Introducing young ducks to the flock

[Petsketch]

I know this has been discussed before, and I am not new to ducks but this is a funny situation. I have 3 older ducks (a lame pekin, and a Cayuga pair). Enter three 11 week old Welsh Harlequin youngsters (females). I have kept the babies separate from the adults during the day but they are all together in the same house at night, separated by a divider. Today, when I tried to introduce the 3 babies to my two adult females, the babies bullied them something fierce!! I have never had this happen where the adults were terrified of babies. I put the one baby that seemed to be the leader in with the adult females all day, and that went okay, but I would like to incorporate them all at once, if possible. The babies want to be together and are very vocal about that fact!

Any thoughts would be appreciated!

Thank you!

 

[Amiga]

Each introduction is unique, from anything I have seen or read. Try things, watch closely, remember goal number one is no injuries.

Female ducks do tend to blend a little more easily than mixed sex flocks.

 

[aa3655]

If the flock they're going into is relatively gentle, I usually add more dominant animals one at a time, let them spend a few hours without buddy backup, then add another one.

 

[JadeComputerGal]

I know this has been discussed before, and I am not new to ducks but this is a funny situation. I have 3 older ducks (a lame pekin, and a Cayuga pair). Enter three 11 week old Welsh Harlequin youngsters (females). I have kept the babies separate from the adults during the day but they are all together in the same house at night, separated by a divider. Today, when I tried to introduce the 3 babies to my two adult females, the babies bullied them something fierce!! I have never had this happen where the adults were terrified of babies. I put the one baby that seemed to be the leader in with the adult females all day, and that went okay, but I would like to incorporate them all at once, if possible. The babies want to be together and are very vocal about that fact!

Any thoughts would be appreciated!

Thank you!

What Amiga said is a laugh because it's so true. You really don't know what you're going to get with these because all their little personalities come into play. With one of our introductions of a new hatch this year, the new ones stood there looking at the adults, then one put its head down and started rushing the adults. I guess he was saying "Do not even start with me!" Then the other 14 followed as ducks do, and it was the adults that were freaking out. Your babies are probably just perceiving a threat and being proactive, and a gradual introduction of one at a time really probably is best. I go all in and break up the scuffles because smaller isn't an option for us.

 

[JadeComputerGal]

One other thing I forgot to put in the last post is that you don't need to hesitate to put them in time-out. I have one very frisky little blue fawn boy that spends a lot of his time in time-outs. He rushes out "WHEEEEE" and tries to mate with anything female. Then he gets put back in the pen and watches everybody else having fun, then he gets let back out until he starts it again. LOL. He really wants to make some babies and has no idea that he already has lots of them.

 

[Petsketch]

Thanks to each one of you for your replies and helpful tips! I will just keep working on trying to get them adjusted. Those babies are FIESTY, LOL.