female ducks not interested in the drake.

[chaddyville]

Can anyone advise please. I have 8 ducks, a drake and 3 female Cayuga and a drake and 3 female Welsh Harlequins. Two of the female Welsh Harlequins reject the drake and when I change the water in their paddling pools these two females 'mate'. The one which is always on top is a silver phase, the other 3 including the drake are gold phase so she looks different as well. The 2 who are rejecting the drake are definitely female. I have 3 eggs every morning when I let them out. I don't have room to get anymore ducks to make up numbers for the drake and he is getting frustrated and the 1 female who accepts him is bald on the back of her neck because she is getting all his attention. What can I do? The cayuga's and WH have separate housing at night but are together in the day.

 

[Kleonaptra]

Hmm this is an interesting one! Is he too soft for the girls maybe? They see him as too low in the pecking order? How long have they all been together?

 

[chaddyville]

Hmm this is an interesting one! Is he too soft for the girls maybe? They see him as too low in the pecking order? How long have they all been together?

They drake and the female duck he's bonded with were hatched together the only two of a hatch. The two who are rejecting him are six months younger and we're hatched together and we're the only two to hatch out of that separate hatch.

 

[chaddyville]

They drake and the female duck he's bonded with were hatched together the only two of a hatch. The two who are rejecting him are six months younger and we're hatched together and we're the only two to hatch out of that separate hatch.

They've all been together since last October.

 

[Going Quackers]

It happens, even with my large flock i see pair offs and some drakes who sadly have yet to find a lady. trouble is the overmating of the one isn't so good, have you tried pairing the drakes off together for a bit and give the ladies some "alone time"

Females can be quite territorial over their males so if one is quite fond of the one drake may keep other ladies away, ducks do have pecking orders just like chickens do they just generally aren't so nasty about it.

 

[chaddyville]

Thanks Kleonaptra and Going Quackers. I never thought about separating the drakes out. I might give that a try. I thought it was the perfect set up. Each drake with 3 ducks. Lol. It just shows you can't plan with nature. I have 3 x 5 week old females to introduce them to when they're a bit older. If I separate the males out when I introduce these then introduce the males after a break maybe that will make a difference.

 

[needlessjunk]

I don't have any advice but had the same problem. My male had 5 females but decided that the 2 smallest girls would be the only ones he wanted to mate with. I'm guessing since they were small they were very easy for him to catch and not much work. The bigger girls would ask for it and he would just ignore them. It got really, really bad and my 2 girls were missing all the feathers off their backs and their necks were looking pretty bad. I ended up rehoming him since separating them for a while just resulted in renewed interested instead of making him chill. Since then my girls are been much happier and look so much better.

 

[chaddyville]

I don't have any advice but had the same problem. My male had 5 females but decided that the 2 smallest girls would be the only ones he wanted to mate with. I'm guessing since they were small they were very easy for him to catch and not much work. The bigger girls would ask for it and he would just ignore them. It got really, really bad and my 2 girls were missing all the feathers off their backs and their necks were looking pretty bad. I ended up rehoming him since separating them for a while just resulted in renewed interested instead of making him chill. Since then my girls are been much happier and look so much better.

Thanks Needless Junk. I'll try separating them first but if that doesn't work I think I might have to rehome him. I might separate the Welsh Harlequins from the Cayuga's for a few weeks then hatch a few of the later eggs from the one he is bonded with so hopefully will get a new WH drake. His colouring is great so it'd be good if I could hatch my own. Thanks for sharing.

 

[Kleonaptra]

They do seem to form very serious groups. I would suggest if you have certain pairs that you want babies from, pen them up. I'm planning that right now for next season, especially since my biggest drake almost killed one of the little girls.

 

[chaddyville]

They do seem to form very serious groups. I would suggest if you have certain pairs that you want babies from, pen them up. I'm planning that right now for next season, especially since my biggest drake almost killed one of the little girls.

Thanks Kleonaptra. I think you're right I'm going to separate them out and hatch myself another drake.