Question about raising/breeding ducks

[KLH2010]

If you keep pairs of multiple breeds of ducks in the same area how will that work out in terms of breeding? Will they stay paired off or will the dominant male breed several or all of the females? I am new to ducks and I have been wondering about this.

 

[SundownWaterfowl]

If you have a different breeds of ducks in the same pen, they will mate with eachother, giving you mixed breed ducklings. They dont stay with their own breed.

 

[greyfields]

Ducks aren't aware of breeds. The males will breed all the females, regardless of breed and in many cases species.

So you must separate if you want purebreds.

I have this issue every year with my geese.

The Roman Tufted females have a crush on an Embden male. My Pilgrim male loves the Embden girls. And my Roman Tufted male, as far as I can tell, hardly gets to mate anyone because he's so small. My 3 month old Embdens are bigger than him already and I do feel a little sorry for him.

Everytime I try to separate, though, they make such a loud comotion that I end up relenting and letting the flocks mix back together.

 

[KLH2010]

Thanks for the info...that's what I figured but just wanted to be sure. I just got a pair of saxony ducks from a guy and he told me that the saxonys tend to pair off and the males often will only mate with their mate. I wasn't sure whether or not this was true...I know it's not for other breeds.

 

[greyfields]

I don't think that's true of Saxony's or any other duck.

My male tend to have a hierarchy of who gets to mate first, then the next drake jumps on for seconds. They don't seem to "pair off" except in the sense that every drake tries to mate every duck at every chance.