Intro-duck-tion age

[OzarkEgghead]

I have 8 full-grown Ancona duck hens & 1 full-grown Ancona drake who I see breeding my hens daily. I also have two 10 or 11 week old Pekins from a straight run so I have no idea at this point if they're both hens, both drakes or one of each. For the last 2-3 weeks they've lived in the coop side-by-side with a wire divider so they can see each other & get used to each other. I've done the same in their large exercise yard...a wire divider between. Am I safe in allowing them to mix now or are the 10-11 week olds at risk of being injured internally if my active drake attempts to breed them? The exercise yard is 20' wide x 50' long so there's plenty of space to get away.....but he can be persistent at times.

 

[Evadig]

I have 8 full-grown Ancona duck hens & 1 full-grown Ancona drake who I see breeding my hens daily. I also have two 10 or 11 week old Pekins from a straight run so I have no idea at this point if they're both hens, both drakes or one of each. For the last 2-3 weeks they've lived in the coop side-by-side with a wire divider so they can see each other & get used to each other. I've done the same in their large exercise yard...a wire divider between. Am I safe in allowing them to mix now or are the 10-11 week olds at risk of being injured internally if my active drake attempts to breed them? The exercise yard is 20' wide x 50' long so there's plenty of space to get away.....but he can be persistent at times.

It really depends on your drake. I was able to integrate mine around twelve weeks (especially in the run where there was plenty of room to get away) but if the drake is overzealous, then I'd suggest waiting till they're closer to breeding age.

 

[ruthhope]

I have 8 full-grown Ancona duck hens & 1 full-grown Ancona drake who I see breeding my hens daily. I also have two 10 or 11 week old Pekins from a straight run so I have no idea at this point if they're both hens, both drakes or one of each. For the last 2-3 weeks they've lived in the coop side-by-side with a wire divider so they can see each other & get used to each other. I've done the same in their large exercise yard...a wire divider between. Am I safe in allowing them to mix now or are the 10-11 week olds at risk of being injured internally if my active drake attempts to breed them? The exercise yard is 20' wide x 50' long so there's plenty of space to get away.....but he can be persistent at times.

The respone to your question is that female ducklings are at great risk from amorous drakes and should not be exposed to drakes until (I use) 6 months age. Others on this forum say at least 4.5 months old.

My observation is that you should know the sex of your ducklings by 10 weeks old. Voice differences become apparent from 6 - 8 weeks old. I find that drakes are very clear on ducklings sex by 8 weeks and that male ducklings react differently to female ducklings at 8 weeks old if a drake comes close. I raised 2 jumbo pekin ducklings this year that were out in the duck house see but no touch from 6 weeks. I have 1 adult pekin drake that after a week of see no touch I let mix with the 7 week old ducklings. He tried to attack them and both ducklings went back at him with necks extended head down fighting posture. I kept them separate another week, then made up a penned area in the back garden for the ducklings to play. I spent days supervising the ducklings when they were out of the pen. They stuck to themselves and were ignored by my flock of drakes. At 10 weeks one of ducklings was ready to integrate with the flock and would run after them, hang around on the periphery, and try to get up close to the pekin drake. The pekin was afraid of the jumbo ducklings, who is the size of the smallest muscovy drake and notably larger than the pekin drake. Unfortunately, the second Jumbo duckling is special needs with gait problems that have worsened as he has grown. The adult drakes leave him alone and the other jumbo duckling spends time with him as well as on the periphery of the flock

I suspected my jumbo pekin ducklings were drakes at 7 weeks old because of their fighting response to the adult pekin drake; he clearly knew they were drake ducklings