My sweet Khaki Campbell died last night

[Hudsonsgirl]

I happened to look out the window last night and saw my "Brownie" laying on the ground. My two male ducks were on top of her and biting her head. She is a khaki Campbell and "Cookie" one of the males that was on her is too. The other male is a Cayuga and they were all bought at the same time...grew up together.

Anyways, Cookie tends to want to mate all the time and Cayu is always biting Cookie to get off of Brownie. So last night I don't know if they were both trying to mate her and they injured her spine from their weight...or maybe she was already having a problem and they were pecking at her to get up.
I ran outside and scooped her up. Her neck didn't feel broken. Her legs were stiff and straight behind her body. My husband wrapped her loosely in a towel and held her on his lap. Her head wasn't very coordinated and would flop around. She tried to get some umph and would jolt a little like she was trying to get away. But she just couldn't. So I thought she had a spine injury. Her feet were hot to the touch. This went on her about 10 minutes. She quacked a few times and my husband would quack back. She laid her head back on his chest and just passed.

Anyone know what could've happened? She was only 8 months old. What's worse is she had two eggs she had laid about four days ago and was caring for them. I have no incubator. But I do have a heat lamp. I want to try to save her babies...We are so devastated.

 

[SilverBirds]

So sorry for your loss. Sounds like she sustained some sort of injury from the boys trying to mate her. What's your male to female ratio? You might need to look at rehoming one or both of your boys.

 

[CoriM]

That sounds terrible, too bad you couldn't intervene in time. Male to female ratio should be about 1-5. Drakes ganging up can kill a female, and they can be hurt or killed by overmating. It's up to us humans to protect them. If you have ducklings coming, you're likely to have too many drakes and you'll need to figure out how to separate them in order to protect your females.

 

[Jenbirdee]

oh noooo poor brownie im so sorry for your loss.
unfortunately this happens a lot when there aren’t enough females for the drakes … and sometimes even when there are. Drakes tend to gang up. I think it’s best only have one Drake and get at least four females. in my case i have 12 females and zero drakes.
But perhaps you love both of your drakes want to keep them both? that’s OK but if you do decide to get any more ducks, you need to get lots more girls and no more boys. Alternately., you could just get only boys and have an all drake flock.
RIP sweet Brownie. She was a beautiful duck ! I have an eight-year-old khaki Campbell hen who looks just like her. her name is teeny.

 

[Miss Lydia]

Very sorry for your loss. I had 3 Riunner drakes to 16 females and becasue of ganging up I had to keep the 2 youngest separate from the rest of the flock with fencing I was just able to rehome one of the young drakes so now it's 2 drakes to 16 females and I am still watching for ganging up. It's never-ending when you have ducks.

 

[TaylorGlade]

That's terrible . I'm so sorry.

 

[Hudsonsgirl]

oh noooo poor brownie im so sorry for your loss.
unfortunately this happens a lot when there aren’t enough females for the drakes … and sometimes even when there are. Drakes tend to gang up. I think it’s best only have one Drake and get at least four females. in my case i have 12 females and zero drakes.
But perhaps you love both of your drakes want to keep them both? that’s OK but if you do decide to get any more ducks, you need to get lots more girls and no more boys. Alternately., you could just get only boys and have an all drake flock.
RIP sweet Brownie. She was a beautiful duck ! I have an eight-year-old khaki Campbell hen who looks just like her. her name is teeny.

I have three drakes and now just two females. I put Brownie's eggs under my female Mallard and she is now sitting on them along with two of her own.
As of today, the boys are separated, except for my pekin male. He has never tried to mate with my mallard or Brownie. He seems quite happy with his Peking female.
So...off the track a little... My mallard decided today she would sit on eggs. I'm worried that when she leaves the coop to bathe and stretch my Peking duck will check our the nest and trample the eggs. So I'm wondering if I can keep her closed up in the coop for overnight and open it in the morning, see if she comes out and close the door back up for an hour while she takes a nest break..then after an hour I can put her back in until the late afternoon.
I'm worried about the Peking duck, yes..but I'm also worried if she leaves the nest she won't go back to it and the eggs will die.

I feel like such a helicopter duck mom.

 

[Jenbirdee]

I have three drakes and now just two females. I put Brownie's eggs under my female Mallard and she is now sitting on them along with two of her own.
As of today, the boys are separated, except for my pekin male. He has never tried to mate with my mallard or Brownie. He seems quite happy with his Peking female.
So...off the track a little... My mallard decided today she would sit on eggs. I'm worried that when she leaves the coop to bathe and stretch my Peking duck will check our the nest and trample the eggs. So I'm wondering if I can keep her closed up in the coop for overnight and open it in the morning, see if she comes out and close the door back up for an hour while she takes a nest break..then after an hour I can put her back in until the late afternoon.
I'm worried about the Peking duck, yes..but I'm also worried if she leaves the nest she won't go back to it and the eggs will die.

I feel like such a helicopter duck mom.

sounds like you are doing a good job ! i hope she hatches out the eggs for you with zero problems ‍