Mixed breed flock - breed size and safety

[KCNC06]

This may be a really silly question but I wanted to ask anyway before I set myself up for heartache. We already have a mixed breed flock, most of our ducks are offspring from our original (almost 3 yr old) White Layers. Those 4 White Layers produced 21 ducklings back in 2018. Which reminds me - breed information that claims White Layers are not prone to going broody, I absolutely call bunk on that! My White Layer girls are the moodiest broodiest girls EVER! They're worse than any chicken I've ever had too. And their egg production doesn't seem to drop off much during the winter. So ducks that produce a LOT of eggs and go broody easily and frequently...yup, that's how you end up with 21 ducklings from 3 ducks.
Anyway, in our flock we have White Layers, Khaki Campbells, Rouens and Cayugas. They're all relatively small. I think our largest Cayuga drake weighs just around 5.5 lbs, same with our largest White Layer drakes. On the small side, we have a couple White Layer girls and a Khaki Rouen (beautiful mix) that probably weigh less than 3.5 lbs. We recently divided our fowl yard so we can separate the drakes from the girls to give the girls a break from the hormonal harassment and getting raped to death. I'm also hoping to add some more girls to our flock this year since I know this is supposed to help with the issues of girls getting brutalized by hormonal males. We lost a few girls over the winter so right now we have 9 drakes and 18 girls. I think I've read that a 1:3 ratio is usually the minimum recommendation for "safety". Am I remembering correctly on that? (I would add that before last year we've never had an issue with boys being overly aggressive with girls even when our ratio was as low as 1:1 so I was pretty upset with our boys when they started being aggressive towards the girls. I thought they were just mean like roosters. Some roosters are just mean, they don't care who or what they attack. But I've found that's not the case with drakes. When I spend time with my most hormone crazy drakes away from the ladies, they're as sweet as can be. I haven't even noticed them fighting with each other now that they're separated from the girls. So I know they're not bad boys, they're just...crazy with hormones.)
So if I'm remembering correctly and the lowest safe ratio is 1:3, it looks like I need to add at least 9 more girls to my flock right? I've been considering adding some Runners because all the pictures and videos I've seen of Runners are just so cute. The difference in posture alone makes me giggle every time I see them. But I know Runners are smaller than the breeds I already have and I'm not sure if that would be too risky. We've been letting one or two of our drakes hang out with the girls during the day...I've been amazed at how well the boys behave when there's only two of them! But if I had Runner girls in the flock, would a 4.5-5 lb drake cause serious injury to a female Runner if he tried to mate with her? Or would they probably be okay since most of my female ducks now are also on the small side? I haven't found a female in our flock who weighs more than 4.5 lbs. I can't remember seeing pictures of Runners and other breeds side by side so I'm having a hard time picturing how small a female Runner would be compared to my smallest girls now.
Anyone out there with Runners and "waddlers" living together? If they can live safely together, I'd love to spice things up with some Runners. BUUUT, anyone who gets picked on too much or gets injured ends up moving inside and I don't think my husband will tolerate more ducks moving inside. I started with two indoor ducks, long story, then another moved inside, now we have another inside while she (hopefully) recovers from a leg injury.

 

[M-H-Fielding]

I don't know much about ducks exept that mine are always happy and would hate me if I separated them from their chicken friends.

 

[Bird_whisperer]

This may be a really silly question but I wanted to ask anyway before I set myself up for heartache. We already have a mixed breed flock, most of our ducks are offspring from our original (almost 3 yr old) White Layers. Those 4 White Layers produced 21 ducklings back in 2018. Which reminds me - breed information that claims White Layers are not prone to going broody, I absolutely call bunk on that! My White Layer girls are the moodiest broodiest girls EVER! They're worse than any chicken I've ever had too. And their egg production doesn't seem to drop off much during the winter. So ducks that produce a LOT of eggs and go broody easily and frequently...yup, that's how you end up with 21 ducklings from 3 ducks.
Anyway, in our flock we have White Layers, Khaki Campbells, Rouens and Cayugas. They're all relatively small. I think our largest Cayuga drake weighs just around 5.5 lbs, same with our largest White Layer drakes. On the small side, we have a couple White Layer girls and a Khaki Rouen (beautiful mix) that probably weigh less than 3.5 lbs. We recently divided our fowl yard so we can separate the drakes from the girls to give the girls a break from the hormonal harassment and getting raped to death. I'm also hoping to add some more girls to our flock this year since I know this is supposed to help with the issues of girls getting brutalized by hormonal males. We lost a few girls over the winter so right now we have 9 drakes and 18 girls. I think I've read that a 1:3 ratio is usually the minimum recommendation for "safety". Am I remembering correctly on that? (I would add that before last year we've never had an issue with boys being overly aggressive with girls even when our ratio was as low as 1:1 so I was pretty upset with our boys when they started being aggressive towards the girls. I thought they were just mean like roosters. Some roosters are just mean, they don't care who or what they attack. But I've found that's not the case with drakes. When I spend time with my most hormone crazy drakes away from the ladies, they're as sweet as can be. I haven't even noticed them fighting with each other now that they're separated from the girls. So I know they're not bad boys, they're just...crazy with hormones.)
So if I'm remembering correctly and the lowest safe ratio is 1:3, it looks like I need to add at least 9 more girls to my flock right? I've been considering adding some Runners because all the pictures and videos I've seen of Runners are just so cute. The difference in posture alone makes me giggle every time I see them. But I know Runners are smaller than the breeds I already have and I'm not sure if that would be too risky. We've been letting one or two of our drakes hang out with the girls during the day...I've been amazed at how well the boys behave when there's only two of them! But if I had Runner girls in the flock, would a 4.5-5 lb drake cause serious injury to a female Runner if he tried to mate with her? Or would they probably be okay since most of my female ducks now are also on the small side? I haven't found a female in our flock who weighs more than 4.5 lbs. I can't remember seeing pictures of Runners and other breeds side by side so I'm having a hard time picturing how small a female Runner would be compared to my smallest girls now.
Anyone out there with Runners and "waddlers" living together? If they can live safely together, I'd love to spice things up with some Runners. BUUUT, anyone who gets picked on too much or gets injured ends up moving inside and I don't think my husband will tolerate more ducks moving inside. I started with two indoor ducks, long story, then another moved inside, now we have another inside while she (hopefully) recovers from a leg injury.

Hi there! I am raising a mixed flock of ducks as well. We have a Silver Appleyard drake, a Rouen drake and a Welsh Harlequin drake. Our duck hens are: 3 Rouens, 2 Silver Appleyard, 3 Buff Orpingtons, 2 Fawn and white Runners and 1 Chocolate Runner. Mischief, the Silver Appleyard Drake, is 9 pounds. Drake Ramoray, the Rouen drake is just under 8 pounds. Pickles, our Welsh Harlequin drake was born blind, so he isn't doing any "breeding". The Runner ladies do not have any problem getting their "lovin" from the much larger drakes. Although, we do only have 2 drakes servicing all 11 ladies! I would recommend one drake to every 4-5 females.

Runners should have no problem integrating into your flock. They are so fun to watch tiptoe around! Beware though that they are MUCH smaller than other ducks, so they should be at least half the size of your other ducks before introducing them, so they won't get trampled! When I first introduced my two Silver Appleyard females to the group, they were bullied for awhile as well. I just separated them with a fence until they got used to one another. Then, had them over for a few short "visits". After a short time, they got used to each other. Give that a try! I don't know how you do it with indoor ducks! Good luck with your flock!

 

[AnKryst]

Personally from my experience I would be cautious bringing in a smaller female with a large drake. It may work well for you. My situation is different because I have a small flock with a heavy drake and a mallard.

I started out with an all female flock. It started with my mallard (who had an injury as a baby and only has one wing) and a welsh harlequin. Then last summer I added a Black Swedish and a buff. When they were 4 weeks old my sister found a Black Swedish duckling about 2 weeks old. We decided to keep it and he ended up being a boy. When he reached maturity he started over breeding the Mallard. He became very aggressive with her. I'm not sure if it was because she would run from him or that he couldn't position right because of her missing a wing and size. Regardless she needed to be separated. So now I have two flocks and I had an excuse to get more ducks as companions for the mallard so all in all it worked out for me