Female ducks nipping eachothers necks?

[Vegan Mountain Mama]

i have 2 female ducks, same age, and when I fill up their kiddy pool, they both get so excited and really hyper...one of the things they do in there is stand on eachothers backs and one will latch onto the neck feathers of the other one. The weirdest part is, the one being stood on and nipped seems to be totally fine with it and even participated in letting the other one get on her back LOL! I make them stop sometimes because the one getting nipped will get her head held under the water and I don’t want them to accidentally drown eachother (they seem to only do it during bath time). They also do it equally to each other, it’s not just one doing it to the other.
What does this mean?

 

[Freisian]

i have 2 female ducks, same age, and when I fill up their kiddy pool, they both get so excited and really hyper...one of the things they do in there is stand on eachothers backs and one will latch onto the neck feathers of the other one. The weirdest part is, the one being stood on and nipped seems to be totally fine with it and even participated in letting the other one get on her back LOL! I make them stop sometimes because the one getting nipped will get her head held under the water and I don’t want them to accidentally drown eachother (they seem to only do it during bath time). They also do it equally to each other, it’s not just one doing it to the other.
What does this mean?

I think you may have a duck and drake and they are mating....do you have any pics of them, does one quack and one sound a bit ....like a hoarse grating voice? And does one have a curl in its tail( the drake) and one no curl ( the duck) ? I think you call the duck a hen duck across the wAter

 

[CarleeAnn]

It’s normal! Females get frisky too and like how it feels- they’re “mating”. They won’t drown each other, but it sure looks scary, huh? Ducks are strange....

My girls do it too but the more dominant one is always on top. You may notice one lay flat before its mounted too, that one is “asking” for it.

 

[PirateGirl]

Usually it's my drake doing this to the girls, but I've seen known females do this to other known females. I agree that fresh water/pool time is definitely the most exciting time for this activity. It's natural, mating/dominance. As long as no one is getting hurt or missing patches of feathers it's ok.

 

[Vegan Mountain Mama]

It’s normal! Females get frisky too and like how it feels- they’re “mating”. They won’t drown each other, but it sure looks scary, huh? Ducks are strange....

My girls do it too but the more dominant one is always on top. You may notice one lay flat before its mounted too, that one is “asking” for it.

Hahah!! Yah! Omg they do lay super flat...sometimes that’s followed by the other mounting, and other times they lay flat and then suddenly flap and quack and splash, swimming in circles and running around they’re pool like they’re really excited.

 

[3bird]

For those of you guys with drakes, do you take any precautions for the ducks necks where the drakes hold them when mating? Our two smallest ducks have almost bare spots on the back of their necks and the area looks reddish (but the skin is not broken).

 

[PirateGirl]

For those of you guys with drakes, do you take any precautions for the ducks necks where the drakes hold them when mating? Our two smallest ducks have almost bare spots on the back of their necks and the area looks reddish (but the skin is not broken).

Hmm... so far my drake does not over mate my girls. I have one drake and 3 hens. If it becomes a problem, he probably has to go. I do not have plans to get more ducks. I'm not sure if much can be done other than separating them.

 

[pamelajean]

My two girls take turns doing this to each other in their little water basin. It looks very uncomfortable for the bottom girl, but I guess its just instinct. I'll be interested to see how it unfolds once the pool comes out (if winter ever ends!!).

 

[3bird]

Thanks. I think separating, unless it's full time, can be worse once they are put back together. We are going to have a second run set-up this spring, but there is no option of that now with a foot+ of snow on the ground.

 

[3bird]

My two girls take turns doing this to each other in their little water basin. It looks very uncomfortable for the bottom girl, but I guess its just instinct. I'll be interested to see how it unfolds once the pool comes out (if winter ever ends!!).

Instinct is fine, but we want to avoid injury. We just got a foot+ of snow, so no swimming for a bit here.