Is our Pekin duck lonely? Do they need other ducks to be happy?

americanmutt1

Chirping
8 Years
Aug 11, 2012
4
0
62
Wawarsing NY
We rescued 2 pekin ducks around 4 years ago. The usual Easter present gone wrong. Both were males. Charlie was bigger and always would gnaw on my hands and nip everyone's toes.He was injured when a racoon attacked the chickens and ducks early last spring.We've never had that happen before.Charlie passed away as did a lot of our hens.We were left with 1 Easter egger and one red star hen and Baby our gigantic white rooster. Aflac, the remaining duck now is very tight with his chicken family.He has never let anyone touch him but I was just wondering, should we get him a couple of female ducks or leave him be.He goes to our little pond every morning and takes his swim and chases the koi fish.He hangs out with Baby all day.We do not know a lot about ducks but he seems healthy and very clean.I should have called him Felix Unger.I would love some feedback.
 
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I had a similar situation, but with a fox. I had one Pekin, two Blue Swedish, and one Cayuga. The fox killed all but the Pekin. She lived alone with the chickens for about a year. She did fine and was quite content. She had a particular liking to Bill, my lead roo. Being the poultry maniac I am, I browse craigslist looking for local birds to buy every now and then. I came across a Call duck pair that I just had to have. They had their own pen for a while with an open run. I'm guessing a hawk took the female, so I was left with the drake. So the drake went in with Daisy the Pekin. The drake (Wilbur) of course was immediately attracted to Daisy. It took Daisy a little bit to warm up to him, but they are now pretty much attached at the hip. They still hang around with the chickens a lot (they share a coop), and occasionally with the geese, but they do everything together. That being said, in my opinion, I think they benefit a little from having a friend of their own species. They can kind of "relate" to them more, if you will. However, if your duck seems happy, healthy, and part of the flock (not off isolated by himself all the time) it probably wouldn't do any damage if you decided not to add additional ducks.
 
If you have a Drake the chances of him trying to breed your Chickens is about 100%. He could kill a hen being the Rooster does not have a penis. Ducks and Chickens do not breed the same way......Make another pen for Ducks and get some hens? Or get rid of the Drake.

Best advise I can give you.....
 

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