Hello All...any advice welcome. Sorry this is long--much like international politics, this is complicated.
Last spring we bought a group of ducklings. We were too male-heavy, so we bought a second group of all female ducklings a couple months later. We also got rid of three males. We lost three females: two to predation (including a coyote who took one in broad daylight by the house) and one to injury sustained in mating (my only blue egg layer :/).
These two groups, Elder and Younger, broke into two factions (started by the males we got rid of, but never re-coalesced once the males were gone):
Dominant Faction (DF): consists of two males and three females (all from the Elder group)
Secondary Faction (SF): Consists of one male and 10 females (one Elder male, two Elder females, and all the younger group)
To say they don't get along is an understatement. They only tolerate each other at night when they sleep in the pond together. Other than that, they maintain a distance with semi frequent coups. The SF male tries to mate with the DF females, the DF males chase off even the females of the SF, rarely tries to mate with the SF females, the females of the DF try to run off the SF females when I am out there with scratch, etc, etc.
Basically they don't get along.
Now, just to make things interesting, two young muscovies (either dumped or flew) arrived here a couple days ago and seem to be making themselves to home. They are very sweet and are trying to bond with the other ducks, but neither faction will have them. I am not sure if they are male or female. They are not making noise, and I can't find if muscovy drakes have drake feathers or not. They now have stopped trying to hang out with the other factions and are just hanging out by themselves. One of the females of the DF, named Donna, is now PO'd at me for feeding the muscovies and will come up and try to get between them and me, will charge me if I start walking to the muscovies, etc. She is happy enough, though, if I sit down just to give the DF or even the SF scratch.
Even more interesting: Two broody ducks, one from each faction, are sitting on nests. One of them I think might actually hatch hers out.
Plus I have twelve eggs in the incubator that will be hatching in the next week or so.
I have enough land for the ducks. I feel sorry for the muscovies who seem bewildered. Not sure what will happen to the ducklings that hatch out of the broody moms or the ones I will hatch out in the incubator--which group will they go to?
Is there any way to bring peace to our little pond? If I thought getting rid of more drakes would help, I would consider it, but we only have three left (of course, we might have drakes with the hatches). Plus I think the females of each group hate each other now.
Any advice? Any experience with warring duck factions? I thought ducks were supposed to get along :/
Last spring we bought a group of ducklings. We were too male-heavy, so we bought a second group of all female ducklings a couple months later. We also got rid of three males. We lost three females: two to predation (including a coyote who took one in broad daylight by the house) and one to injury sustained in mating (my only blue egg layer :/).
These two groups, Elder and Younger, broke into two factions (started by the males we got rid of, but never re-coalesced once the males were gone):
Dominant Faction (DF): consists of two males and three females (all from the Elder group)
Secondary Faction (SF): Consists of one male and 10 females (one Elder male, two Elder females, and all the younger group)
To say they don't get along is an understatement. They only tolerate each other at night when they sleep in the pond together. Other than that, they maintain a distance with semi frequent coups. The SF male tries to mate with the DF females, the DF males chase off even the females of the SF, rarely tries to mate with the SF females, the females of the DF try to run off the SF females when I am out there with scratch, etc, etc.
Basically they don't get along.
Now, just to make things interesting, two young muscovies (either dumped or flew) arrived here a couple days ago and seem to be making themselves to home. They are very sweet and are trying to bond with the other ducks, but neither faction will have them. I am not sure if they are male or female. They are not making noise, and I can't find if muscovy drakes have drake feathers or not. They now have stopped trying to hang out with the other factions and are just hanging out by themselves. One of the females of the DF, named Donna, is now PO'd at me for feeding the muscovies and will come up and try to get between them and me, will charge me if I start walking to the muscovies, etc. She is happy enough, though, if I sit down just to give the DF or even the SF scratch.
Even more interesting: Two broody ducks, one from each faction, are sitting on nests. One of them I think might actually hatch hers out.
Plus I have twelve eggs in the incubator that will be hatching in the next week or so.
I have enough land for the ducks. I feel sorry for the muscovies who seem bewildered. Not sure what will happen to the ducklings that hatch out of the broody moms or the ones I will hatch out in the incubator--which group will they go to?
Is there any way to bring peace to our little pond? If I thought getting rid of more drakes would help, I would consider it, but we only have three left (of course, we might have drakes with the hatches). Plus I think the females of each group hate each other now.
Any advice? Any experience with warring duck factions? I thought ducks were supposed to get along :/
. Maybe then I can cull the one drake from the younger crowd amd the ducks might reincorporate?
