Face Feathers Gone

[Miss Lydia]

I do plan on showing her, I bought her mate with her and he is even better quality!!!! I have 4 drakes and 4 hens. They are all together, I know there should be more hens but all my hens but 4 died this year and 2 of my drakes. I have one "aggressive" male, he isnt exactly aggressive but he mates with all the hens. my ducks kinda mate in pairs and only mate with their chosen female. I have a LONG process to make this happen but the one drake I did not get time to do this and he mates with all the ducks. I have seen only her mate and the all around drake mate with her. I have a 1000 gallon pond that I have seen them mate in but due to the cold the last few days they have been inside so they have been not mating on water.

Sounds like someone is being entirely to rough. Why not put her and her mate in a separate area give her time to rest a bit, Then if it is from this one all round drake he'll start on another duck most likely. He has his own mate but has to have all the others too? sounds like one of the drakes I have Mr Dominant is what I call him. If this drake starts on another I'd put him and his mate separate from the rest give him a chance to bond with his own female.But watch he doesn't get too abusive with her. I didn't know calls picked a mate and only mated with her, that's interesting.

 

[18angovem]

Yes "mr.dominant" has his own female. Well two get the ducks to mate with just one I put them in my huge aviary by themselves for a whole breeding season and then towards the end add a dominant male and the resident male will fight him off, I supervise the whole thing and do it with every pair. There are more steps but I summed it up. I did have problems because I bought a male that was not a call duck and was really big so it could bully the other drakes so the whole system had to be restarted. Boy did I hate that male.

 

[Miss Lydia]

Yes "mr.dominant" has his own female. Well two get the ducks to mate with just one I put them in my huge aviary by themselves for a whole breeding season and then towards the end add a dominant male and the resident male will fight him off, I supervise the whole thing and do it with every pair. There are more steps but I summed it up. I did have problems because I bought a male that was not a call duck and was really big so it could bully the other drakes so the whole system had to be restarted. Boy did I hate that male.

Well hopefully you can get this worked out especially before mating season really gets under way. And she can get back to looking show quality again.. Keep us updated on progress.

 

[Miss Lydia]

What should I do, I have an extra rabbit hutch I can modify to be a call duck breeding pen so she and her mate can be together. Then I can sell the eggs for more too!

That sounds like a good plan.

 

[18angovem]

Ok, so time to get to work...... add another thing to my list

 

[sourland]

Time to separate her and her mate away from the others. Yes, drakes gang mating hens can kill or seriously injure them.

 

[18angovem]

More ducks are having the same problem. What is going on. I spray for lice and mites every time I clean. I sprayed them down about a week ago but no improvement. What is going on???

 

[Amykins]

That may actually be a factor. I know overmedicating a cat with flea spray causes fur to fall out, maybe it's the same with your mite spray. If you've begun using it more and more because of a preemptive fear of mites, that alone could be causing it.

 

[18angovem]

Ok, I will restrain for a little while.

 

[Amykins]

I still think it may be the roo, though. If he sees your other ducks getting action it could whip him into a frenzy. I don't think you need to go as drastic as adding him as the newest member in the Dinner Club, but if you have a baby gate, or any other way to just manually pick him up and carry him past the ducks (you stated that he has to go past the duck house to go outside each morning) that'll be a way to see if that indeed is the issue. After about a week if you see the problem isn't spreading anymore, there's your sign.

Also how long have you been doing the insect spray-downs when you clean? And what products/chemicals is it that you use? You stated this happened three years ago when you had the roo and not any hens, so my gut instinct is to say he's the one that's been pecking your ducks into premature baldness!