Two Males & Mating Season

[TJAnonymous]

I have 2 drakes and 6 girls. I noticed this weekend that my Welsh Harlequin girls are looking a little worse for wear. I was thinking about taking both drakes and putting them in a separate coop for a week or so. However, that bachelor pen is located right next to my duck pen so they'd still be able to SEE the girls, but not get to them. Would this cause problems between the boys themselves? Would they attack each other out of frustration?

 

[Miss Lydia]

They may all you can do is try. If they start fighting put up something where they can't see the girls. We have to protect our girls. You could also try separating and giving each drake 3 females each and see how that goes.

 

[WhiteTreeOfGondor]

I have 2 drakes and 6 girls. I noticed this weekend that my Welsh Harlequin girls are looking a little worse for wear. I was thinking about taking both drakes and putting them in a separate coop for a week or so. However, that bachelor pen is located right next to my duck pen so they'd still be able to SEE the girls, but not get to them. Would this cause problems between the boys themselves? Would they attack each other out of frustration?

I just did this yesterday. I had 2 drakes with 6 hens and 1 with 3, and the girls needed a break so I moved the drakes in together and they can still see the girls. They are VERY unhappy about it and have been complaining nonstop. But they didn't fight except when I put them in the coop together, then the drake who had been in his own pen started to get picked on. I put him in a crate in the coop to avoid that. But the two who had been living together already are still just fine with each other.

 

[Miss Lydia]

 

[TJAnonymous]

Ok, I'm thinking tonight when we put them in for the night, I will separate out the two drakes and move them into my bachelor pen. We'll see what happens.... They seem to get along just fine when it isn't breeding season so hopefully they won't fight. If they do, I'll swap out the Silver Appleyard drake for the 3 Welsh Harlequin girls so that one drake is segregated with 3 females each.

 

[TJAnonymous]

I went ahead and separated the 2 drakes into the bachelor pen. They aren't very happy about it but they aren't trying to kill each other so far. The 3 Welsh Harlequin girls hung out next to the fence by the boys most of the day. The other 3 girls (2 Pekin, 1 Silver Appleyard) acted like they didn't care much. They visited the boys a few times but otherwise went about their business.

Anyway the next question is how long to keep them separated. I definitely want to wait until the necks of the Welsh Harlequins are healed up. Several of them are completely missing feathers along their necks which look very raw.

 

[Miss Lydia]

This might have to go on through most of summer. We love our drakes but whe can't let them injure the girls even if unintentional.

I have 2 drakes to 11 females the breakdown is Muscovy drake and 3 females and 1 runner drake and 8 females. No raw necks. I do keep my Runners separate from my Muscovy this time of year because my Runner drake will go after the Muscovy.

 

[TJAnonymous]

Thank you for the feedback.... I was hoping 3 females to a drake would be enough to prevent injuries but clearly it's not. I have space for more but I don't really WANT more. I'm drowning in eggs as it is. So it makes more sense to keep them separated for a while.

 

[Miss Lydia]

You can probably get by with 1 drake to 3 females you'll just have to watch how it goes.