Problem with Drakes

[brunetms]

Hi,
I am a new duck owner, I have a natural pond in my yard so I recently got a couple of call ducks from a farm, they are a mated pair. The day we brought the ducks home a pair of wild calls decided to make our pond home too.
Our ducks are in a pen next to the pond and we have been letting them out once a day to swim under our supervision, the wild drake is very aggresive with my drake. He chases him out of the pond as soon as I step away, he seems to be going after my hen even though he has a mate. My drake is fighting back and they are very rough with each other. What should I do? I cant pen the wild ducks... Will the drakes sort things out eventually, what is going on here?
Thanks!

 

[chicken Queen]

I have the same problem .I have had 2 drakes on my pond for years . Just put in 3 Muscovy's females and at first all H broke out . now it has calmed down ,but the males will not let the females in the pond. Only once in awhile. There is so much chasing going on . Before the males would chase the chicken and try to mate with them . They seem out of control. Not sure what to do. This happens every spring.

 

[brunetms]

I havent left them alone to sort it out, I feel terrible for my poor little hen, she is so small and innocent. Should I just leave them alone for a day and see what happens? Will the wild drake mate with both females?

 

[jak2002003]

Firstly be careful you ducks can not fly away. Clip their wings!

They are fighting because they are not used to each other. They will eventually sort it out - but the result may not be what you like. The wild drake might steal the female call duck and not let her get near your drake, or one bird might get injured. If the wild drake is chasing your drake out of the lake, that makes him easy prey for predators away from the water.

I think you have several options.

1. Shoot the wild drake and eat him!

2. Keep your ducks penned in for a week or 2, so the wild ones can swim near them and get used to them.

3. Get more ducks from the farm ......lots of females and a couple more drakes.....to form a flock. The flock will defend itself from the wild drake.

I think option 1 will work 100 per cent. Option 2 is the proper think to do, but it still might not work. Option 3 is quite good if you don't mind having more ducks about.

I suspect you will get more wild ducks arriving soon as they will be attracted to your ducks and the food about. I suggest you only feed you ducks in your pen so you won't encourage the wild ones to hang about.

Hope you get some more advise. Let us know what you do.

 

[chicken Queen]

Thanks .. I did think about shooting the call duck . I don't pen mine up they are free on the pond . The 2 males have been with me for yrs. I think it is something new. My husband said the same thing that they will work it out. in the mean time the poor females . I could get more and let them duke it out . Oh well I will give it a week .

 

[brunetms]

Thanks, they were penned for the first week and are not flying away now, they come right up to us and will even follow me around the yard. so cute.
The wild ones were going right up to the pen today so maybe thats an improvement.
I could get a few more hens, how many ducks can I keep in a pond thats about 20ft in diameter? Once they all have babies I am going to have a million ducks!! =)

 

[jak2002003]

You don't have to let them have too many chicks. You can collect and eat the eggs. They are delicious! Also you can sell some if you get too many, and some will get lost to predators too.

I think a small flock of about 6 or 8 will be good. You can get different colours too! You should have mostly females though and only 2 or 3 drake, or they will mate with the ladies too much.

Maybe you can extend the pen to go into the water. Then the ducks can see each other through and wire easily. I am still concerned about them flying away. If they decide to team up with the wild ducks they are very likely to take off one day with them!

 

[brunetms]

Thanks all, today went better my drake attacked the wild drake a couple of times (which is an improvement from the contrary) but things quieted down after a few minutes. The wild hen hung out with my ducks and even went into the pen to steal some food, cute.
I imagine the eagles will grab quite a few of the babies so hopefully there wont be too many. Thanks for the advice on that! I will make sure I keep lots of ladies and only a couple of boys... you they mate with their siblings and parents?!

 

[country_girl011]

they are most likely wild mallards, there are no wild call ducks. and will move on their way.
but i second the idea of a larger flock, there is safety in numbers

 

[brunetms]

What's the difference between wild mallards and call ducks?