I am gonna strangle a duck

Ducks can be NASTY! I have mine in with my hens and they have reached a detante, but just barely. Periodically the ducks still case the hens without any real interst in catching them. Still the chickens cannot come down off their roosts until the ducks have been let out of the coop int he morning.


When the chcickens were smaller than the ducks the atacks were visous and I had to keep them strictly segragated when i wasn't around to referee. Now that the hens are full grown ad my rooster is huge the ducks have backed down to just being pains in the rear.

 

Yeah there is nothing you can really do to break his behaviour, the sex drive is a very strong one.

 

Yes sounds like this one has imprinted on chickens.

Many domestics have a much higher breeding drive or something like a much longer breeding season than their wild counterparts. This is "good" for mass production(think a breeding farm or hatchery flock situation) but not so desirable in many pet situations.

Drakes by nature are famous for having very high sex drives, rapes are extremely common in wild species, to the extent they actually have anatomical changes in both sexes to "deal" with this such as the ducks in some species having unusually complex reproductive structures that allow her some control over which sperm gets to fertilize her eggs(if she wants, she can reject the sperm from drakes who forced themselves on her and allow her "mate" to fertilize most of her eggs).

Pekins are known to have a problem with taking this breeding urge to "extremes" even by duck standards(they have been known to kill ducks or chickens in their relentless attempts to mate). Again, this would be good by production standards, they could have one drake per 10 hens or whatever ratio works best for fertile eggs.

Permanently separating the ducks from the chickens probably is best in this case for the chicken's sake as he is very likely not going to let up on it during most of the year, if at all- they were also bred to be productive for as long as possible. In fact some ducks are MORE productive than the average chicken.. Also watch to make sure he doesn't over breed the duck, if he does you may need to get more females.

 

It seems like you will likely need to build a seperate pen for the overzealous lover and his mate. Keep them seperate from the chickens, for the chickens sake. It may help to, as Terrie already suggested, get the drake another hen or two, to help with that sex drive of his.

If you cannot build and seperate pen, you may want to place him in another home. Maybe a home geared more toward waterfowl, where the drake can have more duck hens and less chicken hens.

Good for you from rescuing him from his situation. He sounds like an Easter duckling survivor.

-Kim

 

Quote:I got 2 Roeun Ducks left both male.. my 2 female got killed by a snapper and the other by a pred.

Anyway, I bought some Cayuga ducks and they are almost 1/2 grown now. I herded them to the pond yesterday for their first big dip and the 2 Roeun wanted to attack them.

Of course my cane hit the side of it's head ... .. And in my case if they keep it up when the Cayugas get bigger, those 2 male Roeun will be in my freezer. That will be my solution

 

I have a pair of pekin ducks who were in the coop before our chickens were old enough to go outside. They chased them around a bit at 1st but that was all. Now they seem to get a long pretty good. Our set up sounds about the same as yours with the roost above. When they all see me coming they are down in the bottom waiting pushing and shoving to get out of there.

 

Google "Roast Duck." Pick a recipe that sounds good and have Sunday dinner. That will stop him.

Rufus