Should I be worried about my ducks? The hens are fighting..?

[Moochie]

*Yes they are hens, they quack*
It started yesterday, I head some squabbling outside in the afternoon, I looked out the window, and a hen was on top of another hen doing what my mom calls "the humpy humpy". They did it again during dinner time and I saw one duck chasing another duck around the yard. I heard the distress quacks again not too long ago today and the girls were fighting again. The drake just stands at the side and does nothing and other hens are close, bite a little, and spectate. I know that when hens mount each other it's for dominance.. So is that what's going on? I've just never seen them fight. I have 12 hens with 1 drake and I don't think adding another drake will help, I used to have 2 but they started fighting.. Pretty roughly so I had to get rid of one.

Oh and one other thing that caught my eye this morning when I was feeding them - One of the hens seems to have a bump right behind her neck on top of her left [or maybe right, I'd have to look again] wing/shoulder. While she was walking around she'd stop every few seconds to stretch out her neck and the bump would go flat. She also was making swallowing movements a lot like as if she was eating or drinking something and the bump would move.

 

[Miss Lydia]

*Yes they are hens, they quack*
It started yesterday, I head some squabbling outside in the afternoon, I looked out the window, and a hen was on top of another hen doing what my mom calls "the humpy humpy". They did it again during dinner time and I saw one duck chasing another duck around the yard. I heard the distress quacks again not too long ago today and the girls were fighting again. The drake just stands at the side and does nothing and other hens are close, bite a little, and spectate. I know that when hens mount each other it's for dominance.. So is that what's going on? I've just never seen them fight. I have 12 hens with 1 drake and I don't think adding another drake will help, I used to have 2 but they started fighting.. Pretty roughly so I had to get rid of one.

Oh and one other thing that caught my eye this morning when I was feeding them - One of the hens seems to have a bump right behind her neck on top of her left [or maybe right, I'd have to look again] wing/shoulder. While she was walking around she'd stop every few seconds to stretch out her neck and the bump would go flat. She also was making swallowing movements a lot like as if she was eating or drinking something and the bump would move.

I believe I'd pick her up and examine that lump, with the other symptoms she may have something stuck in her throat. As far as the fighting, i am seeing it in some of mine just started today, chasing mostly and jumping onto backs when they get the chance. Girls fights. So far no one is hurt so i am letting them work it out, even the 2 sisters were picking on each other today which I never see.About the lump please check it out soon. look under her feathers close to her skin too.

 

[Valntyn]

Not that it's a great thing, but I'm glad to learn I'm not alone on the girl-fight front! Our two chocolate Muscovies (whom we bought together in May when they were about 8 months old) have started after each other lately. One minute they'll be buddy-buddy... the next, one will be chasing the other... and the next, they'll be tail-waggin' and talkin' up a storm (which follows by everyone else doing the same -- to use an older phrase: it's totally awesome

). Crazy gals.

 

[Moochie]

I believe I'd pick her up and examine that lump, with the other symptoms she may have something stuck in her throat. As far as the fighting, i am seeing it in some of mine just started today, chasing mostly and jumping onto backs when they get the chance. Girls fights. So far no one is hurt so i am letting them work it out, even the 2 sisters were picking on each other today which I never see.About the lump please check it out soon. look under her feathers close to her skin too.

I checked it out. Had use a net.. Very tricky to catch them. Anyways, my mom told me to massage it and when I did nothing was in it.. It kinda felt like a balloon. I gave her mealworms and some greens and she didn't have a problem gobbling them up. When I put her down she ran away and did the neck thing again. I'll see what I can do tomorrow morning.
I'm so glad that the girls fighting is a normal thing. When my drakes started fighting and I removed one of them my boy Louie had pink eyelids, feathers missing around his eyes, and looked so scruffy. The other drake was just a little scruffy.. Seems like he would have won but I have a soft spot for Louie, just because he was one of my first ducks.

 

[Miss Lydia]

I checked it out. Had use a net.. Very tricky to catch them. Anyways, my mom told me to massage it and when I did nothing was in it.. It kinda felt like a balloon. I gave her mealworms and some greens and she didn't have a problem gobbling them up. When I put her down she ran away and did the neck thing again. I'll see what I can do tomorrow morning.
I'm so glad that the girls fighting is a normal thing. When my drakes started fighting and I removed one of them my boy Louie had pink eyelids, feathers missing around his eyes, and looked so scruffy. The other drake was just a little scruffy.. Seems like he would have won but I have a soft spot for Louie, just because he was one of my first ducks.

Sounds like some how she has gotten air under the skin? did you look closely at her skin under the feathers? she may have an injury.

 

[Miss Lydia]

Update?

 

[Moochie]

It's been a long day. I would have updated earlier but so much traveling today.. Ugh.
When my mom examined the ducks this morning she said she didn't see the hen with lump. We only have 5 utility rouens so I went out there and the reason why she couldn't see "that" hen is because there is no lump protruding anymore so mom couldn't tell the difference between the ducks. I changed their large pond water today and all the ducks had a blast in the new clean water. I have no idea what that thing was but I'll be watching them closely to see if it pops up again. None of the ducks were doing the stretchy neck move either.

 

[Miss Lydia]

It's been a long day. I would have updated earlier but so much traveling today.. Ugh.
When my mom examined the ducks this morning she said she didn't see the hen with lump. We only have 5 utility rouens so I went out there and the reason why she couldn't see "that" hen is because there is no lump protruding anymore so mom couldn't tell the difference between the ducks. I changed their large pond water today and all the ducks had a blast in the new clean water. I have no idea what that thing was but I'll be watching them closely to see if it pops up again. None of the ducks were doing the stretchy neck move either.

great news ...

 

[Moochie]

It's totally gone now. Weird stuff though, weird stuff.

 

[Miss Lydia]

It's totally gone now. Weird stuff though, weird stuff.

Well glad to hear it,