Introducing new ducks

[jayjay]

Hi all,

At the moment i have 2 khaki campbels, 2 call ducks and a call duckling, not sure what sex. I would like to introduce some new ducks. I know with chickens you are suppposed to do it at night etc although i had no luck with this, fights everywhere still a week later. Can anyone advise if there are any rules to introducing new ducks.

I want to get a couple of females because i have 2 pair and someone said it was not the right ratio you need more females. Any advice welcome.
Thanks

 

[Mike Winters]

ducks are not chickens they can care less about another duck in their yard. if any thing its a new friend to them

 

[Mikanik]

When I introduced the last two ducklings to my lone female I'd put them out during the day in a big wire dog kennel with food and plenty of water in it. Our existing hen would kinda tease them through the cage and nibble their food and drink their water. We did this for about two weeks and then as soon as they were fully feathered we let them out and let them all do the "pecking order" thing. That took about a week until they were cool enough with each other to the point where they're inseparable now. They all 3 follow one another around and they all know our Cayuga is the head honcho-ess (??) We just got two baby BABY ducklings so we're going to start it all over again! LOL I do have to add that right before we started the introduction we did lose our Cayuga's sister and that did prompt us to hurry up the process. It did wonders for her emotional state...even though she wasn't able to really interact with them except through the cage...at least she wasn't alone. She only had a couple days of ducky depression but was back up to eating and drinking as soon as we had them out there. That may have sped up the "bonding" process.

 

[jayjay]

Thanks both for your advice, i do like to do my homework before hand, especially as i had bad results with the chickens. Appreciate your help.

 

[jak2002003]

Female ducks should get along OK with new ones. There will be some chasing to see who is boss, but after a few days all should be well.

Drakes, on the other hand, can be nasty to new females or males. They will keep trying to mate with the new females, who will get very stressed. They will also likely attack new males.

I always put new ducks in a pen on their own where the original ducks can walk right up to them. After a few days the new ducks will have had chance to settle in and get familiar with their new home. Then you can let them out. They might have a few 'fights' but that should be OK.

I would not add any more males if you have some already..