I NEED HELP. I HAVE SOME DRAMA IN THE COOP.

[littlefoot13]

I need help. I have a flock of 5 ducks. 4 female and 1 male. the male is mounting himself on this 1 female quite often and doesn’t give her breaks. he does mount on the other females, but he is starting to form a bald spot on this ducks head from mounting so much. they have adequate space and a huge swimming area. they have 3 house like shelters that they have east access to inside their coop. i love my male duck and my females but i don’t want him to hurt the girls. is there anyway i can fix this problem?

 

[Chicken Quest]

@Duckpip

 

[sourland]

Divide their pen and separate him from the females until this fall when he will be less testosterone driven.

 

[Callender Girl]

My runner boys are non-stop romance machines during the warmer months; at least one of my hens will always be bald in the summer.

Aside from looking awful, the runner girls don't seem to have any problems as a result of the repeated mating. In fact, when I occasionally try to dissuade one of their Romeo's, the girls seem annoyed with ME. I do worry when they're in one of the baby pools and are having their heads held under. In fairness to the boys, none of my girls has ever been drowned.

As @sourland said, you can separate them and wait for the drake's common sense to return in the fall.

 

[CoriM]

I believe that when you notice missing feathers is when you need to separate the male and protect your female - from everything I've read over the years on this forum.

 

[littlefoot13]

okay thank you. i just don’t want my male to become depressed from being alone. but i need to keep my girls safe. recently two of my girls became broody and sat on their nests and now their is a duckling that the two girls share because they shared a nest. however my male was like this before they became broody and i as far as next mating season goes i do not have any intent for breeding. i also don’t want him to become so territorial that he hurts the duckling. so far he’s actually been protective over the baby. i should also mention the girl who has no feathers is not one who became broody and has the duckling. i will be getting the materials to separate him until the fall.

 

[CoriM]

Yeah, I think you also need to be concerned about your male being lonely. If it were me I would make sure he has plenty of supervised time with the ducks, or at least the ones he can be with safely. And make sure that if he's separated it's by a fence that he can see the other ducks through. It's not really high-quality of life for him to be isolated and frustrated.

 

[littlefoot13]

okay thank you