Lonesome Duck - We Made a Mistake

[Abronsyth]

Our 1/4 cayuga 3/4 mallard hen, Ramen, has recently lost her mother, who was her only companion. She seemed rather lonesome, so we went and found someone selling swedish ducks. While we planned to just bring home one drake (a gorgeous silver swedish who was the smallest of the clutch) we ended up with two drakes and a new hen (which I was not pleased about). Now poor Ramen is getting bullied by the three new ducks. She, unlike them, is a very capable flier and has been sitting on top of our rabbit hutches (vacant for the winter) to avoid the other ducks. She's already had clumps of feathers pulled out of her neck and shoulders, and the skin is bare and red with irritation. I am very fond of the drake we meant to get (Waffles), as he seems less inclined to bully poor little Ramen. The hen and more dominant drake seem to be doing most of the tormenting.

My mom's idea is to sell all three of the swedish and find a someone selling a juvenile duckling (or two) locally (upstate NY). I would like to keep Waffles, especially since we can't find any juveniles being sold (except for larger breeds, which isn't good as Ramen is only a bit bigger than a mallard).

I really just wanted to know what you guys would do in this situation. Ramen is a 3rd generation duck of ours, and is part domestic mallard, part wild mallard, and part cayuga, she only weighs 3 or 5 pounds, and is capable of flying. What do you think would be a good companion, and where might we find a juvenile?

Regards,
Abronsyth and Family

 

[HollyDuckFarmer]

Try her with only one other female. I'd def keep any drakes separate.

 

[Abronsyth]

We've separated the drakes and the hen (Liathe) seems to have calmed down, and of all things has become submissive towards Ramen, who hopefully will grow her feathers back in soon. Now we just need to find the drakes a new home...which is a pity as I was rather wanting ducklings.

 

[HollyDuckFarmer]

Well now that the new duck is accepting of Ramen, if you wait awhile (a week or 2) you might be able to reintroduce one drake. But I wouldn't keep 2. To keep 2, most likely you'd need 4-6 ducks.

 

[chickenboy190]

I agree with HollyDuckFamer all the way!I have 4 males with one female and they don't try to kill each other lol

 

[Abronsyth]

We've never had problems with males fighting, but we've have had some horrendous experiences with males mistreating females. We had to shoot two of our mallard drakes when they nearly drowned our hen, who also happen to have babies at the time. We even have trouble in the spring with wild mallard drakes going after our hens. I was hoping we could find a nice male to protect the ladies, since we did have one drake who would have died protecting the hens.

However, I think we're just going to keep the hen, since now Ramen has put Liathe in her place and one of the family friends is looking to take in the two drakes with hopes that he can tame them down a bit.

We have a lot of trouble finding ducks that can fly around here. Our ducks are free range in the summer, so an ability to fly is pretty necessary. Now my mom's certain that Liathe is going to die come spring, which is ever depressing.

So what breeds do you guys recommend? So far we've looked into muscovies, call ducks, and of course mallards. I for one would like some Indian runners and informed my mom that they could simply out run the predators, but for some reason she wasn't convinced, hehe.

EDIT; Actually it turns out she didn't want runners because she didn't think they could swim. I showed her some videos of them running and swimming and now she's actually interested in possibly getting some, since they are a lighter-weight breed. We have a shed that we use to lock our ducks in at night, but due to some faulty security a mink got in one night and got two of our chicken hens. The chickens have a new coup, but the ducks have been outside all night since. However, if I can convince my mom to get runners then we'll fix the barn up and can keep the ducks in it year round.

So do you guys think runners would coexist with Ramen? We keep our ducks in a heated building during the winter, and it's plenty warm here otherwise. We have quite a bug problem, especially with an overpopulation of misquitos in the summer. They can't fly but if we do fix up the shed (which would be nice, I am tired of losing my ducks) then we can just herd them in at night (which might be very good since we plan on getting a queensland heeler eventually, and they need to stay active or they turn into demons).

 

[HollyDuckFarmer]

@Abronsyth
Runners kept with a Cayuga cross should be fine. I keep Runners along with Rouens and Pekin Cross, no problems. Khaki Campbells are also an excellent choice.

@chickenboy190

I think something must have gotten lost in the typing... 4 drakes kept with one female duck would be a horribly bad situation. In fact, I would worry for the female's life! Every drake needs at least 2 ducks, better with more.

 

[chickenboy190]

@Abronsyth
Runners kept with a Cayuga cross should be fine. I keep Runners along with Rouens and Pekin Cross, no problems. Khaki Campbells are also an excellent choice.

@chickenboy190

I think something must have gotten lost in the typing... 4 drakes kept with one female duck would be a horribly bad situation. In fact, I would worry for the female's life! Every drake needs at least 2 ducks, better with more.

No,I watch them a lot they all get along fine and they hardly try to mount/mate her.She is fine and she has all her feathers on her.

 

[chickenboy190]

I think Pekins really awesome ducks.

 

[Abronsyth]

I like pekins, but they are way to big to keep with my little girl, who's only a bit bigger than a wild mallard.

How old are the drakes? How long have you had the ducks? I've seen two drakes attempting to mount one hen and the only reason she wasn't drowned was because we went out there in the boat to rescue her. It's kind of like trying to keep 4 roosters with one chicken hen.


HollyDuckFarmer, thank you for the advice! I'll see about ordering a few runners this spring. They seem like interesting little birds!

Thanks for all of the advice so far, it's good to see Ramen feeling better now that she has one hen as a companion.