Getting female ducks

[rhondals]

I have a male Cayuga and a male Mallard. They live with my flock of chickens,(1 rooster, 8 hens) with usually no problems. The Mallard lately has been a little aggressive towards the girls and the other duck. I am thinking of getting 2 female ducks. Do you think only two would be ok? Do you think this would ducks aggression?

 

[Quarterhorses1]

I have a male Cayuga and a male Mallard. They live with my flock of chickens,(1 rooster, 8 hens) with usually no problems. The Mallard lately has been a little aggressive towards the girls and the other duck. I am thinking of getting 2 female ducks. Do you think only two would be ok? Do you think this would ducks aggression?

I think they would do just fine. The mallard may be ridiculous for a minute but they’ll figure it out

 

[BelovedBirds]

I have a male Cayuga and a male Mallard. They live with my flock of chickens,(1 rooster, 8 hens) with usually no problems. The Mallard lately has been a little aggressive towards the girls and the other duck. I am thinking of getting 2 female ducks. Do you think only two would be ok? Do you think this would ducks aggression?

Two drakes and two hens
Okay
So currently your chickens are in a lot of danger, if a drake mates with them, he could kill them. Its very dangerous to have drakes with chickens.

Getting two ducks won't help much, it will actually put those two females in danger. The correct ratio is 3-6 hens per drake. A ratio of 1:1 can result in severe over mating which makes injury likely. Drakes can kill female ducks if they gang up on them or accidentally drown them. It's really important to have a good ratio during mating seasons.

Here's what I would do, separate the drakes from the chickens. Don't get any hens unless you can keep the proper ratio. The drakes will be fine together, a little aggression this time of year isn't unusual, their hormones will be going a little crazy. You can limit this aggression by giving them a kiddie pool each, rather than having them share, and multiple feed/water stations may also help.

Whatever you do, please do not keep these drakes with their chickens, and please don't give them only a couple girls, they would be in serious danger, especially this time of year. You'd probably need a minimum of 6 female ducks to keep them happy and healthy.

 

[Isadora]

Welcome spring and welcome crazy breeding hormones!
Sounds like your mallard is frustrated and has no outlet for his mating urges.
I agree with @BelovedBirds that the two ducks need to be separated from the chickens immediately as he can seriously injured a chicken if he manages to mate with her.
While an ideal ratio for male to female ducks is 1:4-6, it's possible less girls would work for him if he's not too crazy, but unfortunately you wouldn't know until you got new ducks and saw he he acts with them.
I currently have a pair of runners and he's a great drake. He doesn't overbreed her at all. But that's not very common for most drakes due to their spring craziness.

 

[rhondals]

Two drakes and two hens
Okay
So currently your chickens are in a lot of danger, if a drake mates with them, he could kill them. Its very dangerous to have drakes with chickens.

Getting two ducks won't help much, it will actually put those two females in danger. The correct ratio is 3-6 hens per drake. A ratio of 1:1 can result in severe over mating which makes injury likely. Drakes can kill female ducks if they gang up on them or accidentally drown them. It's really important to have a good ratio during mating seasons.

Here's what I would do, separate the drakes from the chickens. Don't get any hens unless you can keep the proper ratio. The drakes will be fine together, a little aggression this time of year isn't unusual, their hormones will be going a little crazy. You can limit this aggression by giving them a kiddie pool each, rather than having them share, and multiple feed/water stations may also help.

Whatever you do, please do not keep these drakes with their chickens, and please don't give them only a couple girls, they would be in serious danger, especially this time of year. You'd probably need a minimum of 6 female ducks to keep them happy and healthy.

Thank you for your advice. The Mallard isn't trying to mate with the chickens, he gets territorial and nudges them with his beak, especially around his feeding dish and if they come near the other duck. So do you think I still need to separate them?

 

[BelovedBirds]

Thank you for your advice. The Mallard isn't trying to mate with the chickens, he gets territorial and nudges them with his beak, especially around his feeding dish and if they come near the other duck. So do you think I still need to separate them?

You have the other drake as well though, right? Either of them could end up going for the chickens and trying to mate them.
I've heard of people being able to keep them together, but those people have a lot of female ducks to keep the drakes occupied. I'm not sure I'd ever take the risk, personally. Definitely much easier to separate them, and then there's no need for more ducks, unless you actually want them

 

[Maddcatter]

Thank you for your advice. The Mallard isn't trying to mate with the chickens, he gets territorial and nudges them with his beak, especially around his feeding dish and if they come near the other duck. So do you think I still need to separate them?

So... I keep my chickens and ducks together, but I have a few roosters and made sure my drakes have plenty of their own duck hens to mate with.
I have always been curious if the danger to chicken hens was due to people not keeping roosters?
I did not always have the appropriate ratio of female to male ducks, but my male ducks never bothered my chickens... At least not for amorous reasons. They will pull feathers out if a hen is in the way of something the duck wants. Are the roosters keeping the duck rape down?

 

[BelovedBirds]

So... I keep my chickens and ducks together, but I have a few roosters and made sure my drakes have plenty of their own duck hens to mate with.
I have always been curious if the danger to chicken hens was due to people not keeping roosters?
I did not always have the appropriate ratio of female to male ducks, but my male ducks never bothered my chickens... At least not for amorous reasons. They will pull feathers out if a hen is in the way of something the duck wants. Are the roosters keeping the duck rape down?

There's always the chance a rooster will try to protect his hens from the drake, but I've heard of drakes even going after the roosters.
So it's not an easy fix. It's still a danger, and a stress, to the roosters.
The best way to prevent issues is to ensure the drake has plenty of ducks to mate, that should limit the risk of him going after the chickens