HELP I have too many drakes

[jessicat21]

Have you tried explaining the problem to your brother? Better yet, show him this thread.

Since they are your brother's birds, your parents will be more willing to listen to him.

He's only 9 and im 17 so if they don't want to hear me out I doubt that they will listen to him

 

[jessicat21]

What breeds do you have - I am looking for a male Cayuga to start breeding as they are so hard to find. Please reply if anyone wants to give up a male Cayuga, ideally purebred- so I can start selling in Massachusetts. Also looking for a male white/yellow runner, and a swedish female. Or anyone knows anyone with these breeds.

Tbh I have no clue my parents got them from the store and half of them are white and half are brown

 

[TeenageFlockers]

Do you have pictures?

 

[jessicat21]

Unfortunately all you can do if they're not "yours" to give away is to keep providing resources and trying to convince them, but it may take a really terrible situation to finally drive the point home.

A male duck trying to mate a chicken can seriously injure or kill it. Ducks have external penises that male chickens do not, so female chickens do not have vaginas that can accommodate a duck. A duck (especially a bigger one) can tear a chicken to pieces trying to mate it - and they will, they do not know or care that they're not the right species.

Too many male ducks will also gang-mate a female duck, seriously hurting or killing her as well. This is especially problematic if they have swimming water, as the males piling on her can drown her while mating her.

Best case scenario they listen to you and you get rid of at least 4 if not all of your male ducks.

Less great scenario, you separate all your male ducks into a space where they cannot see or interact with the female ducks and chickens. (This is important - they cannot see the other ducks because they cant reason that a fence or whatever is keeping them apart. If they can see the girls, they'll fight for them. They cannot mingle)

Worst case scenario you leave things the way they are until a female duck or chicken gets violently mangled to death and they finally listen to you.

Thank you sm I will show my parents some resources tomorrow and hope that they will listen. My mom is very arrogant and think that she's always right. She told me that she grew up raising ducks and chickens but she can't even tell which one are male and female. Seriously they should've done better research before getting them.

 

[jessicat21]

Do you have pictures?

 

[TeenageFlockers]

Ok so it looks like you have Rouens and maybe buff ducks, they are still young, can tell cuz the wings aren't fully developed and they still have fuzz, so it will be another month before you can see the curly feather in their butts. It looks like the only tail that looks a little curly is the buff with the darker color neck- on that one hes the middle guy and he is bigger than the other buff colored ones. So it looks like a 3:1 ratio which is good for the buff color. The browns can't tell cuz picture. But I'm going with Rouens or wood ducks.
I'd just swap yard time to be safe, let them free roam 5 hours each....chickens morning, then put them in a run locked, then let out the ducks... Release the quacken! Like meltzer farm..

 

[jessicat21]

Ok so it looks like you have Rouens and maybe buff ducks, they are still young, can tell cuz the wings aren't fully developed and they still have fuzz, so it will be another month before you can see the curly feather in their butts. It looks like the only tail that looks a little curly is the buff with the darker color neck- on that one hes the middle guy and he is bigger than the other buff colored ones. So it looks like a 3:1 ratio which is good for the buff color. The browns can't tell cuz picture. But I'm going with Rouens or wood ducks.

This was taken back in July and now we can definitely tell which are make and female and for the brown we have 3 girls and 2 boys since the boy’s necks are green now and the 3 white drakes have a distinct grey ish neck while the one girl doesn't

 

[LT71689]

He's only 9 and im 17 so if they don't want to hear me out I doubt that they will listen to him

I might point that out to your parents when you try talking them out of this again - do they really want to subject your 9yo brother to the gruesome display of gang-mating where they'll rip the girls feathers out till theyre bare and bleeding, potentially broken bones, potentially dead? Do they want to explain why his pets keep having to be put down because they're so extensively hurt? why the boys wont stop hurting each other fighting? Its a horrid display for grown adults to deal with, I cant imagine being 9 and having to witness that. I'm 31 and it made my skin crawl to read terms like "gang mating" and "mate-to-death" when I was researching ducks. Little kids shouldnt be subject to that when the problem can be really easily solved with some research and planning - or since they didnt do that beforehand - still pretty simple fixes after the fact.

 

[jessicat21]

I might point that out to your parents when you try talking them out of this again - do they really want to subject your 9yo brother to the gruesome display of gang-mating where they'll rip the girls feathers out till theyre bare and bleeding, potentially broken bones, potentially dead? Do they want to explain why his pets keep having to be put down because they're so extensively hurt? why the boys wont stop hurting each other fighting? Its a horrid display for grown adults to deal with, I cant imagine being 9 and having to witness that. I'm 31 and it made my skin crawl to read terms like "gang mating" and "mate-to-death" when I was researching ducks. Little kids shouldnt be subject to that when the problem can be really easily solved with some research and planning - or since they didnt do that beforehand - still pretty simple fixes after the fact.

I doubt that they did any research before going to the store to get them. I didn't want them to buy any since I know that they will just make my little brother and I do all cleaning and housing. I'm just disappointed at the fact that they’re so carefree. I have a fear of any kind of birds so I can't even go near them. Im hoping that I can convince them to separate the drakes from the others for now until we can figure out something later.

 

[Duck mommy 2019]

make a “bachelor coop!” a separate area for the drakes so they can stay with just each other!