- May 1, 2010
- 4
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Hi-
We've had ducks for two years now, but this is our first year where the mother successfully sat and hatched ducklings. They spent the winter in a 10x10 shed, totally snug and happy, well-fed and watered. The mother laid 15 eggs starting in early February, but we only had three successfully hatch. From the day they hatched, the drake has been separated, because he was getting very rough with them. They're fully feathered now, roughly 6 weeks old, and we figured perfectly ready to go out for the season.
Now we come to today, "launching day." Every winter, the ducks stay in the shed, and during the spring/summer/fall, they live in our 20x40' pond. It's both spring- and creek-fed, and there are areas in the pond where they can sleep at night and be safe from predators. When we start seeing skim ice in the pond in the late fall, inside they go, until late April, early May, when they move back outside.
Here's our problem. We herded them all out to the pond this morning, and they had a grand old time splashing around. The father drake again started with some mounting behavior, which we figured was a pecking-order thing, and that maybe it would sort itself out in a few hours.
Well, it hasn't, really. And because the pond is large and unfenced, the hen and the younger ones are running away from the drake, and into the creek. At other times, he chases them out of the pond and doesn't seem to want to let them back in until he finds something else to divert his attention.
I'm fairly willing to fence in the whole pond, but it's fairly late in the day and that's an untenable solution right now. The ducks are all dying to not be in that house anymore, and we really want them to be out where they (well, the two parents) had previously been completely happy, not quite wild but not quite pets. We've previously attempted to put houses out by the pond, and they've totally ignored them.
What is our best option here? Do we:
1) Put the father in the duckhouse for tonight (or nightly) and leave the others out in the pond, where they're otherwise very happy?
2) Put them all in, re-separating the father, and acclimate them slowly? If so, how long a process is this?
3) Leave them, and maybe this dominance behavior will subside at dusk, and resume in the morning?
I realize that most of the members here seem to have ducks in houses with pens and pools. We have no problem with that, but we very much want our guys to be as independent as possible....we have 3 acres and they have a lot of land and water to roam, and a safe place to sleep within the bounds of the pond at night. They're pretty cautious and stay fairly close to the pond at all times. We feed them some adult duck feed during the day to supplement all the bugs/worms/whatever they find in their travels. We prefer not to keep them cooped up for too long if at all possible, but will do so if it means that this dominant behavior means one or more of them falling victim to a fox, which otherwise wouldn't happen if the drake could realize that the others all see him as the top duck.
We've had ducks for two years now, but this is our first year where the mother successfully sat and hatched ducklings. They spent the winter in a 10x10 shed, totally snug and happy, well-fed and watered. The mother laid 15 eggs starting in early February, but we only had three successfully hatch. From the day they hatched, the drake has been separated, because he was getting very rough with them. They're fully feathered now, roughly 6 weeks old, and we figured perfectly ready to go out for the season.
Now we come to today, "launching day." Every winter, the ducks stay in the shed, and during the spring/summer/fall, they live in our 20x40' pond. It's both spring- and creek-fed, and there are areas in the pond where they can sleep at night and be safe from predators. When we start seeing skim ice in the pond in the late fall, inside they go, until late April, early May, when they move back outside.
Here's our problem. We herded them all out to the pond this morning, and they had a grand old time splashing around. The father drake again started with some mounting behavior, which we figured was a pecking-order thing, and that maybe it would sort itself out in a few hours.
Well, it hasn't, really. And because the pond is large and unfenced, the hen and the younger ones are running away from the drake, and into the creek. At other times, he chases them out of the pond and doesn't seem to want to let them back in until he finds something else to divert his attention.
I'm fairly willing to fence in the whole pond, but it's fairly late in the day and that's an untenable solution right now. The ducks are all dying to not be in that house anymore, and we really want them to be out where they (well, the two parents) had previously been completely happy, not quite wild but not quite pets. We've previously attempted to put houses out by the pond, and they've totally ignored them.
What is our best option here? Do we:
1) Put the father in the duckhouse for tonight (or nightly) and leave the others out in the pond, where they're otherwise very happy?
2) Put them all in, re-separating the father, and acclimate them slowly? If so, how long a process is this?
3) Leave them, and maybe this dominance behavior will subside at dusk, and resume in the morning?
I realize that most of the members here seem to have ducks in houses with pens and pools. We have no problem with that, but we very much want our guys to be as independent as possible....we have 3 acres and they have a lot of land and water to roam, and a safe place to sleep within the bounds of the pond at night. They're pretty cautious and stay fairly close to the pond at all times. We feed them some adult duck feed during the day to supplement all the bugs/worms/whatever they find in their travels. We prefer not to keep them cooped up for too long if at all possible, but will do so if it means that this dominant behavior means one or more of them falling victim to a fox, which otherwise wouldn't happen if the drake could realize that the others all see him as the top duck.
