Pekin monster?

[NewCoops]

Hi all, we have a small flock who all live together in a huge coop and free range area with a small pond. We have 8 chickens, 2 geese and 6 ducks. Everyone is in pairs, ark-style (mostly female though) - my question and concern is that one of our blue swedish ducks (adolescent but fully feathered) recently injured a leg, she has a slight limp (no clue how it happened) and tonight when we went to bring everyone in for bed we found our drake Pekin, also adolescent, attacking the heck out of her. Like a dog, grabbing her by the neck and whipping her around. We have the drake in quarantine now, with the hopes that once our blue swedish heals, he will no longer be aggressive. We are not sure if the drake caused the initial injury. Any thoughts? It was not our intent to have any males but you know how it goes in spring with babies at the country store. Honestly I was a lot more worried about our rooster but he is just the sweetest thing, I am new to all of this but can't help being surprised by an aggressive duck! I love his deep Barry Manilow quack but he's dinner if he can't get along with everyone.

 

[DesertBird]

I'm not at all familiar with ducks, but I've been told they can get a bit aggressive during mating; could he have been trying to mate with her and not really knowing how, or did it seem like he was definitely trying to hurt her?

 

[gal5150]

Duck mating can be absolutely brutal. A drake will grab the back of the neck and if the duck is receptive, they get into "position". If not, the drake will attempt to manipulate the duck into position, pinning the neck and head down, etc. Sounds like attempting to mate, to me.

 

[cyriuskee]

As the other 2 posters said, duck mating is brutal. I would let the drake back into the flock, he was only doing what's natural after all, and quarantine the female so she can truly get some rest. This way she won't be trampled or need to move as much and can heal. I assume you checked for bumble foot or swollen/hot hocks?

 

[chickens really]

If you have too many Drakes?...You need to get rid of a few and only keep one....Drakes will gang up on one Hen and possibly kill her....Set up a Drake pen till most can be found new homes..Poor Hen does not stand a chance against multiple Drakes....

 

[Amiga]

Sigh, ducks...I love mine and sometimes their behavior is baffling. I keep two flocks because our drake will not leave Romy alone, which upsets the rest of the flock.

Drakes can be rough, and ducks sometimes will get aggressive with an injured duck! I would consider using temporary fence to keep her from contact but still in sight of the other ducks while she recovers.