mate pairing in ducks?

[nao57]

So I wanted to ask how ducks tend to pair up in mating.

I'd heard different sides to this.

Some people say they will go after anything that moves. But I have heard of people saying they have certain ducks that will tend to stick to the same partner. (Is this latter concept true? And is it the exception or the norm?)

If you are trying to work out trying to get certain genetic strains is this going to be a problem to worry about?

I'm guessing if you had more than one type of duck, do you have to isolate them? And do you have to rearrange their natural pairing sometimes?

Curious about your thoughts on this.

 

[sourland]

Some mallard derived ducks form strong pair bonds. This does not guarantee that the drake is the sire of all of the ducklings as many/most drakes will breed any duck possible. To assure parentage, breeds/pairs must be separated.

 

[Duck mommy 2019]

they don’t really pair, a drake may favor a couple of his hens. but that could end in those girls becoming overmated. and he would still mate with the other girls as well.

you don’t NEED to seperate by breed, but if your drake is too much bigger than the girls you definitely should do you don’t risk drowning.

 

[Duckmom27]

I've been reading about this lately out of curiosity, and my understanding from what I've read is that for some ducks, the female will choose one mate for the season and try to stick with that one mate. But the males aren't often as discriminate, and if no female chooses a particular male then he'll mate with (or rape) any female he can find. I've read stories on here of drakes having a favorite hen too, but that doesn't seem to always be the case.

I've got an interesting situation in my flock at the moment in that one of my hens has apparently identified me as a mate and is thus uninterested in either of my two drakes. She pecks away at and refuses all advances from them, won't let them get even close to mounting her, but when she sees me she bobs her head and stretches her neck out and flattens herself on the ground. So it would seem that she's trying to pair with me. Mine are still pretty young so they're just starting to figure out the whole mating thing, but I do see them showing preferences. My blue swedish hen is primarily interested in the blue swedish drake and the poor Cayuga drake has no one wanting his attention. I hope to get more females in a few weeks.

Anyway, I don't know if it's the exception or the norm, but I do see pairing off happening with my ducks at the moment. Unfortunately I've also been mistaken for a duck to be paired with it seems, but I guess at least it's a female trying to pair with me and not one of the drakes. That would be even more awkward