My drake is mating with my chicken hen

[lexiredhead]

If I get two female ducks will they leave the chickens alone?

 

[jtn42248]

If I get two female ducks will they leave the chickens alone?

It all depends on how much space they have. I have some ducks in with my chickens and they do fine but I have a very large area for them. BUT, that is not the problem here. You have two drakes. If you get only two females you will have two drakes that are trying to kill one another over the two females. That is why I suggested at least 4 females for each drake. Also, just because you get female ducks it does not mean the drakes will stop trying to mate your hens. You probably need to find a way to keep your ducks (old and new) apart from your chickens or consider rehoming your drakes.

 

[lexiredhead]

Oh ok thank you. Just one more question-sorry- could I sell my drakes and get females or sell all the ducks and get a goose(female)

 

[lexiredhead]

Or just get quineas?

 

[howfunkyisurchicken]

Getting rid of the drakes is a good idea, in general. Geese can also be very territorial, so you may end up with a problem there as well. And, my guineas can be aggressive at times too. They live in my turkey coop since they tend to bully my chickens (even though they have a very large coop and run).
You'll run into less issues if you have females (and even keep one drake with them). Good luck.

 

[lexiredhead]

What would you recommend?

 

[howfunkyisurchicken]

I would recommend getting rid of at least one drake and adding at least 4 hens to keep the other company. If you can't handle adding that many birds, then get rid of them both and keep what you've got.
You'll also need to consider, that if you add hens, its going to upset the pecking order and cause a ruckus in your coop for a bit. Base your decision on what you're willing to deal with. There are lots of options here, depending on what you want to put up with.
How much space do you have? I don't see where that's been discussed yet. If your coop space is limited, adding more birds is not going to be the answer. In fact, it'll likely do more harm than good...

Good luck.

 

[lexiredhead]

I have a decently big coop - I think I am going to get rid of one. And add four

 

[egg xactly]

Definitely don't get guineas. I raised 8 little darlings with the chickens and all was fine for the summer. Even got some yummy G eggs in the nest but by fall they became very aggressive and started attacking the hens. Lost one still trying to doctor one. And they have a large coop yard and free range a lot. Also have 4 ducks but the stick together and so far haven't bothered anything but will keep watching and will rehome if needed.

 

[egg xactly]

Oops just told my hubby about the drake issue here and he said he saw several of our trying to mate the hens. So it's going to be time to weed out the ducks And we did have 2 hens die for no real reason recently. Humm how do y tell if it's a male duck other than catching them in the act. ?