Rouen Duck thread

[cherylr21]

Hi, Im a first timer to this site and have a few questions, Im a newbie with ducks, I bought 4 ducklings from our hatchery on May 20 2016 they said they were 2 days old, 2 Mallards and 2 Rouen's and each breed is a pair (boy and girl I wanted all boys) so they are about 5 1/2 months and the last week or longer the male Mallard has been chasing the male Rouen away from the girls I didn't see any actual breeding till yesterday but I have noticed some feathers missing on the girls heads and part of the neck for about a week, I know they may have done their business without me seeing it, yesterday I found 1 eggs in the coop its kind of a greenish/gray I think maybe Rouen egg? So the questions are... would they breed in fall, would the eggs be viable, would my Mallard breed with the Rouen? He seems to be mating with both the girls. I did take the sassy boy away from the others, is that a good idea?

Thank you to anyone that can help me out!

 

[Amiga]

Drakes will overdo it with ducks. Sometimes to the point of injury or death. So we need to keep all flock members safe. This can be done by separating them.

Each flock is unique so you need to watch closely and consider splitting them up, rehoming at least one drake, or getting more females.

 

[RouenBud]

this pic is one of my favs of when they were little. He fell asleep in like 3 minutes! The other followed me around like I had her favorite food or toy lol

 

[cherylr21]

Well heres an update, I have figured out who's laying the eggs its the Rouen and I now have 6 eggs

I wasn't expecting any, thanks to the hatchery for the opps. I have decided to try and incubate them, can't hurt seeing I know they wont survive in the coop or even the barn in the winter (our barn has a room thats all insulated and I put my kitties in when its too cold) Ive been researching home made incubators I don't want to spend the money if these eggs are duds. I did make one 2 years ago and it was doing really well till just before hatch, I had 1 pip, didn't finish and the others were fully developed but never hatched I guess I'll try again. Any thoughts anyone? Right now I have 2 in a room that stays about 65 ish the others Ive left in the coop to see if mom will sit on them, she hasn't yet and hasn't laid any for 2 days. I'm hoping to bring them all in today. Any advise for the newbie??

 

[cherylr21]

RouenBud how adorable!!

 

[farmgirl728]

Hi,all! Have spent the past two hours reading your posts and enjoying your pictures. This is our second year of raising chickens and ducks here in NW Indiana. Last year we bought four straight run Rouens from our local feed store. Odds were we'd get two males and two females but I'm not known to be lucky so we ended up with 1 female and 3 males. They all lived peacefully together. Female started laying an egg a day in November when they turned 7 months old and continued to do so until something got into their coop in February and killed all four of them. We rebuilt our coop and reinforced it like Fort Knox. Back to the feed store in April and came home with 4 two day old Rouen ducklings (straight run) and two Maren female chicks. We put them all in together from day one and our chicks became Chicks but everyone got along well. As I said,I'm not real lucky so this time all of our ducklings have grown into beautiful drake Rouens. All have tufts on the crowns of their heads. A few weeks ago, we moved the Chucks into a chicken coop so that they would have a nesting box and all would have more room. It's funny because when we let everyone (we have 20 mixed flock chicken hens, 2 roosters--a little surprise in our ordered 15 Mc Murray's choice layers-and 10 Runners) out to free range, the Rouens always find the Chucks and they check out each other's new digs before going back in at night.
After all of that, I could really use some advice about our Rouen boys. In the past few days they have begun picking on one their own. It was pretty hard to watch so we removed the one who was being picked on and put him in with the Chucks. Now two of the three Rouens are picking on another one. When they were out to forage and swim today they attacked one another randomly although they don't seem to be hurting one another. Is this normal "teenage boy" behavior in drakes that don't have a female? Should I try to rehome them or what? Any suggestions or words of wisdom based on your experience with ducks would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

 

[cherylr21]

Hi, Farmgirl Im new to the duck world also, I have a pair of Rouens (1 boy 1 girl) and a pair of Mallards a few weeks ago I had the same issue but it was my drake Mallard picking on the drake Rouen which is funny because the Rouen is twice the size of the Mallard lol from reading here the drakes pick their mates this time of year for breeding in the spring, it still really doesn't explain eggs in the fall, Im kind of thinking mine are practicing, any way about a week later (maybe a bit longer) I started getting eggs. The Rouen was laying them and the Mallard was the one doing the mating. She laid 1 egg a day till last week then didn't lay any more till this morning, one more. I finally brought them all in and Im getting them ready for the incubator. I did NOT want any eggs and didn't expect any seeing its fall here the temps are starting to drop into the mid 40's at night which is why their inside now. When she is laying the eggs she pushes all the eggs to the outer edges of the nest and the middle has no bedding in it, I don't know what that means from what I've read she should be keeping them all snug and kind of covering them with feathers. I am new to incubating too so I guess I'll be learning as it go.

 

[Jacob Duckman]

My Rouens have always been my favorite. They are beautiful birds and great protectors. They can spot hawks and eagles thousands of feet* away. Their large size protects them from smaller predators and the drakes (in my experience) are extremely aggressive and protective of their flocks. My 8lb Rouen in the barn picture has charged stray cats in the neighborhood and sent them running.

The photos are of my Rouen drake when he was a duckling (he had mostly yellow coloration with some black)

The same Rouen now a beautiful Drake with his crested mate:

The bottom two rows are their eggs:


RouenxCrested duckling is born and interestingly enough has very nice mallard duckling coloration:


same duckling 2 weeks later:

 

[cherylr21]

Jacob, you've incubated before, any advise for me? Your duck, she has a little fluff on top her head? Mine does too, just a little mabe the size of a quarter, the hatchery I got her from said they were Rouens, so is she crossed with something? My ducklings looked just like yours with the black strips on the face.

 

[Jacob Duckman]

It's very possible that your duck is a mix of breeds. I have ran into a whole lot of ducks like that. Keep in mind that whenever you're dealing with one parent being a crested duck (fluffy thing on head), the hatch rate will fall down to about 40% due to the genetic anomaly they have. A pair of two crested ducks generally won't produce any viable eggs at all.

egg hatching is fun and addicting. The ducklings all have their own looks and personalities. Whatever you do, don't over-worry. survival rates for ducklings in the wild is about 10%, so these ones are lucky to have ended up in your hands. You'll get better with every batch. good luck