Introducing new ducks to flock

[cheezenkwackers]

I found that the girls are much faster to except the new comers than the boys. Personally, when you are ready to put them together, I would lock up the drake and let the girls figure it out. After a couple of days or longer if you start before the girls are of breeding age, try them all together.

 

[Jlw0903]

I kept a medium dog crate in my coop after Ping, my rescue pekin drake died in October. It is now the night suite for my latest pekin rescue. He was kept see no touch in a temporary dog exercise pen for 4 weeks and has now been out with the muscovy drakes during the day. When Ping slept in the dogcrate his tightly bonded muscovy friend, O Pato, slept on top so that he could hang over the side and keep in touch with his buddy.

This year I built a new larger (5' x 10') duck house with the help of my friends. It's all metal as the last one had wooden front and back and wooden frame across the sides that were completely demolished by carpenter ants in only two and a half years

So the muscovy have a spacious new coop and what has happened? Two of them now sleep ontop of the dog crate housing the new pekin drake. And one muscovy has the rest of the large space to himself!!

My ducks are daft, but I have plenty of room for this year's rescues

Lmao! That's hilarious!

 

[Jlw0903]

I found that the girls are much faster to except the new comers than the boys. Personally, when you are ready to put them together, I would lock up the drake and let the girls figure it out. After a couple of days or longer if you start before the girls are of breeding age, try them all together.

That's really interesting since the new ones should all be girls id imagine Toke would be more than happy to add to his harem and that the girls would take offense. One of my girls seems fairly possessive of the drake and always stays nearest to him and gives angry head bobs when the other walk closer.
I can play out in my head how each of the girls would take offense to new ones and why but never considered that my drake could be more difficult (even tho he is a huge a**hole and very protective of his ladies)

 

[cheezenkwackers]

That's really interesting since the new ones should all be girls id imagine Toke would be more than happy to add to his harem and that the girls would take offense. One of my girls seems fairly possessive of the drake and always stays nearest to him and gives angry head bobs when the other walk closer.
I can play out in my head how each of the girls would take offense to new ones and why but never considered that my drake could be more difficult (even tho he is a huge a**hole and very protective of his ladies)

The ladies will be mean if the drake is around. I am pretty sure ducks are middle schoolers who like the same boy. But, take the boy out. . . Besides, he cannot be with the ducklings until they are four months old or he could injure them by mating with them. They can get used to the girls much earlier. My drakes seemed to need to either run off the newbies or rape them into submission. If they are already tight with the other girls, it helps.

 

[Jlw0903]

The ladies will be mean if the drake is around. I am pretty sure ducks are middle schoolers who like the same boy. But, take the boy out. . . Besides, he cannot be with the ducklings until they are four months old or he could injure them by mating with them. They can get used to the girls much earlier. My drakes seemed to need to either run off the newbies or rape them into submission. If they are already tight with the other girls, it helps.

Really good information! Thanks! I wasn't planning to even think about starting introductions until they were at least 8 weeks. Putting my drake in a timeout for a bit would be nice, I'll be able to wear shorts around my own yard again (He REALLY hates me).

 

[ruthhope]

Lmao! That's hilarious!

I'll try and get a photo this evening