wildsilence
In the Brooder
- Oct 13, 2024
- 10
- 14
- 31
Hi everyone!
I’ve been reading this forum for the best part of a year and have taken some great advice from it for us as new duck owners!
We’re in the UK and have had two ducks for the past 7 months, a female mallard and a Khaki Campbell (we think he’s crossed with something else) drake.
They have been inseparable since they met at 6 weeks old and of course we didn’t know what sex they were going to be. They’re now 7 months and unfortunately our drake has started to mate with our girl. As duck owners will know it’s pretty shocking to witness the first time you see it! He’s doing it a lot and we’re scared he might hurt or drown her as he does it in the pool a lot and her head is held under water. We always stop him if we catch it.
So as she’s smaller than him we knew right away we needed more girls, so we now have two Muscovy females who have been living in the pen next door for the past two weeks. They’ve all been able to see each other but not interact.
We’ve been extending the pen to give the 4 of them around 100sq ft of space and built them a nice big 16sq ft house.
Today we tried to put them together for the first time in the new extended pen but our Mallard girl just went absolutely crazy on them. Really aggressive. Chasing them and sitting on them and pecking at them. The two Muscovies are terrified.
We currently have them fenced off from each other in the same pen, but the Muscovies are too scared to even come out the house, they’ve been in there all day (with food and water).
Could anyone advise… when our old ducks attack the new ducks should we intervene and “tell them off” each time? Or should we let them fight it out? It’s pretty aggressive.
We are going away on Friday for a week and our neighbours will be looking after them twice a day for us. But I’m really worried about it. I don’t know if we should keep the new girls separate while we’re away or keep the drake separate (though this would distress our mallard) or leave them all together.
I don’t even know if we should be considering rehoming him for her safety. They’re so attached but he’s a danger to her health/life and it’s not even mating season so I can only see it getting worse.
Any advice much appreciated!
I’ve been reading this forum for the best part of a year and have taken some great advice from it for us as new duck owners!
We’re in the UK and have had two ducks for the past 7 months, a female mallard and a Khaki Campbell (we think he’s crossed with something else) drake.
They have been inseparable since they met at 6 weeks old and of course we didn’t know what sex they were going to be. They’re now 7 months and unfortunately our drake has started to mate with our girl. As duck owners will know it’s pretty shocking to witness the first time you see it! He’s doing it a lot and we’re scared he might hurt or drown her as he does it in the pool a lot and her head is held under water. We always stop him if we catch it.
So as she’s smaller than him we knew right away we needed more girls, so we now have two Muscovy females who have been living in the pen next door for the past two weeks. They’ve all been able to see each other but not interact.
We’ve been extending the pen to give the 4 of them around 100sq ft of space and built them a nice big 16sq ft house.
Today we tried to put them together for the first time in the new extended pen but our Mallard girl just went absolutely crazy on them. Really aggressive. Chasing them and sitting on them and pecking at them. The two Muscovies are terrified.
We currently have them fenced off from each other in the same pen, but the Muscovies are too scared to even come out the house, they’ve been in there all day (with food and water).
Could anyone advise… when our old ducks attack the new ducks should we intervene and “tell them off” each time? Or should we let them fight it out? It’s pretty aggressive.
We are going away on Friday for a week and our neighbours will be looking after them twice a day for us. But I’m really worried about it. I don’t know if we should keep the new girls separate while we’re away or keep the drake separate (though this would distress our mallard) or leave them all together.
I don’t even know if we should be considering rehoming him for her safety. They’re so attached but he’s a danger to her health/life and it’s not even mating season so I can only see it getting worse.
Any advice much appreciated!
