Harmony in the duck coop... please

[tia]

I put Angel (she is the one that had surgery on her foot - all better now) back into the duck coop and my drake keeps on trying to mate her. It is like he is obsessed with her and she has a little featherless area on her neck. She runs and hides behind the other females to get away from him. I got mad at him and took him out and put him in a dog crate for a while tonight. Then Angel went around and picked on all of the other female ducks. I thought Okay maybe he is just keeping her in line. I put him back in the pen and turned off the light... so hopefully they will go to sleep.

Do I have entirely too much time on my hand or what??????

I'm just worried that he will hurt her. Do you think I should take her out, or do you think they will just have to go through a period of adjustment and she will just have a chewed up neck for a while (poor Angel)???????????????

I would just like to have harmony back in the duck pen. He has 5 females, so it isn't like there is not a good male/female ratio.

I guess when you take one out for a while, it is hard to reintroduce them. : (

If anyone has any suggestions I would appreciate it. I told "Blue" he was going to be stew if he didn't knock it off. (I wouldn't really)

 

[duckyfromoz]

After being away so long- they may take a little time to all get settled again. But Angel has been through so much already- it is best not to allow her to much stress. You could give her or Blue a bit of time out occasionally like you did tonight - as long as when you return Blue- he doesnt go nuts trying to make up for the lost time.

 

[RainbowBirds_of_a_Feather]

Another suggestion, is to have a quarantine cage within the main-pen so they can get reacquainted with each other. That is another way to lesson the stress for her from the male. But they should simmer down in time.

 

[rainplace]

I would keep the male quarantined for a while and let the female reestablish herself in the flock. That's what you're seeing with her picking on the others. The others will either pick back or let her establish dominance over them. You'll probably find that some will pick back and some won't. Things will settle down. Once that happens, let the drake back in. Every time I bring in a new duck or drake, there's a lot of chest bumping, chasing, and picking. New drakes will usually end up fighting with one drake or more trying to keep the new drake out of the duck house or the new drake trying to keep an older drake out of the duck house. Eventually even that settles down. One drake will whoop the butt of the other and then everything is okay. Of course with the drakes it only works out if there are enough females to go around. The boys sure are randy.