Shelless egg

[onaharley]

Again I am not getting alerts for this thread....anyways here is some pictures of how I have separated BiLl and Ted... the separation door swings to and from. It butts right tight to the door that is locked at no night. They can still see each other but no touching. I wonder if you could do something like this in your main pen??? It might take some work but could be possible...maybe?

 

[TearDucks]

This is a pic of the main coop. I let them go altogether today and it went ok for a little bit but lucky gets mated way to often, even darkwing got taken advantage of. I almost want to seperate the males and females. I wish I could just decide to get rid of two or three males but i am having a hard time making a decision, I don't want to rehome them I think it'd be better to kill them but that doesnt feel right either. My friends and family are telling me I'm too obsessed with the ducks that's its making too stressed out. Then I was thinking natural selection so I don't have to decide but that was just too brutal on lucky. I was thinking of maybe dividing the pen so lucky can be safe and the coop can be open and they can come and go without me swapping ducks then I can give them turns which is still swapping. I dont know what I should do.

I like your set up. Thank you for sharing that gives me some ideas.

 

[onaharley]

So here's what I do. Monday thru Friday, I alternate the ducks, one gets locked up during the day while the other gets to free range. When I get home from work I go out and clean the pen of the free range duck. Once clean I lock that duck up and let the duck that was penned all day out to free range. I then clean that pen and allow that duck to do what ever until it's time to lock them up for the night. The free range duck has the option to go into its pen for food and water, or to hang out with the duck that is locked up....which 9 out of 10 times they choose the latter!!! I understand your situation is a little more complex.

Might I ask why you don't want to rehome your drakes?

 

[TearDucks]

This is there home and they want to be with their family. I raised them from little ducklings. I don't want to take them from all they know. It would hard for me too. Everything was fine till spring hit. Won't it be fine after the mating season again?
The other reason is I don't wanna get rid of the only mother's day present i ever got

 

[onaharley]

Sorry to do this but you need some more tough love thrown at you.

Clearly you are attached....your emotions are really overriding your logic. You would rather kill them then rehome them????? If you kill them would you eat them? I doubt you would....ducks adept well once they know their place....Look at Orstara, she seems to be doing well.
Yes, you need to separate the hens from the males, and also separate the aggressive males from one another.

You can not keep going at this rate. It's not this complicated and it should be fun to have ducks, not stressful. I understand your working with what you got. But allowing the drakes to be repeatedly fight with one another is not healthy for them, allowing the hens to repeatedly get over mated is not healthy for them either. This will continue for the life of these ducks....mating season is all year round basically. You will only get a couple weeks a year of no mating....seriously! If you continue like this you will continue to have problems. Case in point, lucky..... this poor thing needs some major rest. Imagine 3 men mating you constantly, to the point of "just a little blood" coming from you each time. Sorry I don't mean to be so graphic but truly this is what is going on with lucky.
I am not judging you at all....and please know that the things we say, we say because we care! All we can do is offer our opinions and suggestions, it's up to you to these into thoughts into actions.

Please let me know if I have overstepped my boundaries, as this is not my intentions...

 

[TearDucks]

Hugs
If I did have them killed it'd eat them so they would be apart of me. I don't like killing things. That's true, ostara is doing good. I think she's happy here.

I do seperate the males from each other when they fight.

No, not at all. I appreciate the feedback. If i was ever offended I'd let you know. Sorry it took so long to get back to you. I was celebrating my moms bday.

I don't mind swapping ducks, I have nothing better to do with my time. They are my reason to get away from family when I can't take them anymore. I sit in the duck coop and have a phone conversation or do my thinking bC I can't do that in the house. It is what it is right now. I deal.

It is still fun at times. The ducks make me laugh. I've recently seen them dive under the water completely and come back up i didn't even know they could do that! Very cool and funny to watch.

It makes me feel better I seen the river ducks fighting today. Lol.

I love you guys I am glad I have my family here i can talk with. It's helpful being able to come here. Thank you for taking the time from your busy lives to be there for me.

 

[Miss Lydia]

This time of year it would be a miracle if we didn't see drakes fighting even females can be testy this time of year.

We are a nice big family with our ducks in common and so much more once we get to know one another.

 

[onaharley]

Hugs
If I did have them killed it'd eat them so they would be apart of me. I don't like killing things. That's true, ostara is doing good. I think she's happy here.

I do seperate the males from each other when they fight.

No, not at all. I appreciate the feedback. If i was ever offended I'd let you know. Sorry it took so long to get back to you. I was celebrating my moms bday.

I don't mind swapping ducks, I have nothing better to do with my time. They are my reason to get away from family when I can't take them anymore. I sit in the duck coop and have a phone conversation or do my thinking bC I can't do that in the house. It is what it is right now. I deal.

It is still fun at times. The ducks make me laugh. I've recently seen them dive under the water completely and come back up i didn't even know they could do that! Very cool and funny to watch.

It makes me feel better I seen the river ducks fighting today. Lol.

I love you guys I am glad I have my family here i can talk with. It's helpful being able to come here. Thank you for taking the time from your busy lives to be there for me.

 

[onaharley]

Good and happy birthday mom!!

I think your best bet is to do days dedicated days of free ranging. Let's just say, Mondays - all females get to free range all day. Tuesday's - Scrooge and Howard gets to free range all day. Wednesday - is pluckys day. Then start all over.

I am more concerned with the hens having absolutely no contact with the males. Heck the males could free range altogether that way the hens could come out every other day.

 

[TearDucks]

Ostara came in for me last night. I was very happy. I was unprepared bC lucky was in her coop and she had some things to say about that hehe. It was interesting swapping them. Ended up leaving plucky and scrooge in the pen and putting the rest in the main and ostara in hers. I am trying to arrange time to split the pen so lucky can be separated but together like how onaharley has hers. I also want to build another coop and still split the main one. Next day off my man has he can watch our little one so I can change the coop. This will eliminate my stress of having to swap ducks. Lucky will be protected and anyone can come and go to visit her and I can still seperate males if I need to. Thank you for your patience with me and the ideas that helped. Hope you all have a wonderful holiday weekend.