Just when I thought I had already seen EVERYthing...

[Sunny Side Up]

...today I saw a rooster mating with a duck!

I've already seen roosters mating with hens, drakes mating with ducks, ganders mating with geese, guinea cocks mating with guinea hens. I've seen ducks and drakes in all sorts of configurations in the pool, two duck hens together, even triple-decker duck sandwiches with two duck hens and a drake, or two drakes and a duck hen. I once saw a rooster mating with the remaining guinea hen.

There are ten roosters in the Dinner Theater pen, ten roosters without any hens to keep them otherwise occupied. I have them free-ranging all day so I don't have to give them as much feed, they're supposed to be hunting up most of their own food. I guess they still find they have time on their hands (wings? feet?) and this afternoon I was surprised to see one rooster mating with a Khaki Campbell duck hen! The rooster is a big Cuckoo Marans and I don't think the duck could have gotten away if she wanted to. She wasn't making a lot of noise in protest, but afterwards kept shaking & shaking her tail feathers and re-combing her back feathers with her bill.

I know that chickens & guineas can mate & produce live (but sterile) offspring. What about chickens & ducks? What would you call them? Chucks? Dickens?

 

[Beekissed]

We had a roo and duck mated pair once. She produced a clutch of eggs and sat on them but finally abandoned the nest. Inside the eggs were little malformed chicks but one could not tell distinct features to determine if they were more chucks or dickens.

 

[WriterofWords]

That happens all the time here,, I'd think it wasn't my house if Cheapers the banty wasn't playing cowboy with his duck girlfriend lol!!

 

[Sunny Side Up]

Well, this is the first time I've observed that behavior & it surprised me. Although it seems more likely for chickens to couple with guineas or turkeys, I just thought the waterfowl & the landlubbers were too different to attempt such a business transaction. Do drakes ever attempt mating with chicken hens?

Beekissed, that's interesting to know there were little chucks/dickens developing in those eggs. I wonder if birds like that ever have made it to hatch?

And Writer, I know just what you mean about your banty roo's cowboy act. I once watched a bantam doing the same thing with a big RIR hen. She waited patiently for a while as he held on to her neck feathers with his beak & scroobled his back end around trying to find the hen's. After several minutes of this the hen finally stood up & spun around in circles trying to buck the roo off her back, while he continued to hold on with his beak and flapped his wings, looking like a rodeo rider on a bucking bronco.

Who needs cable for entertainment -- or education -- when you've already got backyard poultry?

 

[ranchhand]

Quote:
As soon as I saw the post, I remembered a certain lady who had a roo with a thing for a dish soap bottle!

 

[Feathered Wings]

I would like to add this here remember a Male duck has a Male Part and a Rooster doe's not and a Male Duck can severely injure a Hens (chicken) Vent.

There was a lady here that had some hens (chicken) die from a abusive Male Duck

Besides do you really think it's right this should be happening or fair to the chicken or duck ? JMHO (Think about the animals)

 

[Sunny Side Up]

Well, this is why I try to keep an eye on what's going on with my birds in the yard. Besides the entertainment & education, I watch to make sure no one's hurting anyone else. I wonder if this sort of cross-species activity happens more often when there is a larger-than-usual ratio of roosters/drakes to hens.

Sometimes I'll keep all my Dinner Guests confined to their pen. Even there you'll sometimes find they've selected one of the roos to be the "girlfriend".

Other times, to save on feed, I'll let the Dinner Theater roos free-range all day so they'll rustle up more of their own food. Sometimes they'll behave nicely and keep to themselves at one end of the yard. But other times they're more ambitious in looking for "dates" and follow the hens -- of all species -- more closely. One time I found a dead chicken hen in the yard and I believe it was a group of young roos who crushed & killed her in their enthusiasm. Afterwards, they were confined to the Theater and a processing session followed sooner than previously planned...

 

[hellafarms]

Quote:
Chucks and Dickens that is quite possibly the funniest thing I have ever heard.What kind of movies are these animals watching at the dinner theater.LOL

 

[Sunny Side Up]

At the Dinner Theater pen the chickens themselves are first the show, then the dinner! Get it? And it's theater in the round since the pen is a reclaimed trampoline too worn for bouncing, with wire around the sides & across the springs.

Feathered Wings, do you have a link to the post about the chicken hen who was killed by the drake? I already knew those facts about poultry anatomy, but don't think a drake's member would be too large to injure a hen's vent, she pushes out eggs larger than that from the same orifice. But a heavy and insistant drake could crush and kill a hen, or drown her if he took her into the water to mate with her.

 

[Feathered Wings]

Quote:
It was thread about ducks and their "parts" it was a while ago so let me explain (lets see if i can word it as politely as i can)

A hens vent is made for a rooster that doesn't come with extra equipment therefore she is designed for that.

A drake has equipment and duck hens are made to accommodate this extra equipment.

Drakes mounting a hen (Chicken) can lead to injuries to the hens vent as in ripping and tearing, That is what the lady said happened to her hens injuries from the Drake
There have also been instance's where Drakes drag hens (chicken)to water and drown them trying to mate with them

I'm a firm believer in keeping animals to their own species and SIZE I have seen way to many bantam hens injured by large roos and female ducks abused by Roosters and other things i care not to mention. (I don't find it comical i find it cruel)
This is one of the things that twist my knobs and turns my keys if you want different types of animals the least you can do is respect them and provide them with the space and safety they deserve.