommon to find a very dominant hen over a drake. As time passes, you'll see the drake become more dominant and allow none of that behavior.

In the case that you actually have two females, it's likely the hens are simply establishing dominant roles, which is not particularly uncommon.

 

[3bird]

Funny you should bring this up today, as we just got in from free ranging our ducks, and we saw two of our hens go through the full mating ritual in the pond. We've seen them do it sort of heartedly or poorly, where it was clearly a pecking order dominance thing, but this was full-on mounting, neck-grabbing, tail-flipping, rolling-off, and celebrating. Both these girls are almost four years old. I'm sure it was part of the usual pecking order reshuffle (it was 44 this morning after weeks in the teens and single digits), but it was noteworthy.