Killer duck......

[Silkie2]

So i renamed my khaki cambell duck, Killer. Any guess why? yes.. it killed the other 2 ducks out of my 3 ducks. These ducks grew up together all khaki cambells, yesterday i thought maybe an animal underneath the barn got to one of the ducks, so i moved the two into a stall in the barn, well this morning i found one duck dead and literally the EVIDENCE on the other duck's face (feathers and blood)... so now i'm down to 1 serial killer duck. its been in single digits the last few days, could the duck have been two bored?? (this duck may have also been the reason a few of my bantams died a couple months ago..)
Should this duck be culled and justice served? (sorry for the jokes, i really do miss my duckies) Is there anything i can do with this duck??

 

[Miss Lydia]

What sex were two Killer killed? And how old? Very sorry for your loss.

 

[Silkie2]

What sex were two Killer killed? And how old? Very sorry for your loss.

Sorry i forgot to mention, all are definitely females over a 1 year old. ( i know drakes can get aggressive with females, but they were all definitely females) all of them grew up together

 

[Fishkeeper]

Any way something else killed them, and the possible culprit pecked at them?

 

[Miss Lydia]

I haven’t heard of females killing each other. I know drakes will kill females and each other but goodness this is unusual did they have plenty of feed and water? And I am with @Fishkeeper sure sounds like something else may have gotten to them. Your barn stall set up please? Was this stall completely closed in no holes where a mink weasel or raccoon could have gotten in? All a weasel or mink need is 1”. Where were the wounds located?

 

[Loopeend]

We had one of those killer female ducks that killed others. We knew she did it because she was the ónly one in the same coop. And she looked reaaaaally innocent too. Too innocent. She knew we would not like her to drown other ducks or peck their skulls.

We solved it this way; we got new ducks. We raised them as a group with her not involved and being alone. By the time they were introduced to each other the 6 new ducks had formed a strong social bond and hierachy. She immedeately tried to attack one of them at the first introduction without a fance between them. We interveined.
The 6 ducks did not forget.
She was alone.
She tried to be part of the group; but the 6 others ignored her. Acted towards her like she was the lowest of the lowest.
If she didn't want to be alone she had no other choice then to be nice. '
So eventually she did in an allmost begging way.

The group has changed now. She has been with a lot of other ducks. She is now only left with the leader of those 6 ducks. Just the two of them. She is way bigger and can easily be the dominating one. But she doesn't anymore because she has learned about giving/taking. Being a boss in a dictator way just killing anyone off that you feel like; is not true leadership. Leadership has to be earned; forcing it can lead to a lonely life where noone wants you in their group.

she does not kill anymore. She is the less dominant duck in a way. 70 procent of the time. But not always listening to the leader. We can see her sometimes intentionally not listening and ignoring the leader. But for the rest she is okay with this situation. She has learned to follow and when to be her own leader and sometimes just ignore the leader without killing them. And especially the NOT killing; we like. She will always be a duck that has a strong will to lead; but she stopped doing that by killing others.

This almost sounds of The game of Thrones. Ha!

But I do think if you get new ducks you at first need to have them together to get a strong bond; raise them for atleast 2 months without her. Introduce them with a fence between them, and just let her mellow in loneliness untill she learns how to behave. A strong bonded group of ducks does not tollerate this behaviour. So you need a strong bounded group to teach her her place; since she doesn't understand 'human'.

 

[Fishkeeper]

Birds don't learn about giving and taking. They're animals, they're not intelligent enough for most of what you're describing.
She wasn't intentionally looking innocent because she knew that you didn't want her doing that. She's a duck. Ducks are not capable of looking at animals of other species and deciding what they want, that's a very complex series of thoughts.

Either she had a hormone issue making her aggressive that resolved itself, or she got beaten up and ignored by the others every time she was aggressive until she figured out that acting not aggressive was what got her not beaten up and ignored. Basic "if I do A, then B. If I don't do A, then C" is much more simple than "the humans don't want me to do this, so I'll look innocent". How would a duck even know what a human thinks is an innocent look?
It's also possible that the current leader beat her up, and she doesn't attack it because she doesn't think she could beat it in a fight.

 

[Jpat]

Main issue is it isnt soup yet

Iam sure loopend meant it semi sarcasticly and joking about most of it

If i owned a duck like that ide eat it

 

[Silkie2]

we'll find out tomorrow if it was an animal or not. only 1 duck left.. I feel like it would be easier to get into the chickens then the ducks... There were "marks" on the neck, and body/sides. Nothing like teeth marks. they honestly look like pecking marks because they look the same as when my rooster was too "rough" with a chicken. feathers picked clean off. predator's bites are more rough and bite through the flesh i guess.. if that makes sense.

@Jpat I honestly didn't know it was her! She's by herself now, she cant do anything to anyone now lol
she's part of my "first ducks" and even though she probably murdered two of her flock mates, i'd really like to keep her XD

The water freezes but i replace food and water everyday.. I'm honestly baffled.. it gets into the negatives at night and theres no signs of any predators (not that i can see) The stall is not a horse stall (We had goats an its basically just two walls in a corner) completely sealed off except for chicken wire at the top and also the door is made of chicken wire and 2x4s.

Definitely will be getting some new ducks this spring, maybe a larger breed to put her in her place like a pekin?

 

[Miss Lydia]

I’m not saying it’s a predator because I didn’t see her wounds but chicken wire will not keep out small predators. Weasels, mink can easily get through 1” holes Chicken wire only keeps our birds in not safe. Half inch hardware cloth is the only thing that can really protect them every hole gap and top and bottom need to be covered. Very sorry for your loss.