Need help picking a special Drake for a special hen

[Lizardbird8]

We have a Pekin hen who is imprinted to me. I tried to mix her with the other Pekins and at first she hated the drake. He would mess with her and then he would get beaten up and chased around the coop. Eventually she liked him but when he mates with her he hurts her and cuts her badly. I can't let her be over with the drake so she looks sadly over at the ducks but I can't let her over because then she gets a giant bleeding cuts on her side . The only solution I've come up with is to get a small gentle drake just for her. I would like it to be a handsome drake too with a green shiny head. Also this is Drake needs to not get bullied by chickens.
Any recommendations on breed for a good little drake?

 

[Birdie mom]

I don't know much about ducks but I think @Isaac 0 knows a lot about them.

 

[Birdie mom]

And welcome to the BYC!!!

 

[SolarDuck]

Maybe a call duck drake? It would definitely be small enough that it couldn't hurt her. And they come in all kinds of colors.

 

[Isaac 0]

We have a Pekin hen who is imprinted to me. I tried to mix her with the other Pekins and at first she hated the drake. He would mess with her and then he would get beaten up and chased around the coop. Eventually she liked him but when he mates with her he hurts her and cuts her badly. I can't let her be over with the drake so she looks sadly over at the ducks but I can't let her over because then she gets a giant bleeding cuts on her side . The only solution I've come up with is to get a small gentle drake just for her. I would like it to be a handsome drake too with a green shiny head. Also this is Drake needs to not get bullied by chickens.
Any recommendations on breed for a good little drake?

It would be helpful to know your ratio of males, to females, as well as some pictures of what the birds are being housed in, during the day, and night. A small enclosure, with too many males, is suggested for someone who wants's a chaotic flock.

Maybe a call duck drake? It would definitely be small enough that it couldn't hurt her. And they come in all kinds of colors.

It seems as if a Call drake wouldn't be able to do much of anything to a larger-sized duck, but sadly that is not the case. Retaining more of their wild ancestors, call drakes can inflict a good bit of damage to larger-sized ducks.

 

[chickengirl1278]

Does it matter to you if the drake is a "leader" or a "lover?" I pretty much always recommend Indian Runner ducks. They are skittish (perfect defense against predators - we have never lost an adult runner duck to a predator, and we have tons of hawks), they are flightless, so no worries about them getting out or running away, they walk like penguins, AND they are gentle. The "leaders" of the runner duck drakes tend to be a bit more aggressive with mating (we had a "leader" who wore a bald patch in one of our ducks because of this but we have never had any serious injuries happen) while the "lovers" are much more gentle. Most runner duck drakes are "lovers." Runners come in TONS of varieties so you could get a black one, they have shiny green heads.

 

[ThinMintTheChicken]

We have a Cayuga drake named Po and he's gentle with our duck hens. He's not obsessed with mating and Cayuga drakes do have green shiny heads. So maybe you could look into them

 

[ThinMintTheChicken]

They're also very pretty and protect the hens without being aggresive

 

[KaleIAm]

Do you need her to have a drake at all? I have an all female flock and I feel that they are very happy together.

They still, "mate," but are significantly more gentle than videos I see of drakes. For example, my girls always ask permission and wait to receive permission. But I have heard of drakes being, "perfect gentlemen," regardless of breed. It seems to be an individual thing.

If you do need her to have a drake, an older drake might mate with her less agressively. I don't know if this is true for drakes, but my female ducks mate much less now that they are older. For the first 3 years they mated many times daily. Now that they are almost 6 and 7 they only mate 1-3 times a day.

My pekin wants to mate the most of any of my ducks breeds, but I only have one pekin so it could just be her. I have spoken with some members here who have told me their mallard drakes are less aggressive when it comes to mating.

Since it seems to be so individual the way to know more confidently is to either give her a female friend, or a drake whose history you know. Where I live there are quite a few barnyard rescues and shelters. They will likely give an honest description of a drake's personally. Maybe you have those where you live, too? I found them on Petfinder.

 

[SolarDuck]

I would definitely agree that it depends more on the individual drake than the breed. You just need to find her a nice respectful guy.