New ducks - everybody upset!

[Katherine W]

Hello all, I am new to the forum, but have been reading posts for a while, since we decided to have ducks a year ago. So I will begin by thanking you all for the loads of information I already got from these forums!
Now we finally got our ducks, the first couple 3 weeks ago, and four new ones last Sunday.
The first couple are a pair of 9 months old Indian Runners. The female was already laying eggs before she came to us, and went on laying without missing a day depite the move. The new ducks are about 3 months old runners, males and females, and also indian runners. So now we have 3 couples. I Know it's a bit tricky to have so many males, bu it is incredibly difficult to get single females in my neck of the woods.

I have two questions:

1 - With the arrival of the new ducks,our first duck stopped laying.
I know this is not unusual with the upheaval of the newcomers, I just would like to know, how long a pause in the egglaying is normal, and when it becomes worrying? I am not in a hurry for the eggs, I just want to be sur she's fine because we are fond of her. I should add that aside from the lack of eggs she seems to be acting normally, eating, swimming, and meeting me at the gate for treats. She is not at all aggressive towards the newcomers, she just looks confused when her drakes leaves her alone to chase them.

2 - The new ducks and drakes had a horrible day of it, on the first day, because our older drake was rather rough. We had decided to fence them off for the next day (they already sleep in separate huts at night), but then the second day was MUCH calmer so I let them stay together. The new little ones seem fine, but depressed... they don't seem to be eating very much. I put food and water in their hut at night, to be sure they can get what they need without being bossed by the older drake, and they eat some but not a lot. They free range a bit in their big big pen (about 25x25m), but mostly they huddle together keeping out of everyone's way. I know they have good reason to be depressed, having been uprooted from their farm where they lived happily with their parents (they really did, I saw the place, it was delightful), I just want to know how long is normal for them to mope, and when I should become really worried. The older drake still chases them around now and then, but there is almost not violent squabbles any more.

I tend to fret a lot, so I am doing my best to give them time to adjust, but I don't want to sit here "giving them time" if they need more help than that!

Sorry for such a long post... as I said, I fret a lot!

K

 

[fyrwife95]

Hello! here is what happened at our house. We got two ducklings at Easter and two more about six weeks later. Besides there names we lovingly call them the bigs and the littles. In an attempt to ease the integration I put the littles in a kennel inside of the coop we built. I thought this would help get them all used to one another. Not so much. Pecking order is pecking order. When I put them all together I felt so bad for the littlest I scooped them right up and took them back to the safety of their inside house. Unfortunately my oldest female hurt her leg and I had to bring her inside to rest and heal. In the meantime I decided to let the Littles have outside time with the other big. At first the big started picking on the two Littles. As I watched them the two little figured out they could stand up together! They all started to get along. After about a week my oldest big girl was ready to go back outside. As soon as she got in the coop she started pecking on the littles. It didn't last long.

My suggestion is to remove the Dom from the flock for just enough time to let the younger ones get used to the flock and build their confidence. When the Dom comes back to the coop it will still be the dominant one but at least the younger ones had time to acclimate and won't just huddle in a corner and give up.

 

[Amiga]

Ducks are individuals - fyrwife95 gave a good report on how it worked for her - shaking up the flock dynamic can have good results.

Be aware that they are all unique - what works for some won't work for all - and I would tend to protect the littles. Some shoving and chasing is okay, but more than that - no, I intervene.

 

[Katherine W]

Thank you very much for your replies!
Yes, I already noticed how the personalities are all different Also our ducks all have names
I spent lots of time with the ducks in the last two days, and made a bit of "parental control" when things threatened to become rough. Yesterday I gave them a big basin of water to dip into, since our older drake will not them stay in HIS swimming pool, at least not for long. I have never seen such happy ducklings. I will get them their own pool as soon as I can.
I am learning strategies day by day.
I will set up a smaller fence in the pen, so if I feel the young ones are not coping, I can isolate the bigs for a while, or at least the drake.
My young ones are already almost as big as the big one (their dad is TALL!) so I hope they will soon realize that they can stand up to him!

 

[Katherine W]

Hello, just thought I'd update about our experience here, in case somebody in the future wonders about the same... today, five days after the new ducks arrived, our original duck layed her first egg again, and the new ones are preceptibly more cheeky and less depressed. We did not separate them from the big ones, and there are still ocasional squabbles but nothing too dramatic I think... they are now eating, foraging and bathing in the swimming pool
Thanks again for your replies, and yes, looks like I was fretting too much!

 

[Amiga]

Glad things are working out!