Introducing young ducks to the rest of the flock

[Amiga]

GQ has some good advice here.

Some feather pulling, shoving and chasing is part and parcel of the process. It really depends on the ducks.

 

[LuckyDucky4]

I have the same fear that a big Pekin drake or multiple ones will gang up on the smaller girls. I am going to play it super safe and keep the young ones away for a while longer. I have integrated older ducks into my flock on two occasions already, so I at least have a pretty good idea how they will all react when the time comes. Both times I had to add more girls and it was pretty calm. I'm going to keep my fingers crossed for the same thing with the Harlequin's. All my ducks get handled fairly regularly and my boys are all big sucks, so I can at least grab them if things were to get out of control.

Lol, I am just glad these ducklings are not Pekins. The Pekins were about 5 weeks when we finally got them outside, since their house was still under construction. They were beyond messy!! The WH's are about half the mess, even when they manage to jump over the side of the brooder

 

[Nebraskagirl]

I recently had to get rid of our Welsh Harlequin drake because he WOULD NOT STOP attacking our two Welsh Harlequin ducklings. We had hatched them via incubator and they were six weeks old and we would be supervising the two babies and the duck and the drake in the yard. The babies were still kept in a crate in the garage but during the day with my supervision they were allowed to forage. He would catch sight of the babies and that is all he would do all day would be to terrorize those two. He would not stop. Relentless! The drake was SO FAST he injured a duckling's leg so badly I thought it would not walk again. That was it. He had to go. I took him back to the farm I got him from. Now they babies and their mama are a great trio. Everyone gets along and they are about nine weeks old now and are with their mom 100 percent of the time.
I wish you the best. It can be so hard with drakes and more ducks involved. It CAN be done, but it takes time like Amiga and others have said. Just WATCH and be prepared to break up some fights if it gets too heated. Keep us updated. Oh and they are BEAUTIFUL babies! Gotta love those Welsh Harlequins, eh?

 

[LuckyDucky4]

I absolutely love my Welsh Harlequins! I drove over 4 hours to get them and I am so glad I did! It's too bad your drake wouldn't leave your ducklings alone...hope the little one's leg is healed? I have moved them out to a stall in the barn today for the first time and so far they seem to love it....They have much more room than in the brooder. Only thing is I need the stall at night for the horses, and with the barn only having a dirt floor I am afraid of predators digging under the sliding door if they hear the ducks, so they will still have to come in at night. I know before when I introduced new ducks the new ones tended to stick together for a few days and as time went on they all started mingling more and more and now you wouldn't even know they weren't raised together. There was no fuss whatsoever when I added new girls. Nice thing is outside there is tons of space so if they don't want to be near the other ducks they don't have to be. I have Pekin drakes so I really don't want to rush things since the WH's are smaller. Lol, here I am all worried about the boys when I know I have a few girls that could cause a ruckus if they so choose. Thanks for the well wishes and I will update when I have made the introductions...still have another couple months to go though.

 

[Nebraskagirl]

Yeah, that makes it tough at night. We endured the same thing. The leg is healed now and Teddy is getting along just fine. I just couldn't handle the stress of constantly chasing the drake away. He was just too rowdy so he had to go. Take your time with your ducklings and the introductions. Like Amiga and others said, it will be a slow process, but worth it if it all works out. WOW, you drove four hours for your babies! That is dedication right there! They are worth it. I am the only one in my area that I know of who has WH. Everyone is always saying, "What type of ducks is THAT?"

 

[yanakaye]

I'm really worried about this. I have a female and a male and my boy solly is getting a bit overeager with the mating. She seems fine with it and displays herself for him but he's starting to pull feathers out. I don't want to get another female but i feel i should. My concern is that my little girl is very sulky and don't think she'll like another duck being around as if i even pay attention to solly she gets in a mood. Imagine how she'll be if she had to compete with another duck for my affection. She really is a mummy's girl. She doesn't even like my fiance picking her up and we have had her since 9 days old. I haven't started looking yet and know i need one the same age. She's just started laying a month ago. And is around 7.5 months old. Had anyone had any similar experiences? Or any advice?

 

[redrobynlane]

We had sort of a similar situation happen. We ordered 10 ducklings from an online hatchery. 1 of them died the first night The hatchery was happy to replace the loss but can only ship in sets of 2 or more. So, they shipped us 2 ducklings. Well, one died in shipment. So, with shipping times and such I had a group of 9 ducks that were hatched on the 9th, and one single duckling that was hatched on the 17th. Anyone who's had ducks knows how much of a difference 1 week makes!! So, we tried to put the baby into the flock - which we were brooding in a 150 gal 2ft tall stock tank. Well, the olders just TRAMPLED her and picked on her! We immediately had to figure something out! So we put a Tupperware bin into the stock tank so she was "with" them but they couldn't get at her. After 2 weeks, incorporating her still wasn't working. They picked on her, trampled her. So, we put up a partition in the tank with hardware cloth so that they could touch and smell but still not hurt each other. Well, even that didn't seem to help when all in one area! But, at 4 weeks, my husband and I couldn't' stand the smell and noise any longer so we decided it was time for these ducks to move out!!! We have a very large covered shed that we converted into duck masion, ran heat lamps, etc.. we put her in with the big ones then all at the same time and have had zero issues! I think it was something about putting her into THEIR house, rather than it being all their big new house. I think "territory" has a lot to do with it!
Now, our 5 week old ducks aren't enough for us! we love love love! so we're looking at adding 2 cayuga into the mix - straight run (which is scary!). But, what I'm thinking is to keep them in the house for a few days till they are a bit stronger. Then, put a dog kennel (one of the big metal ones) in the duck mansion so from the start they are all kinda in everyone's house and can touch, smell, etc.. from the very beginning. Sometimes I wonder if the plastic tupperware divider hurt us because it just delayed the touch/smell sensation that I think is so important. What do you think?

 

[babynuts43]

I have several "sets" of ducks: 3 ducks in 2 sets, 2 in 1 set, 4 in 1 set, and the newest having 8 (I say sets, it is actually each group as we got or hatched them) ranging from 3 years old to a little over a month old. All free range during the day and go into their own enclosures at night (keeps the arguing down

). The 8 babies aren't old enough to let out yet, so during the day I let them out in the enclosure that encompasses all of the houses while the adults run free. This allows all to see each other but not get to each other. Once the babies are fully fledged and bigger, I will let them out supervised for short periods of time to make sure no one gets too nasty. This is how I've done it with all of my sets and I have never (knock on wood) had anyone hurt. And although they all run free, they stay in their sets pretty much all the time except for the "I need me some strange" moments my drakes have (each set has 1 drake). I usually keep babies in the house taking them out in a pen for acclimation periods but we put this set out in a house at a little over a week so they get this acclimation time all day. I only have one adult who pays them much attention...Dod (a drake, of course) likes to run at the pen at times to let them know he is the jerk he is

Don't know the sec of the new 8 but will only keep 1 drake, and that's going to be a tough one since I hate to let any go. I've been lucky so far that there's only been 1 and I haven't had to choose!

 

[lynnemabry]

Glad to see this tread, I have been trying to integrate an eight week old pekin hen and runner drake to my grown pekin drake and pair of hens. They have been in a portion of the run divided by a board. Yesterday I tried adding them in but it ended up bloody. This morning two of the grown ups had jumped the fence to terrorize them more.
To make matters worse in the small section I have a broody chicken sitting on 6 Pekin eggs. Hatch day is tomorrow. ( They moved here cause some unnamed chicken cannibalized one of the eggs.)

Today we make better dividers. I'm in it for the long haul.

 

[Amiga]

Glad to see this tread, I have been trying to integrate an eight week old pekin hen and runner drake to my grown pekin drake and pair of hens. They have been in a portion of the run divided by a board. Yesterday I tried adding them in but it ended up bloody. This morning two of the grown ups had jumped the fence to terrorize them more.
To make matters worse in the small section I have a broody chicken sitting on 6 Pekin eggs. Hatch day is tomorrow. ( They moved here cause some unnamed chicken cannibalized one of the eggs.)

Today we make better dividers. I'm in it for the long haul.

Keep learning and sharing!