is it normal for female to act like a male?

[wyliefarms]

Hello!

My daugther has 3 females and 1 male call duck. The male is seperate for now, outside the tractor, so the girls will be not missing head feathers for the county fair in a few weeks.

My issue now is one of the females is jumping on the other girls and ripping their head feathers out just like she is mating with them.
Is it a "pecking order" thing or what?!?

I don't have room to seperate the girls any more and I don't want missing head feathers either.

Thanks for any advice.

 

[FenDruadin]

That is normal, yes. Something in them says there *ought* to be a male, so they do what they have to, lol.

I don't know how to fix the situation, I'm sorry! Maybe you could separate the females who aren't doing the male thing, and put the male in with the one who is and see if the females continue to pick each other's head feathers out. I don't know--I've never had to worry about it, since I don't show.

Sorry! Wish I could help more...

 

[wyliefarms]

I was figuring it was normal, but with the male just on the other side of the chicken wire, I didn't think this would happen. Oh well!

 

[toletiquesbysam]

I've got 3 girls and one of them does this as well! It's normal just strange to us!!

 

[wyliefarms]

The chickens don't do this and they don't have a roo. Just strange animal behavior!