Introducing a new duck. Loss, confusion, and a potential new friend. In need of veteran advice.

[YinYang907]

First off, I apologize for creating "another" duck introduction thread. I searched the forum and found so many duck introduction threads, but still had some questions for you all. I ordered two ducklings and raised them for the first time almost two years ago.

Unfortunately, something got to my Cayuga duck last night, leaving his Pekin buddy a bit frightened and lost. Those two have never been separated, and now my Pekin wanders the yard looking for him. He actually looks kind of depressed. I was building a kennel for him in the yard and I caught him trying to "hang out" with the tiny birds that would fly into our yard. The tiny birds flew away as soon as he got close to them. This absolutely breaks my heart.

After a day of grieving, I started searching for a duck companion locally. A lady is trying to thin her flock down and has 6 week old ducks.

My question is..
Is it okay to keep them in the same pen for a night or is it a bit dangerous? The two I raised didn't fight very much, but they would peck at each other whenever I hand fed them. My Pekin was much stronger than my Cayuga. As much as I want my Pekin to have company, I do not want him to injure the young duck.

Any advice on this matter? Does the gender of the young duck swing the chances of my Pekin picking on it?


Btw, I'm so glad this forum exists. I've done so much reading here since I started raising ducks 2 years ago.

I still can't figure out why my Pekin doesnt like peas, though. LOL.

He tries every pea like maybe one will taste different. He spits them all out. He loves lettuce and other leafy greens

Thanks again guys!

 

[Freddy rooster]

They are at the age that they need time to be separated

 

[Kaessa]

First off, I apologize for creating "another" duck introduction thread. I searched the forum and found so many duck introduction threads, but still had some questions for you all. I ordered two ducklings and raised them for the first time almost two years ago.

Unfortunately, something got to my Cayuga duck last night, leaving his Pekin buddy a bit frightened and lost. Those two have never been separated, and now my Pekin wanders the yard looking for him. He actually looks kind of depressed. I was building a kennel for him in the yard and I caught him trying to "hang out" with the tiny birds that would fly into our yard. The tiny birds flew away as soon as he got close to them. This absolutely breaks my heart.

After a day of grieving, I started searching for a duck companion locally. A lady is trying to thin her flock down and has 6 week old ducks.

My question is..
Is it okay to keep them in the same pen for a night or is it a bit dangerous? The two I raised didn't fight very much, but they would peck at each other whenever I hand fed them. My Pekin was much stronger than my Cayuga. As much as I want my Pekin to have company, I do not want him to injure the young duck.

Any advice on this matter? Does the gender of the young duck swing the chances of my Pekin picking on it?


Btw, I'm so glad this forum exists. I've done so much reading here since I started raising ducks 2 years ago.

I still can't figure out why my Pekin doesnt like peas, though. LOL.

He tries every pea like maybe one will taste different. He spits them all out. He loves lettuce and other leafy greens

Thanks again guys!

You can put them next to each other in the same pen if you have some kind of barrier that they can't get through/over. Plastic poultry fencing works really well for this. You just need a temporary barrier so they can get used to seeing and being around each other, but not able to actually peck at each other. By the time your little ones are big enough to be around your Pekin, they should be comfortable with each other and you can start with supervised visits to see how they do.

He might just take to them right away, since he seems like he's pretty lonely for the company of other birds.

 

[Miss Lydia]

First off, I apologize for creating "another" duck introduction thread. I searched the forum and found so many duck introduction threads, but still had some questions for you all. I ordered two ducklings and raised them for the first time almost two years ago.

Unfortunately, something got to my Cayuga duck last night, leaving his Pekin buddy a bit frightened and lost. Those two have never been separated, and now my Pekin wanders the yard looking for him. He actually looks kind of depressed. I was building a kennel for him in the yard and I caught him trying to "hang out" with the tiny birds that would fly into our yard. The tiny birds flew away as soon as he got close to them. This absolutely breaks my heart.

After a day of grieving, I started searching for a duck companion locally. A lady is trying to thin her flock down and has 6 week old ducks.

My question is..
Is it okay to keep them in the same pen for a night or is it a bit dangerous? The two I raised didn't fight very much, but they would peck at each other whenever I hand fed them. My Pekin was much stronger than my Cayuga. As much as I want my Pekin to have company, I do not want him to injure the young duck.

Any advice on this matter? Does the gender of the young duck swing the chances of my Pekin picking on it?


Btw, I'm so glad this forum exists. I've done so much reading here since I started raising ducks 2 years ago.

I still can't figure out why my Pekin doesnt like peas, though. LOL.

He tries every pea like maybe one will taste different. He spits them all out. He loves lettuce and other leafy greens

Thanks again guys!

Welcome to BYC

Very sorry to hear you lost your Cayuga to a predator. Do you lock your ducks up at night? if not you may not have to worry about getting your Pekin another friend because what ever got your cayuga will be back to get your Pekin. If you do lock them up and your coop was breached I would suggest you fix the problem before bringing home any more ducks so you don't have to lose any more, then when you do bring home another you won't be able to put them together right off a 2 yr old Pekin could injure or kill a 6 week old duckling they will need to be introduced slowly over several weeks to give the duckling time to mature and get large enough to be able to live with your Pekin. Maybe once you decide you have everything safe for your ducks you'd consider bringing 2 or 3 so that your drake[Pekin] wouldn't be showering one duck with all his attention. Do you know the breed of the 6 week old ducklings? where you wanting to get drake or duck for your Pekin? If females then I would dif rec 2-3 females.

 

[YinYang907]

They are at the age that they need time to be separated

Thank you for the advice. I'll be keeping a close eye on them and separate them when I am not there.

Quote:
Thanks for the advice, Ill definitely keep that in mind and separate them for the time being.

Welcome to BYC

Very sorry to hear you lost your Cayuga to a predator. Do you lock your ducks up at night? if not you may not have to worry about getting your Pekin another friend because what ever got your cayuga will be back to get your Pekin. If you do lock them up and your coop was breached I would suggest you fix the problem before bringing home any more ducks so you don't have to lose any more, then when you do bring home another you won't be able to put them together right off a 2 yr old Pekin could injure or kill a 6 week old duckling they will need to be introduced slowly over several weeks to give the duckling time to mature and get large enough to be able to live with your Pekin. Maybe once you decide you have everything safe for your ducks you'd consider bringing 2 or 3 so that your drake[Pekin] wouldn't be showering one duck with all his attention. Do you know the breed of the 6 week old ducklings? where you wanting to get drake or duck for your Pekin? If females then I would dif rec 2-3 females.

Thank you for the advice. I did fix the issue with the coop. The breed of duck I was wanting from her is another Cayuga. The lady also has a Pekin, Black Swedish and Blue Swedish. They are all 6 weeks old.

She'll be bringing the ducks to a local feed store for a swap meet.

 

[LadyIsadora]

this is anecdotal at best ;-)
I had two Pekin. They were inseparable. They did not bond with me a bit, though I got them at just a few days old and spent countless hours with them. 4 weeks later I got 12 other ducks- various breeds. My little flock of babies bonded strongly with me. From 2 or 3 weeks old they were put in the outside pen. They shared a pen, separated by a lattice fence for a few weeks and were able to forage together---supervised----everyday, during the day. The Pekin teamed up and were mean to the babies. The big 'uns would bogart the swimming pool, chase the babies out of the shade, just be petty mean ducks in general. Like girls in high-school. no real damage but just nippy & rude.

Then at 9 weeks for the Pekins (5 weeks for the babies) Mr. Pekin went to freezer camp leaving Mrs. Pekin bereaved and lonely. Within three days she fully accepted all babies, I was able to take down the fence and all was well with the world.


That was about 3 weeks ago. They all get along fine still and she has integrated into the pack. Neither the constant leader nor follower.

It is amazing who we will befriend in our time of need. I would take it slowish but dont be surprised if they want to play together immediately. They need their flock.