How to convince parents...

[cassandrapettersson]

Personally, I would recommend that your family get used to the idea of eating duck. That way you would always have a solution to the problem of too many drakes: keep the right number for breeding, and butcher the rest.

We could do that, just don't want to kill any of our current drakes, we butcher our other poultry so now it's time for the ducks!
+ Getting more ducks and space isn't a problem at all, it's just that we've spent so much money on buying the ducks.

 

[cassandrapettersson]

Yes, you could do that.


But half of the ducklings will be male. So overall, hatching more ducklings will make things worse instead of better, unless you are willing to butcher or rehome some of the males.

Personally, I would recommend that your family get used to the idea of eating duck. That way you would always have a solution to the problem of too many drakes: keep the right number for breeding, and butcher the rest.

And rehoming ducklings isn't a problem, we already have some homes for them! We have many people in the area interested buying ducklings from us when they come

 

[cassandrapettersson]

@thumper650 can help with setting up for multiple drakes too. Drakes can and will single out another drake from breeding if there aren't females. @Luv Ducks just had this happen.
That's why I mentioned your Runners getting molested by your Muscovy and your Cayuga since they are going to be the smallest of your drakes. It's really hard to tell how this will play out but it's going to be rough going with that many drakes.

So all drakes need to be separated? Can i have the pens next to each other and that they're able see each other or do they get frustrated from that alone? (The pens only having one drake in them)

 

[Luv Ducks]

So all drakes need to be separated? Can i have the pens next to each other and that they're able see each other or do they get frustrated from that alone? (The pens only having one drake in them)

I had three Drakes, a Muscovy, Mallard/Rouen and Khaki Campbell. I ended up rehoming the Khaki and kept the Muscovy and Mallard together thinking the Muscovy needed company. They can see the females and the females can see them. My Muscovy Drake has been mating my Mallard Drake so he is staying hid most of the time in the pen so that he will leave him alone. It is still warm in Ohio so this is still going on in September. I have had to rehome two Mule Drakes and the Khaki Campbell one because of over mating. I actually traded them for 4 cute little Call Drakes that seem to not be going to be hurting my females as much as these huge ones were. I am thinking of rehoming my Muscovy Drake as he is so abusive to anything he can get ahold of. Good luck with your situation. When I hatched out ducklings 3 different times 90% of them were drakes.

 

[Miss Lydia]

So all drakes need to be separated? Can i have the pens next to each other and that they're able see each other or do they get frustrated from that alone? (The pens only having one drake in them)

If you have enough pens to separate your drakes that would work, they can still see each other, would they all have females in with them? drakes need at least 3 females and up to not over abuse a female.

 

[cassandrapettersson]

If you have enough pens to separate your drakes that would work, they can still see each other, would they all have females in with them? drakes need at least 3 females and up to not over abuse a female.

We only have 5 girls, so we're going to have one pen with 3 muscovy girls with one drake.
And we want to breed the cayugas but we only have 2 cayuga girls, so we're only gonna breed muscovies.
When does breeding season for cayugas start? We could maybe get our hands on one more cayuga girl before that...

 

[cassandrapettersson]

If you have enough pens to separate your drakes that would work, they can still see each other, would they all have females in with them? drakes need at least 3 females and up to not over abuse a female.

Would the drakes not get lonely?

 

[Miss Lydia]

Probably but if they are close to each other where they can see each other it will help. Are you going to have females in with the drakes?

 

[cassandrapettersson]

Probably but if they are close to each other where they can see each other it will help. Are you going to have females in with the drakes?

We only have 5 girls, so we're going to have one pen with 3 muscovy girls and one drake.
And we want to breed the cayugas but we only have 2 cayuga girls, so we're only gonna breed muscovies.
When does breeding season for cayugas start? We could maybe get our hands on one more cayuga girl before that...

 

[Canadian Wind]

We only have 5 girls, so we're going to have one pen with 3 muscovy girls and one drake.
And we want to breed the cayugas but we only have 2 cayuga girls, so we're only gonna breed muscovies.
When does breeding season for cayugas start? We could maybe get our hands on one more cayuga girl before that...

Considering your location, it would probably be similar to me here. Mine started laying and sitting around late April/early May, but we had a very long winter this year.