Hello everyone I am at my wits end lol my two beautiful roosters keep attacking my poor female ducks so much that the ducks dont come to the yard anymore. Every time I call my ducks to the yard to eat both roosters single out the slowest duck and just attack her in a mating way. I feel so bad for my ducks they have barely been eating and the male ducks are just as afraid as the females. I also just noticed today that some of my chickens are beginning to act aggressively toward my ducks as well and not letting them eat. Its really beginning to grind my gears. The roosters have never shown aggression toward me but can roosters be selectively aggressive? I read that the roosters can not hurt the ducks because they have no male parts but im more concerned about my ducks not being able to eat. A personal private duck coop is in the makings but im not sure what to do about my roosters? They dont really have any purpose other than to fertilize the eggs for the spring but im not sure if I want chicks yet. I had another rooster from the same flock that was doing the same thing to my ducks and I sold him hoping the habit would stop there and it seems it has not. I am very open to suggestions I just need to stop these attacks on my poor ducks. P.S I free range both my chickens and ducks.
Time to put the roosters in time out. They may not like it, but it doesn't have to be a cold, dark prison. A place that is safe, warm enough, with plenty of fresh water and food, and no way to attack the ducks. The ducks are under your care and they need you to protect them.
We used to let our chickens and ducks be together and it worked for a while, but then we had a rooster that started attacking the ducks too and once he did, the hens followed his lead and did it too. I was afraid he would kill them. It first began with him chasing them and trying to mate some, but it progressed into him flogging them rather violently in the back and head. We did have problems with the chickens pecking the ducks in the eyes and had to treat that problem more than once. We finally had to separate the chickens and ducks and the ducks are much happier now. I don't want you to get to the point we were at though. Is there a way for you to only let the chickens in a certain part of the yard... or somehow keep the problem roosters in a separate area from the ducks?
P.S. Our rooster got so bad, we did have to put him down once he began attacking me. He turned into a major problem foe us. The other chickens are much calmer now. Hopefully, yours doesn't get to this point. I'm not trying to scare you, but Im trying to let you know that the sooner something is done to stop the behavior, the better off everyone will be.
