For those of you with mixed flocks...

[brenna]

When you have a mixed flock, like runners/pekins/cayugas/whatever, do you ever have to separate them? Is mating season a problem? Is there anything you have to do differently than when you just have one type?

Along those same lines, does the ratio between ducks and drakes have to be PER species or simply overall? In other words, could you have 3 cayuga drakes, 1 cayuga duck, and then 3 runner ducks?

I haven't been able to find any info on this kind of mixed flock, thanks for any help!

 

[Kevin565]

As long as its a female the drakes will breed them. However it does depend on the drake. Sometimes 1:1 ratio doesn't work put because one drake can try to keep some of the girls to himself and the remanding ducks may be over bred by the drakes.

 

[duckyfromoz]

AS far as seperation goes- Its up to the keepers desicion to do so or not depending on the reasons for keeping ducks in the first place. If you keep ducks just for the enjoyment of them- For the eggs- for meat - to sell the offspring......

I have two main breeds- Pekin and Runners- They are separated in my yard all year- As I DO NOT want cross bred ducklings Further to that I will be seperating out the different coloured groups of Runners once I am ready to incubate eggs so that I know the what to expect genetically from the offspring. I do intend on showing my ducks at some stage- so need to keep my flock pure.

If eggs for eating are all you want then having a mixed flock is fine- Same goes for if you intend on pocessing any offspring for meat. Selling of cross bred ducklings is sometimes harder than selling pure duckling of any particular breed.

 

[ultasol]

All domestic ducks, other than Muscovies, are the same species. The breeds you mention differ in variety- and they will openly, and happily, interbreed unless they are physically separated.

 

[brenna]

We really have them simply for pets and eggs, so I don't mind if they choose to interbreed as long as they're ok with it and none of the ducks get abused by the drakes.
Would cross-bred ducklings be ok healthwise? We aren't planning on showing them or selling them, but we might want to increase our flock eventually and wouldn't mind hatching a few if the little muttlings would be as healthy as "purebreds".

Thanks for the input!

 

[froggie71]

We have lots of "designer" ducks. LOL We have a few "pure" bred, but they actually can make some neat colored ducks when mixed. This is how they came up with new breeds to begin with. No matter if you mix them or not there should definitely be more girls than boys. We have 17 ducks in the Duck house now. 12 girls, 5 drakes. The drakes do fight over girls and will knock each other off when breeding.

1 of our Khaki campbell/ fawn & white Indian runner mixed boys won BEST OF SHOW at our county fair. He is really pretty. ETA we've incubated 16 duck eggs and all of them hatched without difficulty. We have given some of these away as pets and even sold some with the buyers knowing full well they were mixed aka "designer" ducks

 

[chasing ducks]

I currently have 28 ducks in my brooder, from 3 weeks to 4 days old. 3 chocolate runners, 2 black runners, 5 fawn and white runners, 2 cayugas, 2 black swedish, 2 white hybrids, 6 golden hybrids, and 6 pekins. The runners are straight run, all the rest except 2 pekins are female (the pekins I have no idea). I keep the runners seperate because of how tiny they are right now, but the rest are all together and when they get in the bath tub they all go in. They will all have the same run and housing outside, until I get more ducks from holderread to breed for show, I don't intend to seperate them.