Is it time to let my ducks mingle?

[SeaSea47]

I have two sets of ducks - a male with three females and a male with one female. The male and single female lived on my back porch for about a year, due to some injuries and health issues and time constraints on my part.

The day after Thanksgiving, I set up a large dog kennel in my big duck run, and the two porch ducks have been living in it for the last month. I let all the ducks out to free range together a couple of hours each day, so they’ve been exposed to each other. The males fight, but they aren’t overly aggressive, and they try to mate with each other’s girls, of course. They eat and drink together mostly peacefully. The single girl kind of keeps to herself, but the rest explore together.

Today, I put them up, and I guess I didn’t close the dog kennel well enough because I came back out this evening, and the door was open, and they’re all in the main run together. There is some of the same fighting/mating behavior amongst the boys as they do when they free range, but for the most part, it seems somewhat peaceful.

Do you think it’s okay to leave them all together for the night? I’d eventually like to have them all integrated. I can come out and check on them a few times as I have an elderly dog who has to go out every 3-4 hours at night. Thanks!

(And yes, I know I need more girls, but that’s not an option right now.)

 

[sourland]

Give it a try, but monitor closely to assure that the drake fighting does not escalate.

 

[Miss Lydia]

I would not have a pool in with them since 2 drakes can drown a female if they both try mating her at the same time.

 

[Jenbirdee]

I did read that there is more fighting and injuries when they are cooped up together.
I can understand how you want them to all be together but at the same time you're worried about them fighting. Me personally I would be worried too. I dont have any drakes in with my 12 lady ducks.
At least I would wait until you have a better ratio of drakes to hens and hopefully you can give them a large amount of square footage in the run and coop.

 

[DukesDucks]

I have 2 drakes and 8 females. Each spring, as hormones kick in, I separate them into 2 flocks each with its own coop, run, and females. I have seen how rough the fights between Muscovy drakes can be. Last spring my older duck, my first and favourite, was slightly injured by the younger stronger drake, so for me the extra work if worth the effort.
I wait as late as possible in the fall to re-introduce the flocks together in the main coop. There is some minor scrabbling among the females while they establish pecking order. I carefully monitor the drakes alternating which one spends the night in the dog crate in the coop. Once I can see no fighting/bullying in the run during the day, I let everyone loose in the coop at night.