Too many drakes

[docdubz]

Well my mismatched flock of tsc ducklings turned out to be 1 black Swede, 1 Rouen, 1 fawn Pekin hybrid (that looks more like a pekin except for color) and 1 fawn pekin crested that looks like a goofy b*****d. Anyway, I had my suspicions because I heard some Drake sounds but I thought it was only one of them. Until today. They all staged a massive jailbreak and I woke up to them running around the property quacking their butts off, that's when I saw 3 of them are sprouting drake feathers. So now I know for sure only the Rouen is female. So far for ducks and chicks I'm running 25% females on straight runs, figures...

They are about 3 months old now and still get along like a silly bunch of goofballs. When can I anticipate having problems with there being a 3:1 male ratio so I can figure out how to tactfully deal with it since I specifically got them for the kids.

 

[LT71689]

What are your plans for dealing with a bad gender ratio? Are you rehoming or culling either gender? If not your option is to get a dozen or more extra girls.

Either way I'd do it sooner rather than later, we're headed into winter and finding homes or finding more ducks of similar age will be tough. Come spring time and you run the risk of your girl being gang-bred to injury or death before you can take care of the problem.

 

[FuzzyCritters]

A few options here:
Rehome your female to someone who has ducks.

Build to duck houses, one for the males and one for the female, then get the female another female friend or two. If you decide to do this, you must keep the males and females separate, don't even let them visit each other. The males also shouldn't be able to see the females at all, or they can start fighting.

Get a lot more female ducks to balance your ratios.

Keep one male (or none), and get more female ducks.

Keep in mind that males can seriously injure and even kill female ducks in mating when she is mated over and over to satisfy the males. You need to separate your female out before the males reach maturity. A good ratio of males to females is 1:5.

 

[Duck mommy 2019]

rehome the female! the boys will be best friends without a girl to fight over. also without a girl you won’t have to deal with egg laying issues, overmating, and more!

 

[Duckduck_Guz]

We have a similar issue, got ducks for pets and too many drakes. We explained the issue to my 9 year old daughter (pg style of course) on why we can’t keep all of the males. I gave 2 males away in trade for 2 females. She seemed to be okay with it especially as the winter and colder weather coming, it’s usually just me out on the pond with the ducks, cleaning the duck house, feeding them and giving them fresh water. Leaving my tally with 8 females to 7 males. Still working on getting rid of more drakes, or gaining more females to even out. Probably gonna be a combination of both, if they have to go to the block, we all know it’s for the best for the flock as a whole.