I have a question about my duck's?

momsbusybee

In the Brooder
7 Years
Apr 7, 2012
54
0
29
Oklahoma
This evening my hubby & I went out to feed our chicken's & duck's well I'm still learning as I go with having chicken's and duck's since I have lived in the city my whole life until 2008 when me and my hubby gotten chicken's & duck's.

Well as my hubby and I went out to feed our chicken's and ducks this evening my 2-duck's was fighting (I don't know if they are boy or girl) but our one duck we have had it for 2-years and then our white duck hubby gotten it for me last year since my one duck got out and gotten killed well, I asked my hubby why are they fighting he told me they was making (love) lol I said no they are fighting pulling at each others neck and hair so as of right now have them in there own place they are not in the same pin right now because I was to scared they was going to kill each other.

Can anyone help me out to know if my duck's are just making (love) like my hubby said or really fighting here is a pic of them it's not the best but I will get a better one tomorrow to post.

 
Is there any way you can get a few girlies?
love.gif


My 2 drakes fight and tug at each other but never enough to hurt the other. I'd keep an eye on it though if you put them back together.
 
I'd spend some time watching them and see how it goes. If there are no females around it may not amount to anything. I don't have experience with this sort of thing though. I know some people here have had drake pens maybe they are still around and will chime in about all drake behavior.
 
I got better picture's of them today and I even gotten a video of them what they are doing. I will up load the picture's and video of them fighting, I just put them back in the same pin and they went back at fighting my brown duck started in on my white duck so I moved them back to 2-pins.

How can you tell if they are a boy or a girl when they are babies? We gotten our duck's from Atwood's when they was babies.



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It is not easy for most of us to tell when they are babies. There is a way to look into their vents and see if they are boys or girls, HOWEVER, if a mistake is made, it could really hurt the duck (as in, permanent injury). I am told it is a bit of an art as well as a science. But if you are really good with such things, you can find information in Storey´s Guide to Raising Ducks about how to do it.

Many of us either ask the hatchery to do the checking for us (that is what I did), or we get straight run and find out when they are a few weeks to a month old by their quacking. Girls QUACK and boys have sort of a mumbly, or raspy voice.

Listen to these examples to see what I mean.

http://www.majesticwaterfowl.org/artquacks.htm

Indeed, you have two boys, and it's spring, and sometimes boys fight in the spring. Then when mating season is over, they go back to being friends.

Now, something else that happens with ducks, if there is not a member of the opposite sex around, they will hop on top of each other. Duck sex can be brutal, by the way. The one on top will grab the neck feathers of the other one, jerk their head back, or if they are in a pond or pool, hold the bottom duck's head underwater for what seems like an eternity (to me).

In fact, many ducks - the girls - die from injuries during mating. Mercy.

So your boys may be playing "hop on top" because they are just feeling the springtime hormones. My girls hop on top of each other, but I am glad they are pretty gentle with each other. Some drakes are just really intense when it comes to mating behavior. I know a couple of Muscovy boys and one has injured the other grabbing him and standing on him like that.
 
Thank you for your help. So we do have boy's? I'm waiting for my hubby to get the video off my cellphone so I can get it uploaded so I can show what I'm talking about with them fighting. Yeah my brown duck keeps pulling on my white ducks neck and pulling on his hair. But once my hubby gets the video off my phone I will upload it
 
Just throwing in my 2 cents. If you are going to get some girls, IMO you will need at least 5 females and possibly 6 to keep everyone safe. If I were in your situation, I would keep them separated for now, but let them see each other. It can be very stressful if they are just ripped away from each other. If you do go with getting females and you can give each boy 3 girls, I think you would see that things would be much better. Mating season is a tough time. And drakes can be pretty obnoxious. Whatever you do, please don't just get each boy one girl and put them all together. Many hens are hurt or killed by being overbred by drakes in the spring time.
I have 7 girls and one boy. He is a happy, tired boy right now. A great ratio I think. This is the first year I have not seen my little mixed breed with a raw spot on the back of her head. Like she had when we had only 3 girls and one boy.
Above all, I know it is hard not to get aggravated with them, especially when one of them is getting picked on, but try to remember it is just instinct, they cannot help it.
 
Is there any way you can get a few girlies?
love.gif


My 2 drakes fight and tug at each other but never enough to hurt the other. I'd keep an eye on it though if you put them back together.
We do plan to get more chicken's & duck's but right now we want to get new pin's made before we get anymore. Since the pin's we have now they are very old and have been used since in the 1980's from my in-laws when they used to live on our land.
 

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