Indian runner duck being aggressive

[inrudu]

Hey,

I don't own ducks myself, so please forgive me if I ask stupid questions, but here is what I have seen at a friends house:

They keep four indian runner ducks, three males and one female. Sadly, they can not allow them out at the same time. Currently the living condition is the follwing:
The by far oldest duck lives together with the same age female duck. They get along well. He is very old by now and can barely walk any more. But he still enjoys sitting around on his favorite spots, while the female duck runs around, searching for food.

Then the two other male ducks (brothers, younger thann the female duck) also live together. They do everything together and barely ever have more than a meter separate them.

Whenever the two boys are out, they immediately run towards the house of the female duck. But the female duck quacks quite loud at them and seems to wind them up, until they are to agressive, that they attack each other. If both groups would be let out at the same time, the two male ones would attack the female one.

The old male and the two young ones don't mind each other. They get along/ignore each other, so no big issue.

From what I was told, this behaviour is constant throughout the year. (At first I thought, it might be due to a mating phase or something, but it seems its like that 365 days a year.)

Is there something that can be done to end this attacking behavior? Its okay if they never become best friends, but winding each other up seems to be quite mean.

 

[sourland]

Drakes are very sexually aggressive, and sadly this is pretty much normal drake behavior.

 

[inrudu]

That's sad. I was hoping, as the much older male never seemed to have an issue with her and they are the same age.
But are they sexually aggressive throughout the whole year?

Is it also normal for the female duck to provoke the two younger males? It really seems like she does that for her own enjoyment.
And the older she got, the worse it went...

 

[sourland]

She is also maturing sexually and is flirting with the drakes.

 

[ruthhope]

The situation might improve it the two young drakes don't get to see the female.

I rescue and rehab ducks and got a pair of tightly bonded drakes in May 2022. They had been dumped near a builder's yard where there was virtually no water and potential food. One had lost all the feathers from its head, over its eye, and down its neck. Once I had them at home, they would stand close together, with their necks entwined but one was an aggressor and bullied the other. I tried separating them but even after 3 weeks the bullying resumed when they were together. In the end I sent the bully to stay with my son's flock and brought my son's drake to my flock. All was well: the bully liked his new female friends and those girls readily mated with him even though they had always been with their own drake. After about 3 -4 months, my son wanted his drake back and his flock reuniting. Bully came back to me. He and his pal immediately recognized eachother, but when the bully tried the exclude his pal from the wading pool, the pal was not having it. It was his wading pool and the garden was his garden and he stood up for himself. The bullying ceased. Three months later I was able to rehome to boys, still very closely bonded but without bullying behavior.

So my lesson learned was that separating a bully for 3-4 months can be enough to break the habit if his victim gains self esteem in his absence!! The photo is just before they were rehomed: beautiful boys with no missing feathers!