Pekin duck owners -talk me out of this

[sab]

Pekin duck owners - scenario: I have 5 chickens & 1 Pekin female. They were raised together. The duck thinks she's a chicken. She's about 21/2 yrs old. We have a pond and she won't go in the pond .....because she thinks she's a chicken!

I am doubling my chicken flock this year to 10. Went to farm store to get my biddies and there they were ......biddy little Perkins!

??? - can I add a duck to this situation? Is there anyway to sex that little biddy little duckling?? And will adding a duck give my present duck a sense of "duckness" - will 2 ducks go 'swimming' where 1 duck won't?????

The present flock sleep together, eat together - and actually in the pecking order of things, the duck leads the pack

Help me! Just tell me it won't workso I don't go home with duckling today.

(that darn duck is our favorite!)

Thanks in advance!

 

[Kevin565]

Pekin duck owners - scenario: I have 5 chickens & 1 Pekin female. They were raised together. The duck thinks she's a chicken. She's about 21/2 yrs old. We have a pond and she won't go in the pond .....because she thinks she's a chicken!
I am doubling my chicken flock this year to 10. Went to farm store to get my biddies and there they were ......biddy little Perkins!
??? - can I add a duck to this situation? Is there anyway to sex that little biddy little duckling?? And will adding a duck give my present duck a sense of "duckness" - will 2 ducks go 'swimming' where 1 duck won't?????
The present flock sleep together, eat together - and actually in the pecking order of things, the duck leads the pack
Help me! Just tell me it won't workso I don't go home with duckling today.
(that darn duck is our favorite!)
Thanks in advance!

Yes you can add a duck to this situation. She will most likely over time start to prefer to spend time with another duck rather than your chickens. Also if the new frequently swims in the pond your original duck will most likely pick up on it. The only way to sex ducklings is vent sexing with the exception of certain breeds.

 

[Duckles]

Sorry, IMO it would work just fine. The only thing is the duck would grow way faster than the chicks and be much more messy so it would have to be alone in a brooder most likely, and may not like that so much. Maybe you'll get a little boy and have a pair! Then more ducklings and so on and so forth. Am I helping? haha

 

[DB_Tex]

I'd get one and just wait and see the sex. You can vent sex at the feed store (if they don't mind) but if you're not experienced at it it's really easy to not do it quite right and sex a male as a female!

I thought I was good at vent sexing but I'm in denial.... I know my straight runs last year turned out to be girls like I predicted... but this year I ordered 10 geese and 3 ducks straight run.... there's just no way I'm lucky enough to get a batch of 13 birds on "hatchery special" and only have 3 males...

Your pekin girl doesn't know what she is because she's never seen a duck before!! Once she has a friend she'll figure out that she doesn't speak chicken, she speaks duck!

Have you ever tried giving her a bath in the house bathtub? that could be a fun way to teach her to swim!

 

[jynxster]

On Metzger Farms home page he has a link there of a video how to sex link ducks I completely thisk this was the best video ever, check it out

 

[Sean S.]

Get the new duck or duckies, with the chickens. Just give them some nice warm water baths while their growing up. It may help draw them to the water more when they get outside. Eventually I bet the head chicken/duck will follow!