KathiQuacks
Crowing
This isn’t really a problem - I’m more confused than anything, and would love some insight.
My drake, Cherry, loves his pond, and I don’t blame him. It’s around 5 / 6 acres worth of water, with tons of mud, pondweed, fish, bugs - a duck’s dream.
He also loves his girls. I got Cherry 2 hens of his own late last year, and they’ve been head-over-heels for each other since. When I first released everyone out of their coop and onto the rest of the property, I saw the gears turn in his head as he made the tough decision between staying with his new girls and running off to the pond - he chose to stay with the girls
Now it’s been around 3.5 months, and everyone is still very lovey-dovey. They’ve had 10 ducklings, and everyone is getting along pretty great. In the morning, my 3 adults get released onto the pond, and a couple times a day, they’ll run up to the coop and wait for me to bring them food.
My confusion is that, recently, my 2 hens will run up for food, and Cherry will stay back at the pond and just.. watch them leave. He knows they left, he knows exactly where they went, but he doesn’t follow them. When they return to the pond, he’ll follow them, but he won’t come up to the coop with them until the evening. Yesterday, he was alone on the pond for 6 hours - I had to go down myself and call him up.
*Some extra backstory - Cherry has been a loner in the past. When I first inherited him, he was living with another drake and 2 hens. Both hens chose the other drake as their partner, so when it came time for breeding season, Cherry would get chased away and be left all alone. A lot has happened since then, and for a few weeks last year, Cherry was my only duck, making him truly alone - This is when I got him the 2 girls.
So, why is this? Is he just not hungry? Used to being alone? The ducklings can be rather loud and hectic, so I wondered if he might like the peace and quiet
I’m very curious! What do y’all think?
My drake, Cherry, loves his pond, and I don’t blame him. It’s around 5 / 6 acres worth of water, with tons of mud, pondweed, fish, bugs - a duck’s dream.
He also loves his girls. I got Cherry 2 hens of his own late last year, and they’ve been head-over-heels for each other since. When I first released everyone out of their coop and onto the rest of the property, I saw the gears turn in his head as he made the tough decision between staying with his new girls and running off to the pond - he chose to stay with the girls
Now it’s been around 3.5 months, and everyone is still very lovey-dovey. They’ve had 10 ducklings, and everyone is getting along pretty great. In the morning, my 3 adults get released onto the pond, and a couple times a day, they’ll run up to the coop and wait for me to bring them food.
My confusion is that, recently, my 2 hens will run up for food, and Cherry will stay back at the pond and just.. watch them leave. He knows they left, he knows exactly where they went, but he doesn’t follow them. When they return to the pond, he’ll follow them, but he won’t come up to the coop with them until the evening. Yesterday, he was alone on the pond for 6 hours - I had to go down myself and call him up.
*Some extra backstory - Cherry has been a loner in the past. When I first inherited him, he was living with another drake and 2 hens. Both hens chose the other drake as their partner, so when it came time for breeding season, Cherry would get chased away and be left all alone. A lot has happened since then, and for a few weeks last year, Cherry was my only duck, making him truly alone - This is when I got him the 2 girls.
So, why is this? Is he just not hungry? Used to being alone? The ducklings can be rather loud and hectic, so I wondered if he might like the peace and quiet
I’m very curious! What do y’all think?
