Male duck question

[Gwen]

Hi,I'm new here. I have a question right away!

I'm in the process of getting chickens and have 2 coming next week and then 7 more coming the following week. Besides the chickens I'm getting, I also have been wanting runner ducks, sebastopol geese and saxony geese. I had planned to get male/female pairs of the ducks and geese. For the chickens I'm getting all females.

I have a chance to pick up runner ducks next week and was wondering if maybe I didn't research the male/female thing enough. Male ducks and geese are not real different from the females, right? Not like roosters are so much different from hens?

I thought I might like to someday breed the ducks and geese (hatch out the eggs) and since I'm getting the ducks and geese from individual breeders with supposedly show quality or possible show quality poultry, it seemed like I should just go ahead and get the male/female pairs. But I may never do the breeding thing and am much more interested in docile nice friendly poultry. Am I correct in thinking a male runner duck will not be a pain in the behind? (At least any more so than a female.)

Also, will the male duck will get along okay with the male geese? I was initially just wanting the male/female runner duck and the male/female sebastopol geese but then I saw saxony geese so decided I needed a pair of them as well.

So that would be 2 male geese and 1 male duck. They will have a pretty large fenced area to free range in. At least an acre and most of it is woodlands so lots to explore for them. A small pond and then a lawn (which is our drain field).

I'm hoping the chickens can be in that area as well and that everyone can coexist happily and peacefully. If not, then the chickens will have their coop area and a fairly large run. But it would be nicer if they could have the run of the woods too.

Does anyone here have male geese and male ducks? How do they get along?

 

[froggie71]

Hi, I don't have any geese, but when all my birds are free ranging (ducks, chickens, and guineas) they pretty much hangout in their own groups. You don't have to pair the ducks. We have 1 drake and 8 ducks and he mates with all of them. We recently hatched out 2 days worth of eggs (16 eggs) all of which were fertile and hatched! So, no need to have more than 1 male with ducks at least.

Oh, and

 

[Wifezilla]

2 girls to one boy is good for ducks. 3 is better. I have 5 girls and 1 drake. As soon as he hits puberty, he is going to be one tired, happy boy!

 

[Gwen]

So am I better off getting 2 female runners and then adding a male at a later time should I wish to breed? If I only get one female and one male, will the male pester the female to death?

 

[horsejody]

Quote:
Don't all males do that?

Sorry, just kidding.

 

[coloradochick]

 

[Wifezilla]

Gwen, that will depend on the duck. The khaki I had wasn't too bad. Even though he had access to 2 girls, he had a favorite and only seemed to breed with her.