Now what?

[mrsfriesen]

Hello there all!

So, I'm a relatively new duck owner, having bought four Campbells (one drake and three ladies) about a month ago. This past week we doubled the flock when we saw the same mix of Welsh Harlequins up for sale. Based on what I've read here, we have sectioned off part of our pen for the new ducks, so the two groups are able to see each other all day but are separated by chicken wire. At night they are in separate halves of their duckhouse, with mesh and a board up in between; they can't see each other but I imagine they talk amongst themselves a fair bit. My husband's going away this weekend and I'm nervous about dealing with a crisis on my own, so we were planning to wait until Monday or thereabouts to take down the partition in the pen and see how we do.

Unfortunately, our brutish new Harlequin drake is not treating his harem well. Two of the three lovely girls have little balding strips on the back of their heads now. I know too well what this means; we had this problem with our Campbell drake before he started to molt. I want to separate them but I'm wondering: would it be okay to put the new girls in with the original flock, with their drake still plainly in sight?

Please guide me!

 

[Deleted member 94844]

The balding strips on the back of the girls heads are likely from mating... not sure why the drake had a bald spot, maybe someone was biting at him? In terms of integrating the two flocks I defer to someone who has more experience with these two breeds... In terms of the girls necks, if it is raw and bleeding I would treat with a safe topical antibiotic or medicinal honey and isolate them until they heal up a bit... In my house we call it the "SVU"

 

[mrsfriesen]

Thanks! The drake doesn't have any bald strip on his head; just a couple of his girls do, and I figured it was from mating. I haven't seen any blood, just a glimpse of pink skin that I really don't want to see. Should I separate them from the drake immediately? If I had more space or was good at building things like my husband is, I'd just put up a separate small pen for the WH drake and leave the WH ducks and the Campbells in their respective spaces too. I guess this is a matter of priority: is it more important to separate the randy WH drake from his battered women for their protection, or to have a slow transition for the WH ducks into the Campbell flock?

 

[Deleted member 94844]

Thought you said the Campbell drake had a bald spot... I do worry about putting the girls in with the others without the drake as it could disrupt the social dynamic. Maybe the Campbell drake will think they are his, or something. So long as the girls aren't raw and bleeding they'll be OK. Losing some feathers is totally normal. I'd put them all in together at first and then separate BOTH drakes if the mating gets too crazy. You already have a partition. That's what I would do, at least.