Two male mallards no females

[Dancinbaer]

We are new to raising ducks so this will be the first of many questions.
We were given two, three week old ducklings as pets about four weeks ago. They were pulled randomly from a flock of 15 ducklings. Now that they are older, and much bigger, we are pretty sure we have two males. My questions: can we just keep the two males? Should we try and trade one for a female? We thought of getting two females but our koa pond is barely big enough for the two males.

One thought is to let nature take its course by NOT clipping their wings. If they fly off this winter, so be it. Maybe they will return in the spring with females. If not then we start over next year and specify one male and one female.

Any thoughts will be appreciated.

Thanks,
Denny

 

[duckyfromoz]

Two males can live happily together when there are no females around- so depending on why you wanted ducks in the first place there is no reason to swap them. If you want eggs however- then yes you would need to acquire females.

Letting the boys " fly away" would be very irresponsible though. Being hand raised and having food provided would set them back against their wild counterparts- and they may not survive long if they did fly off.

 

[Dancinbaer]

Thanks for the quick response. I should have given a little more background. We took the ducks as pets, sort of on the spur of the moment. Not giving any thought to raising them for eggs or meat. Just a nice addition to our backyard Koa pond. We live in the city and figured two would be easy to manage as we both work full time. I built them a raised 4'x4' coop with an adjoining 6'x8' fenced in run. While we are home we allow them to free range, though when not in the run they stay near the pond. The "boys" have learned to forage for food on their own. Once they started getting their feathers we've allowed them to swim in our small Koa pond. They've cleaned out all the algae, annihilated what few lily pads we had and are now starting on the small cattails and grasses growing along the edge. We keep them in at night where I do have a feeder of pellets. But as soon as I open the door they are out eating most anything between the coop/run and the pond.

As for them flying off, I've read several articles and Storey's Guide To Raising Ducks. We are undecided about clipping their wings. From what I've read, because we've provided them with food and shelter chances are they will stay around through the winter. We are in Northeast Wisconsin. Which brings up another bunch of questions I'll post at another time.

Thanks again

 

[Miss Lydia]

Thanks for the quick response. I should have given a little more background. We took the ducks as pets, sort of on the spur of the moment. Not giving any thought to raising them for eggs or meat. Just a nice addition to our backyard Koa pond. We live in the city and figured two would be easy to manage as we both work full time. I built them a raised 4'x4' coop with an adjoining 6'x8' fenced in run. While we are home we allow them to free range, though when not in the run they stay near the pond. The "boys" have learned to forage for food on their own. Once they started getting their feathers we've allowed them to swim in our small Koa pond. They've cleaned out all the algae, annihilated what few lily pads we had and are now starting on the small cattails and grasses growing along the edge. We keep them in at night where I do have a feeder of pellets. But as soon as I open the door they are out eating most anything between the coop/run and the pond.

As for them flying off, I've read several articles and Storey's Guide To Raising Ducks. We are undecided about clipping their wings. From what I've read, because we've provided them with food and shelter chances are they will stay around through the winter. We are in Northeast Wisconsin. Which brings up another bunch of questions I'll post at another time.

Thanks again

If they were to fly what's the chance of them landing in some ones back yard with a dog that has a taste for duck?

one reason for clipping a wing. Ducks love to fly and can end up in serious trouble.