Mating vs Drowning

[JNTx3]

I had a mallard hen drown another last summer... it was awful. I broke it up every time I saw it, but eventually they were in the water at the same time and I just wasn't around to intervene. I thought it was a fluke, but I'm a little relieved to see it's "natural"... still prefer they all stay alive. Sigh.

 

[Mom 2em All]

My overzealous, hormone-driven, half-crazed Muscovy drake grabbed a wild female mallard in my yard to mate with her- on the land- and I thought for sure he was going to crush her.
He has one girlfriend. The other two females are raising a clutch of babies and do not want anything to do with him....so i have him out of their penned area. His female is looking a little disheveled and is missing feathers on the back of her head- so I locked her up away from him for a while. I thought she may appreciate the break- but he went sort of crazy...pacing and hissing and looking very threatening. Thats when the mallards landed in the yard.

I sometimes worry about him drowning one of the females. I will somewhat intervene if I see the females behavior change, and she tries to get away from him- but usually, by the time I think she may be in trouble, its over.

 

[mymacandstormy]

this is info regarding raging male mallard behavior in the wild. I am city person with a great woodland park neaby and over 30 years I saw thousands of mallards. I followed so many of them summer and winter and got to LOVE the female mallard. some of them were so beautiful with long necks and upward curve in bills, and I recognized them over decades. about 10 years ago the mallards were getting crushed, predators, foxes, coyotes and hawks killed almost all of them. From over 100 SURVIVING ducklings every year down to none. We lost almost everyone of them. But I know male mallard behavior and hormones and pressures of territory drive them almost insane in spring. Some males are extremely agressive in attack of females and even the established mate of the female cannot protect her.. I have seen gang rape (this is exactly what it is) of female mallard with 10 and more brutalizing a struggling and drowing bird. I saw one female I never will forget softly "crying" under a shrub in the water who was attacked so many times her neck was covered with white fluffy fungus, open, sore and severely diseased, she was dying. As I approached I threw some food towards her and her mate (obviously not an alpha male) actually tried to push the food over to her. He knew she was dying. And I was so touched by what I saw. I have seen so much more......I saw duckings years ago, just one more story, a mother mallard proudly at the front of her line of babies in the water, and one was crying so loudly, and she was agitated about the distress. She became frantic and then I saw why. One baby had his face almost entirely torn off, it was hanging by some skin, probably a snapping turtle grabbed him by the bill. The mom knew her duckling cry but she couldnt accept that it had no face. So she was hysterical in concern over the sounds but it was awful.. she turned away and back and away..........

 

[FarmrGirl]

Quote:
LOL! I have the same problem with one of my young runner girls. The ganders mostly seem irritated by her behavior - LOL!

 

[Ashlee87]

I have a male Pekin that has drown two of my females. I have kept him separated for a while now and afraid he might be doing on purpose. ... no problems when he is up but when he is out I always come home to a female dead in my pond. . . Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Miss Lydia]

I have a male Pekin that has drown two of my females. I have kept him separated for a while now and afraid he might be doing on purpose. ... no problems when he is up but when he is out I always come home to a female dead in my pond. . . Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.

@Ashlee87 were the 2 females he drowned Pekin? It's not unusual for a drake to drown a female duck especially if she is lighter weight like say something like a Runner or KC. But I don't think he would do it on purpose. I have Muscovy and my drake is probably 15 lb and his females around 6 and he hasn't drowned one yet in the 12 yrs I have had this breed. But a few times I have thought he might but they always seem to get through it. Maybe not fill the pond but only half full when he is out with the girls and see how that goes or you make sure to be out there when he is out so you can see what exactly is going on and stop it if it looks life threatening.

Welcome to BYC

 

[Ashlee87]

The females we lost were rouens. I have 16 ducks total. Two muscovy drakes 4 muscovy hens . Male and female Cayuga. Then the male Pekin and a female jumbo pekin. Then 5 call ducks. Lol.

 

[Miss Lydia]

The females we lost were rouens. I have 16 ducks total. Two muscovy drakes 4 muscovy hens . Male and female Cayuga. Then the male Pekin and a female jumbo pekin. Then 5 call ducks. Lol.

Rouens are so large hard to imagine a Pekin drowning one. Not saying it couldn't happen. 2 or more drakes ganging up on a female could def drown her.

 

[LeannS]

Let me see if I got this right.

If the female gets mated by several males and you say that the males have penises, would she allow peneration to "choose" the male to fertilize her eggs? I just can not see how she can "choose" the sperm herself unless she "closes" herself to the rest of the suitors.

The duck hen has another channel to let his penis go to where it will not fertilize her.One can look at it as a hallway leading to no where. that is along side the real channel. A drakes penis can be very long.

 

[Tevyes Dad]

Rouens are so large hard to imagine a Pekin drowning one. Not saying it couldn't happen. 2 or more drakes ganging up on a female could def drown her.

@Ashlee87 were the 2 females he drowned Pekin? It's not unusual for a drake to drown a female duck especially if she is lighter weight like say something like a Runner or KC. But I don't think he would do it on purpose. I have Muscovy and my drake is probably 15 lb and his females around 6 and he hasn't drowned one yet in the 12 yrs I have had this breed. But a few times I have thought he might but they always seem to get through it. Maybe not fill the pond but only half full when he is out with the girls and see how that goes or you make sure to be out there when he is out so you can see what exactly is going on and stop it if it looks life threatening.

Welcome to BYC

As someone with a large pool for my ducks (almost 3' deep), I would actually think that no duck could drown another duck on open water. The most restrictive a drake can be is to hold the female's body with his feet and put his wings down to either side of her so she can't break free to the side. Then hold her neck/head with his bill. She still has her feet free in the water and can easily roll backward toppling the whole stack to get her head out of the water using the full force of her flippers. In shallow water though a drake can press his weight down pinning the female to the bottom of the pool/pond so she can't move. If he then held her head under water, there is nothing that she could do. Also if another duck/drake was in on it, then two ducks/drakes can definitely drown a duck on open water. (I have seen ducks "help" drakes in mating another duck, so even if you only have one drake, that doesn't mean it isn't 2 on 1.

Here is an example of how much control the duck on bottom has:

Sorry, I love this picture of Snow, Greta and Kaine.

But seriously Kaine weighs around 6 lbs and Entie (my smallest runner) weighs under 4 (high 3's), He can hold onto her in the pool, but she has control of where they go and whether or not they roll/flip over - sometimes if she's not feeling it, she will swim under the ramp (low bridge

). In the kiddie pools it is another story: Kaine has complete control. I am much more concerned for my ducks' safety when mating in the kiddie pools than in the big pool. So if your pond has shallow banks, I would guess it is possible for your drake to drown a girl there, but not in the deeper part. But Miss Lydia has the best idea in that you should only let your drake out with the ducks when you can see what is happening, then you will know for sure. A duck's ability to hold it's breath is similar to a human's, so when her head goes under water, start holding your breath and you'll know how much time she has. She can breathe very quickly, so if she pops her head up for even a second, she can get another breath.