Runner drake with my chickens?

[Pezcork]

I've recently gotten into chickens. My wife wanted some ducks so when I bought the chickens, I bought two ducks as well.

Well, here we are 6 weeks later, and both ducks are runners, one is definitely a girl, but the other is still peeping, and is slightly larger than the girl duck. The peeping seems to be getting deeper, like a boys voice changing but this could be my imagination.

Questions:

1) is this a pretty good indication that this is a drake, or should I hold out hope that it's a duck?

2) my ducks and chickens have been raised together since day one, and seem to be quite attached to one another. I've ready that this can be dangerous with a drake because he will mount the chickens and harm them. Is this true? If so, what are the chances?

3) if it is a drake, and it is dangerous for my hens, will my sweet girl duck be heartbroken without her life partner? Since she's spent her life with the hens, will they count as company for her or will she just be sad and lonely? At this point I'm worried that the hens would hate losing both ducks. If they get separated they start making the "I'm lost" calls looking for the ducks. It will be a sad day either way.

Any advice is appreciated. Thanks.

 

[sourland]

Well it all depends upon the drake. Not all drakes are sexually attracted to chicken hens, but those that are can cause serious problems. If he is indeed a drake and starts pestering the hens, you can get him a new home and assess how the duck hen is doing without him. Hopefully both are ducks - no drakes.

 

[Duck Drover]

I sell straight run ducklings in groups of four so statistically there will be two hens and two drakes and none should be alone if the buyer does not want both genders. If you end up rehoming one of your two ducks (generic ducks, not hen ducks in this context) they will both be heartbroken.

You may be better off separating your ducks from your chickens since they were raised together with them. As long as drakes know they are ducks (again in the general meaning not gender specific) and not chickens, they are not as likely to try breeding your chicken hens but it could happen if your hen duck were to become unavailable while sitting on a nest or your drake wants more than one hen to breed.

Unfortunately you may not witness his first attempt to breed with a chicken hen because it can be fatal to the chicken hen and there may be no evidence of what killed her. If you were to watch a video on the duck penis, you will understand just how explosive a drake's oversized penis is in a fraction of a second. Duck hens can take it but a chicken hen can not.

With voice sexing ducks, the hen will quack like a duck and a drake will croak like a frog. Vent sexing is more reliable prior to voice sexing if you want to attempt it. I vent sex from two weeks up to adults but some people may find it difficult if they have not had practice like I have.