ducks fighting

[Banana01]

i am getting 4 female ducks tomorrow will this make them fight more?

No that will make them form groups and stop fighting. Unless all 4 of the females reject one of them, which is doubtful. As long as there are lots of water areas and space for them.

Fighting for me is very rare, it only happened when the females went to their nests and new males were introduced, but our environments are different obviously. Please update with how they do.

 

[Quatie]

i have 4 drakes for sure and 1 duck that don't know.i guess their space did shrink a lot.

How big is there current space? When you have to confine them more, they don't have as much space to get away and avoid scuffles. Even when I temporarily shrink my area to do yard work, my females will get a more annoyed.

Hormones can also definitely play a part in their fighting. If they are fighting because of hormones, they may potentially not stop.

i am getting 4 female ducks tomorrow will this make them fight more?

I agree with @Miss Lydia, and I would not put the drakes and females together. If I were going to, I would just put one drake with them at a time. I doubt they will fight anymore than they do now. You already have 1 female for them to fight over. But if I have learned anything with ducks, it is always possible.

Also realize you will need to slowly integrate the new females with your current one. The new females may bully the lone female at first and potentially fight if you don't do it slowly. It takes a couple weeks to integrate new members to a flock, and potentially even longer depending on the ducks.

 

[AmeraucanaHank]

thank you all who wrote back it helped me a LOT.

 

[AmeraucanaHank]

I will keep you guys posted on what happens.

 

[sowNreap]

I'm definitely no expert since this is my 1st year as duck Momma. I have all drake flock, 6 Muscovy's born maybe in June. Some of them starting picking on the smallest/youngest one pretty bad. Then he learned he could fly so started flying away from them but unfortunately he'd fly out of my yard into the pasture across busy road & where coyotes hang out. I think one drake took pity on him and befriended him trying to help keep him safe and keep him company. But he would sometimes fly after the picked on drake. And sometimes the bullies would fly after him. So I ended up having to clip all their wings.

The 2 BFF's usually hung out by themselves to avoid the others and the other 4 hung out together in different spots. But sometimes he'd still get bullied so he'd run as fast as he could to get away. Kinda funny watching him use his wings to push off the ground trying to run faster.

I guess he got tired of getting picked on so he tried to take down one of the bullies. He lost that fight. He tried again & held his own, didn't quite win because he was being double teamed, maybe it was a draw. lol After that it seemed 4 of the other drakes had new respect for him & let him back into the flock and kicked out the other 1 that might have doing most of the bullying.

One of the other drakes befriended him. So now the 2 brown drakes hang out together, usually. One brown drake is allowed in the flock but spends most of his time with the kicked out drake. Those 2 have tried to double team the bullied drake but his BFF and sometimes one of the others comes to aid him.

Yet sometimes they still all forage & nap together. And sometimes the bullied drakes BFF gets mad at him, usually when it comes to sharing water. He has no problem sharing food but not the water.

So right now it's mostly peaceful.... but don't know how long that will last. It's still hard for the bullied drake to get any time in the pool without someone kicking him out.

I just tried to let them work it out but not sure if that will work for you or not. Just sharing my limited experience.

 

[ruthhope]

I'm definitely no expert since this is my 1st year as duck Momma. I have all drake flock, 6 Muscovy's born maybe in June. Some of them starting picking on the smallest/youngest one pretty bad. Then he learned he could fly so started flying away from them but unfortunately he'd fly out of my yard into the pasture across busy road & where coyotes hang out. I think one drake took pity on him and befriended him trying to help keep him safe and keep him company. But he would sometimes fly after the picked on drake. And sometimes the bullies would fly after him. So I ended up having to clip all their wings.

The 2 BFF's usually hung out by themselves to avoid the others and the other 4 hung out together in different spots. But sometimes he'd still get bullied so he'd run as fast as he could to get away. Kinda funny watching him use his wings to push off the ground trying to run faster.

I guess he got tired of getting picked on so he tried to take down one of the bullies. He lost that fight. He tried again & held his own, didn't quite win because he was being double teamed, maybe it was a draw. lol After that it seemed 4 of the other drakes had new respect for him & let him back into the flock and kicked out the other 1 that might have doing most of the bullying.

One of the other drakes befriended him. So now the 2 brown drakes hang out together, usually. One brown drake is allowed in the flock but spends most of his time with the kicked out drake. Those 2 have tried to double team the bullied drake but his BFF and sometimes one of the others comes to aid him.

Yet sometimes they still all forage & nap together. And sometimes the bullied drakes BFF gets mad at him, usually when it comes to sharing water. He has no problem sharing food but not the water.

So right now it's mostly peaceful.... but don't know how long that will last. It's still hard for the bullied drake to get any time in the pool without someone kicking him out.

I just tried to let them work it out but not sure if that will work for you or not. Just sharing my limited experience.

Yes, its best to let them sort it out amongst themselves! My bullied drake is out free-ranging with his tormentors but sleeps in the house. He deserves some peace [and extra mealworms so he puts on weight!] Tonight he came in with a very muddy back and a dirty bite mark on his neck. I know he had had a nice splashy bath about 4pm, so one of the bully muscovies stood on him after that. Poor little pekin.

 

[AmeraucanaHank]

I got the female ducks today! Tonight they are going to be in a different pen than the drakes, but in a couple of days i will slowly introduce them.

 

[sourland]

'Bullying' in all drake flocks is generally drakes trying to breed the weakest individual. This can result in injury/death.

 

[sowNreap]

'Bullying' in all drake flocks is generally drakes trying to breed the weakest individual. This can result in injury/death.

Oh, thinking back there was a drake that did appear to be trying to mate with the bullied one. It didn't look like the usual take down type of being on the back holding him down.

My friend who was the wing clipper, even said it appeared he was trying to mate with him. That was right after we clipped the bullied ones wings and carried him back to my yard. As soon as we put him inside the fence 2 drakes cornered him up against the fence. One appeared to be trying to mate and the other I think was trying to get him off though not sure really what he was doing.

Since the bullied one had that fight to a draw I haven't seen any trying to mate with him. I don't actually think it was the bully that tried to do that though. Well he could have been a bully too & I just didn't see him doing it. But those 2 get along ok now.

 

[thumper650]

Most likely I def would not put 4 females in with these guys. Drakes need at least 4 females each to keep over breeding from happening.
We need @thumper650 to comment he keeps an all drake flock and gives good advise on how to do it.

Drakes are so kooky! My drake flock recently has been a little nippy, which is rare in winter. Due to a broody kahki last summer I have my pekin boy and girl living with 2 young drakes. So far so good, but I know hormones will kick in in spring and they’ll have to be separated.

I use dog pen panels, so I can move them around and try different situations. It’s more work, but I don’t want to give anyone up.

As mentioned, space is a factor. Mine are better when they can get away from an aggressor.