Gender ratios need a second opinion

[The chicken nurd]

Hi, need a second opinion on gender ratios
Currently I have a flock of 11 hens (no roosters) that share a coop and free range with my 8 ducks including 6 duck hens and 2 drakes
So oldest drake is a year and half and has never went after the chickens and isn’t to aggressive with the duck hens he’s also a buff so pretty small the new drake is just a couple months old and a Muscovy he’s young enough hormones haven’t hit so idk how he’s gonna be with the hens
So trying to decide do i need to rehome one of my drakes or do i need to get more hens to keep gender ratios in check
What do you all think?

 

[BDutch]

I only know (from reading) that if a drake mates chickens, this can be painful and dangerous for the hens. If necessary, you need to keep them apart.

 

[TheRealRyanGosling]

Hi, need a second opinion on gender ratios
Currently I have a flock of 11 hens (no roosters) that share a coop and free range with my 8 ducks including 6 duck hens and 2 drakes
So oldest drake is a year and half and has never went after the chickens and isn’t to aggressive with the duck hens he’s also a buff so pretty small the new drake is just a couple months old and a Muscovy he’s young enough hormones haven’t hit so idk how he’s gonna be with the hens
So trying to decide do i need to rehome one of my drakes or do i need to get more hens to keep gender ratios in check
What do you all think?

From what I've been told by word of mouth and what I've seen supporting the same online is that they really should be separate. As stated above it's horribly painful and can lead to injuries resulting in a cull or death instantly afterwards.
Yet I know ONE person who has a peacock, hens, ducks, and geese and somehow he's kept enough females per flock of species that he assumes that why it's been successful.
Personally it's so easy to build shelters and coops that are fully secure I'd not risk my poultry even if they're just strict layers or for butcher I'd still not risk it as the eggs and meat reaching maturity would be most important to me.
Have you considered adding true sexed hens to the flock and maybe the same to your ducks? Little babes are fun and great for more pet interaction experiences, the imprinting, but it could be useful adding them as an extra female option.
Even being mated too frequently by a drake or rooster can kill a hen or mama duck.
I think your guts speaking to you!
Theirs amazing guides on all types of layouts and designs of secure runs and coops online you can check out. Supplies usually very basic and easily acquired.
I'm currently gathering supplies to build two new ones on my property because we got 5 ducklings and worry we may have a bad situation if it's one female 4 males or even 2 males 3 females, etc, not cozy safe in my own preference for their care. But I'm also a helicopter mom who's building a wheelchair this week for my disabled feather buddy, Sugar. My father in law who was a 4th generation farmer wanted me to cull but I begged to have a chance at making her life happy and accessible so long as she's not in pain and he agreed. Now he loves Sugar and Sugar has improved and my father's impressed it was even worth the time. In days she was showing signs of improvement so he said she stays. Currently waiting for her diaper to arrive since she needs so much human care she needs to behave and wear her panties.
So as above is indicating, I'm extremely attached and can be overly cautious.

Sure hoping things stay civil!

 

[LaFleche]

Separate the ducks from the chickens before the drakes will rip their innards out with their screwdriver penis!
Chickens are not build to accommodate a drake's penis.

https://external-content.duckduckgo...xpfA78/9059334235_98bb93b4a6_b.jpg&f=1&nofb=1

 

[Ridgerunner]

Hi, need a second opinion on gender ratios
6 duck hens and 2 drakes
do i need to rehome one of my drakes or do i need to get more hens to keep gender ratios in check

I personally do not believe in gender ratios. This is mainly based on my experience with chickens but a tiny bit with ducks back in my youth. You can have problems with one male and twenty females. You may have no issues with one male and two females. There are different variables that affect that.

In my opinion, adding females is not going to solve any issues. All it does is mean you have to go through an integration. If you want more girls then get them and do the integration. But don't get them in the hope that it might solve gender issues, especially since you don't know if you will have gender issues when that young one grows up.

Do you need to get rid of one male duck because of your duck gender ratio? My general advice is to keep as few males as you can and still meet your goals. That's not because you are guaranteed problems with more males but because the more males you have the more likely you are to have problems. I don't know what your goals are for having that second male or even how you wound up with him but if your goals don't include a second male of that breed I don't know why you would keep him. If they do include a second male then you can try to keep him. It might or might not work out

A piece of space junk could fall out of the sky and hit your house. That happened in Australia a few years back. A snake can eat your eggs, I've had a few of those. I had a hen become an egg eater a few years back. The sun might shine where you are today. All kinds of things can happen, some more likely than others. There have been cases where a male duck has seriously injured hens by mating with them. Yours hasn't so far. There are plenty of cases where they don't. But it can happen. Is it more likely to happen if you keep a second drake? Mathematically yes, but it is not a guarantee. I have no idea what will happen.

Some people are suggesting that if you do not physically separate your chicken hens from your drake civilization as we know it will be forever altered. You may have issues if you do not separate them, you may not. I tend to go by what I see instead of blindly going by what some stranger (like me) tells me over the internet.

Now my story. Dad had a free ranging flock of one rooster and around 25 hens. Chickens to be clear. He brought home a dozen ducklings but a weasel got into the brooder and killed all but three. We wound up with 2 drakes and 1 hen. That hen was not over-mated. The drakes did not mate with any chickens. It was not a problem. But there are cases where it is a problem.

I have no idea what your odds are but if your goals don't include that second drake I'd get rid of one.

 

[Mrs. K]

A huge amount of success with poultry of any kind is space, and the animal husbandry to manage the space you have. Space tends to be finite. I disagree with RealRyanRoslin that secure coops are easy to build. And they are not cheap either.

So the more space your have, the more you can get away with things, the more confined you are, the more you NEED to follow the guidelines.

I do agree with Ridgerunner - adding more so that you do not have to cull a bird or remove them from your flock does not solve problems.

Mrs K

 

[SwampPrincessChick]

Hi, need a second opinion on gender ratios
Currently I have a flock of 11 hens (no roosters) that share a coop and free range with my 8 ducks including 6 duck hens and 2 drakes
So oldest drake is a year and half and has never went after the chickens and isn’t to aggressive with the duck hens he’s also a buff so pretty small the new drake is just a couple months old and a Muscovy he’s young enough hormones haven’t hit so idk how he’s gonna be with the hens
So trying to decide do i need to rehome one of my drakes or do i need to get more hens to keep gender ratios in check
What do you all think?

Female chickens should not be with male ducks for a reason. If any male waterfowl mates with a female landfowl, he will rip her insides apart. It is very painful, resulting in bleeding out of the vent and eventually death if something is not done. But there is not much you can do to save them when that happens. Separate your ducks and chickens, otherwise you could have nasty deaths on your hands.

 

[TheRealRyanGosling]

I disagree with RealRyanRoslin that secure coops are easy to build. And they are not cheap either.

Thats not fact that you cant build secure or inexpensive coops. Not at all. I have had tremendous success building for inexpensive with zero issues in the past and currently building with ease and enjoying the project of TWO coops. Why would so many people build coops just to spend more and risk their birds safety? None of my past birds had been broken into and you can get quite creative. So I think this is a personal thing on how handy one is, how much time one invests in building plans and gathering at low cost supplies stores. Where I live people get rid of wood for free every so often so it's easy to incorporate free into materials. Is 200 in supplies too expensive with about ten hours labor and maybe 2 researching and planning? I think not. My husband father in law me and my brother built our house and my family is 4 generations of farmers and carpenters. We have no problems and it's possible for anyone without physical disabilities to pick up hammers, nails and nail guns and maneuver wood and wire.
Have you ever looked online at plans and layouts? Follow supplies lists and follow dimensions and instructions and you're done.
I don't trust store bought coops for the safety risks you say my hand built ones have. I see the pre built ones as being potentially not secure and theyre expensive. I have way more fun building for less.
Definitely worth a Google search to see what I'm talking about. Many find inexpensive materials and easy building plans.

 

[TheRealRyanGosling]

Female chickens should not be with male ducks for a reason. If any male waterfowl mates with a female landfowl, he will rip her insides apart. It is very painful, resulting in bleeding out of the vent and eventually death if something is not done. But there is not much you can do to save them when that happens. Separate your ducks and chickens, otherwise you could have nasty deaths on your hands.

It's a gruesome way for them to die, I'd not risk my birds with knowing that possibility. Too risky to test it out and hope for the best imo when it's not unheard of or even a rare occurrence.
I have 5.5 acres and still wouldn't let them mingle or cross areas personally. Not even for an Easter photo. which I wanted to do in the past. With the Ducks, bunnies, snake, our great dane and fancy rats too.

 

[Penpal]

How much room do they have? We had chickens and Khaki Campbells and later Moskies. Muskovites do not breed with northern hemisphere ducks (mallards) I never had a problem with the birds crossing to different species. But, they were all free range. The ducks spent most of their time on the pond, the chickens most of their time in the pasture.