We moved our duck outside, he turned mean!

[BlakeRyan]

Hey all!

So we finally got oup duck coop built and the fence and everything ready outside a month or two ago, and officially moved Nibble outside to live. He seems to love it, as expected. Our only issue, is he has turned mean! Whenever we go in his fence to unlock and open his coop door each morning to let him out, as soon as he comes out he goes after us, biting our feet and legs and not letting up one bit! Sometimes he tries attacking us when we just put our arms over the fence to grab his water dish to refill it, or if we are just walking near his fencr, he sticks his head through a hole in the wire fencr and tries to get us that way. He never did anything like this when we had him inside, he was calm and actually a bit skittish and wouldn't let us pet him much. Now it's the exact opposite and it's getting a bit out of control. Any ideas?

 

[Henrik Petersson]

Is he alone? A male duck should have some females to live with.

 

[BlakeRyan]

I was thinking that could be the issue. We have ordered some ducklings to keep him company, they haven't arrived yet.

 

[Henrik Petersson]

I hate to be negative, but it might not work out well to give him ducklings either. A lone, adult male duck's natural state is not to "hang out" with ducklings, but with other adult ducks - preferably females. Two to four females per male duck is ideal - more males than that, and they might fight among themselves, or hurt the females by excessive mating.

Now, I'm not sure how it will play out with him getting ducklings. It might work out terrifically, but he might ignore them, or even worse - try to kill them, as he doesn't see them as his offspring, and hence a threat to him spreading his own genes.

One thing you could do is keep your present duck and the newly-arrived separate, until the ducklings are adult (it shouldn't take more than two months or so), and then put them together. That would, of course, have the downside of the lone male being lonely for yet some time.

 

[Miss Lydia]

I was thinking that could be the issue. We have ordered some ducklings to keep him company, they haven't arrived yet.

I don't think you should try putting ducklings in with a hormonal drake the ducklings won't make it. The ducklings need to be at least adult size and then females may have to be kept away until at least ready to lay so he won't mate with them too early. What breed is Nibbles?

The behavior your seeing is very normal especially with drakes so don't take it personal. But you can start training him to act nice .
Take the broom out with you when you go into Nibbles area when he starts for you put the broom between you and him don't let him come any closer if he tries hold him down by putting one hand at base of neck and the other where tail and back meet. hold him down on his belly till he quits fighting. You will be acting like a dominant drake to him. This all may sound hard but believe me it works my drake was a had full till I was told how to train him and it worked. For some reason having on different shoes gets them going too, I wore flip flops out the other night and my drake started biting my toes. A few shoves off and he was okay. So wearing the same shoes may help with the feet biting. When I wear my rubber boots I don't have this problem. Big thing is be persistent.

 

[BlakeRyan]

We weren't going to put the ducklings with him, they stay inside with us until they are adults. I'll have to try the broom thing, I always worry about hurting him though!

 

[BlakeRyan]

I forgot to add, Nibble is a Swedish blue.

 

[Miss Lydia]

We weren't going to put the ducklings with him, they stay inside with us until they are adults. I'll have to try the broom thing, I always worry about hurting him though!

We're not advocating you hit him with the broom your just keeping him from getting to you to bite. I even have used the broom to push him away when he was coming at me.
even though I had to use tough love with Opie my drake he has turned out to be a wonderful drake. He is now 5 yrs old and we're best pals. But he had to learn his place and that he couldn't treat me like one of his girls.

I forgot to add, Nibble is a Swedish blue.

I bet he is gorgeous.

 

[BarrerasDucks]

What he is doing is trying to work his way back into your flock by showing dominance. He thinks you have turned hI'm away from the flock. He has never seen another duck so he thinks he's a human but with duck behavior. Sorry and I don't mean to sound harsh but if you were going to just get one the plan would be diapers, leash and shoes. He would be an inside duck and go everywhere with you like a dog.Otherwise for now go get a new adult female asap. Go on Craigslisthe and get him a pal.

 

[BlakeRyan]

The plan was not to only get him, he was the only who survived out of 10 that were set to hatch. Females ducks have been ordered but won't ship unail august 1st.