ducks unsettled after drake gone. will it pass?

[ejctm]

I had 4 runner ducks, 3 girls and 1 drake, all adults. I found a new home for my drake and 1 duck. My remaining 2 ducks have reacted very badly which i had underestimated the impact on them. They free range with my chickens. 1 duck seems fine, but the othet at first wandered around totally lost and upset quacking all day when they are usually quiet. Now she is head bobbing the chicken who was her mother, following her round and generally treating her like the drake/leader. This chicken is actually bottom of the hen pecking order, and i am amazed they recognise her as their mother as they are 2 years old. The chicken ignores her. The duck is clearly still unsettled after a week. She seems to have lost her identity as a duck poor thing. Also both ducks have stopped laying. Can i do anything to help them adjust to this change in their family or is it just a waiting game?:/

 

[Amiga]

Aside from some TLC and treats, it may just take some time. Ducks do get attached to one another, and she is grieving, perhaps (no way to be sure) assuming the missing ones are dead.

See if you can give her a little more attention, find something she may like.

 

[Mike Winters]

she said she gave them away. the duck was probably the drakes favorite hen and shes feels lost

 

[ejctm]

I never noticed him having a favourite as he seemed to pay them all the same amount of attention. Perhaps he was her favourite!

I think you are right about bereavement because all she knows is that he has gone, and that she feels his loss. Thr reason is immaterial. I just wish she would forget him a bit quicker and get on with her life! Duck counselling, lol.

I just hate to see her in distress. She has had treats and activities to distract her (i dug over a patch of earth so they could have some worm digging fun), but this was only momentary relief.

Is there anything else i can do? I had hoped a flock of two ducks and three chickens would be enough company. Poor ducky.

 

[sourland]

It's not only the drake who is gone. She also misses the other flockmate. In effect you halved the flock. Birds hate change - they will eventually adapt to their new reality.

 

[ejctm]

Thanks sourland. I am sure you are right. I just wanted some ideas to ease the transition.
I really did not expect the impact on them to be so great, but I have learned from this.
The only reason the drake went was because he raped my chickens and I had to separate them with fencing but this restricted their free ranging drastically. I rotated between the ducks and chickens being penned and free ranging and whoever was penned that day would be desperate to get out over the fence and the chickens made it a few times only to have jumped into the jaws of death of my drake! One duck had to go with the drake as I tried for a year to rehome him on his own, but nobody wants a lone drake. He and she are now living with another female in a huge garden with a lovely family. This left two females who I thought would be fine (they will be soon I hope) and who now do not have to be penned up at all which is better for them overall.

Ducks are such sensitive creatures! I have heard of dogs pining for their owners but not ducks for their drake. It is amazing the role he must have played in their flock, more than just the reproductive one. He would look out for and announce planes flying overhead, give the girls first refusal on any treats, alert them to a lucky slug find, chatter non-stop like he was narrating every moment, and was such a chivalrous soul. I miss him too!

However the chickens don't! They now live in peace from the threat of him grabbing their feathers through the fence, or pouncing on them if a gate is left open.
I feel like I have done the right thing overall.

 

[sourland]

You have done the right thing, and your ducks will make the adjustment.

 

[ejctm]

Cheers!