Need advice on what to do about a drake bully

[Pyxis]

So, before I totally commit to giving away one or two of my drakes, I thought I'd ask if any of you could give me other options. I have a rouen drake that bullies my littler boys into terror. He actually contributed to the death of one of my younger pekin drakes - that story is in another thread I recently posted while trying to help the pekin. My other drakes were terrified to come down into the yard, and were cowering down under the deck. They wouldn't even return to the duck house to sleep at night, swim, or eat. Right now they're penned in with a new girl and her duckling that I just added to the flock, so the mean boy can't get to them, but it's not fair to them to keep them penned up all the time because my other drake is a bully. The bully gets along great with my larger pekin drake, but will NOT leave the mallard and welshie boys alone. Short of giving my bully drake away or building him his own separate "bachelor" pen with another one of my drakes, is there any way I can get him to knock it off? Or is he going to have to find a new home?

This thread was something else, but I'm going to post it in the buy sell trade forum, since the staff told me it needed to be moved

 

[MarieNC]

I think the addition of the female is only going to make matters worse, quite honestly. If she's the only female and you've got all those boys, the bully will most likely get worse and the other boys may start fighting with each other as well. The timing will depend on their level of sexual maturity. If you didn't have a female it would be reasonable to build a separate bachelor area for your bully and the drake he gets along with, and maybe give them separate time out in the yard from the rest of the flock. But the female complicates matters. I know that drakes will fight between themselves even if the female is physically separated from them. All they have to do is know she is there and hear her quacks. For this reason I had to rehome two of my Pekin drakes not long ago, even though they were in a separate pen from my mated Rouen pair. You may just have to play it by ear. Rehoming the bully would solve the short term problem and you'd have to wait and see if the boys will fight over the female. I

 

[Pyxis]

Thanks, I'll have to see. If I get rid of the bully and the female's duckling turns out to be female, I'd have pairs. If I got rid of both males, then I'd have pairs already. I'm hoping to add a few more girls. The two sweet boys I have love each other and are very non-aggressive. I wish they'd all just get along...