Murderous or just curious?

[refarmer chick]

I have a male and female emu - 9 weeks old. I got them at 1 week. Made sure to spend lots of time with them and socialized them with the other animals here on my farm. They've always been kept in the same paddock as my Pekings and Sebastopols and everyone's always gotten along. Today, I walked out to find them standing over my favorite duck, he was already dead - his beak shredded and bloody and the tip of a wing bloodied up. I separated them and put them in a stall by themselves. Any idea what could have set them off? Was it curiosity? I watched them after I removed the dead duck acting, what seemed like, Velociraptors - kinda hunting the other ducks as a team.....

Anyone in Florida want a 9 week old male/female pair? Seriously - they need to go.

 

[chickenzoo]

Humm. They are still pretty young. I don't leave any of them unattended with the animals until I'm sure they know that the ducks are not toys. Mine that I hatched in Dec have been raised with three crested Perkins since the Perkins were big enough. The one emu has pecked some blood feathers on the Perkins one wing.... They are very curious and will peck at things. They also get excited and will chase critters and stomp them...my adults still get a bug up their rear and when excited love to chase a duck or goose, the ducks and geese have a lot of space to scoot under a gate etc to get away.. But for the most part they are fine together. Sometimes the emu just get excited and run slap over a duck.... Not meaning to but emu dont move out of the way when running. I would seperate them and only allow them one at a time to be out with other fowl supervised until they get better with them. Mine don't bother the chickens, some of my roosters go after them, my Tom turkeys chase them all over the property.... Just the ducks and geese are very animated and excites them for some reason. My swans will hiss at them, so they don't get bothered either....

 

[Irine]

I got mine as adults and they just hate any birds that cross their turf. Be it chicken, Geese or what not. They would chase them and try to squash them. Unfortunately I have had babies before, but do feel sorry for the duck and for the babies that need new home. I am thinking they where curious or maybe being territorial even at this young age. Maybe your other fowl where bossing them around?

 

[refarmer chick]

The ducks were the same age as the emus and they were always housed together. They've always gotten along. The duck they killed was the biggest of the bunch and always played the guardian of the other ducks. Might just be the bright orange beaks were too tempting to not peck? Not even sure how the duck died. Maybe he had a heart-attack form them harrassing him?

 

[Irine]

I never had ducks, but did have Geese, those Guys would harass a grown male