First I am a chicken person first and formost. My experience with ducks is with a few on a farm pond years ago.
I rescued this male pekin/mallard duck from someone who got four ducklings two years ago and had no business with poultry. This duck was the lone survivor.
So, I took him in. He would not leave my hens alone so I adopted a female pekin from the Humane Society's farm animal shelter to keep him "company".
The two are put away in the coop each night and then let out each morning and free roam the yard. I bring this up because I cannot put the duck in the coop until the chickens are on the roost and out of the ducks reach. They are hostages on the roost until I let the ducks out each morning.
Here is another reason I am going to strangle him. He has started running the fence for the last two months or more trying to get at the hens and if they get too close he reaches through and grabs them and the only way they can get free is to shed some feathers.
I also like to let my hens out into the yard an hour or so before dusk but in order to do this I have to catch the duck first and put him in a dog crate. He chases them relentlessly and then if he catches one he trys to mate with them and not very romantically either.
I had no idea they would do this!!!!! (try to cross species)
Also, why don't domestic ducks seem to go through a breeding cycle like wild ducks? or do wild ducks breed throughout the year? I didn't think they did because of migration patterns and male mallards lose their breeding plumage and the females only lay in the spring.
Will he stop this come fall and winter?
I rescued this male pekin/mallard duck from someone who got four ducklings two years ago and had no business with poultry. This duck was the lone survivor.
So, I took him in. He would not leave my hens alone so I adopted a female pekin from the Humane Society's farm animal shelter to keep him "company".
The two are put away in the coop each night and then let out each morning and free roam the yard. I bring this up because I cannot put the duck in the coop until the chickens are on the roost and out of the ducks reach. They are hostages on the roost until I let the ducks out each morning.
Here is another reason I am going to strangle him. He has started running the fence for the last two months or more trying to get at the hens and if they get too close he reaches through and grabs them and the only way they can get free is to shed some feathers.
I also like to let my hens out into the yard an hour or so before dusk but in order to do this I have to catch the duck first and put him in a dog crate. He chases them relentlessly and then if he catches one he trys to mate with them and not very romantically either.
I had no idea they would do this!!!!! (try to cross species)
Also, why don't domestic ducks seem to go through a breeding cycle like wild ducks? or do wild ducks breed throughout the year? I didn't think they did because of migration patterns and male mallards lose their breeding plumage and the females only lay in the spring.
Will he stop this come fall and winter?
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