New Duck being picked on

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BelValleyDaisy

BelValleyDaisy

Songster
Oct 10, 2015
109
23
116
UK
hi i seem to be having a problem with my 3 ducks. Bel is a male rouhen clair who has been raised from 1 day old, Valley is a female rouhen clair who has been raised from 2 days. They have been brought up together and are a bonded pair. 2 weeks ago we thought we might get another female because everyone says you should have 2-3 ducks per drake. Anyway so along comes Daisy, an indian runner duck who is 4 months just like them. They were a perfect trio. Bel accepted her, they were both his girls and Valley was her friend. Only now there seems to be a problem. Please comment with any ideas. They are both bullying Daisy, but they all got along so well before so i dont understand? it looks like Bel is going to mount her but then he seems to go for her eyes and she is quite thin and needs fattening up and he bites her head. Both Bel and Valley keep ripping out her feathers and EATING them. I don't understand what happened. i can't bear to give Daisy away but at the moment it looks like thats how it is going to be. Please help me with any ideas you have. As she wasn't tamed before she is still scared of humans so we can't help comfort her because it just freaks her out. they bully her but she still wants to be with them.
 
well it could be that the male is trying to be dominant and mate with her but also they could be establishing a pecking order have you seen daisy ever go after one of them obviously your not there 24/7 and then maybe the female is jealous over daisy because of the male ll signs of being dominant if it continues for another week try to go in the pen and t they dont pick on her do this for 30 mins each day for 1 to 2 weeks
 
Hi,
The thing is i spend about half of my day every day in their coop spending time, cuddling, photographing, watching them. Daisy has never gone after any of them she just wants to be friends and follows them everywhere. They were friends for 2 weeks and now its gone all weird. He did mate with her for the past 2 weeks but now he looks like he is trying to mount her but then he goes for her eyes instead and rips out her side feathers so its as if he is just trying to be nasty. i do feel the female (Valley) is trying to show her dominance a bit but i'm just worried about her. Theyre so nasty to her all of a sudden. They don't seem to care whether i am there or not either.
@Farmerben308
 
Hi!
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Welcome to BYC!
I'm sorry you are having trouble! If you'll copy paste this post into the emergencies and disease thread, there are knowledgeable folks that check that thread often. Here's that link. https://www.backyardchickens.com/f/10/emergencies-diseases-injuries-and-cures
You might also post on the duck thread. Here's that link. https://www.backyardchickens.com/f/42/ducks

Best of luck to you and we're glad you joined us!
 
ok so i don't really now why the only thing i can think of is pecking order or dominance . they also could be just being mean the solution when they do it to her gentle hit them and make sure you do it every time they bully her do it consistently for 2 weeks and see if that works
 
I think the best thing to do is post on the "Duck thread," people there have probably seen it all and figured out how to handle it. I would say to try the look but don't touch method used for chickens. This is where you partition off part of run and coop so Daisy can be on one side and the two on the other side. They can watch her all day long and she can feel she isn't along BUT, they can't attack her.

I don't know if this approach would be feasible because I don't think ducks have a run, I'm assuming the free range.
 
Hi,
Thankyou. I think Bel the drake is the problem and i can't seperate Daisy from them because she goes crazy but thanks anyway. Bel might have to go
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