What age do they reach sexual maturity? (pekins)

[Blondiega1]

So the fab 5 are about 8-9 weeks old now. Our big male drake is about 3 years old.
At what age do I need to start watching to see if my male to female ratio becomes a problem?

The fab 5 have all been raised together and Jmatt, my big drake, thinks he's a goose and hangs with the Canada geese that passes through for the most part and only comes around for some loving occasionally.
Jmatt is an equal opportunity lover, he'll grab whoever he can get, drake or hen.

All together I have 4 drakes and 2 hens and I'm wondering when it may become a real problem.

 

[Blondiega1]

Any chance the fab 5 will continue to get along well and I won't have an issue at all?
I'd hate to have to part with any of them and my husband will kill me if I up and ask for more hens!!! LOL

 

[larkflying]

That is a lot of drakes for the hens. It will be very hard on the hens to have that many drakes around . . . maybe if you rehomed the extra drakes, you could get the same number of hens? Your total number of ducks would then stay the same !

 

[zooweemama]

From everything I have read the past few months- 4 drakes on 2 hens is going to be vicious. They will forcibly mount her and frequently- which is means they grab her head feathers causing bald scabby head, can also accidentally peck her eyes while trying to grab her. They will do on the water, on land...and if she is weak from all the mating she can drown. (I over research everything. So I did a ton of reading on several forums) I've seen pictures of bald scabby backs of females that couldn't walk and were just a miserable unhealthy mess. The count I am reading that will prevent your female ducks from getting brutally raped all the time is 1 drake to 3 to 5 hens. The images and the info were enough for me to re-home 3 of my drakes not quite 2 weeks ago. I had 6 drakes and 11 females. I did not want my ladies hurt- they can only depend on me to make sure they are safe. I highly recommend more female ducks or re-homing 3 of them. I'm so sorry.

 

[zooweemama]

Oh gosh sorry I skipped the question- I read around 7 months for sexual maturity.

 

[Blondiega1]

Thanks.
You don't think there's the chance that since they were raised together it won't be an issue?
(wishful thinking maybe)

Or if I rehome the hens and have all drakes?
Would that work?

I really really wish they'd just all be fine together.
Maybe I'm asking too much.
Ain't an issue yet, but I worry a few months down the road.

Like I said, Jmatt will grab male or female. He don''t care as long as SOMEBODY gets mounted!

 

[zooweemama]

Thanks.
You don't think there's the chance that since they were raised together it won't be an issue?
(wishful thinking maybe)

Or if I rehome the hens and have all drakes?
Would that work?

I really really wish they'd just all be fine together.
Maybe I'm asking too much.
Ain't an issue yet, but I worry a few months down the road.

Like I said, Jmatt will grab male or female. He don''t care as long as SOMEBODY gets mounted!

Actually all drakes are ok. I re-homed all my drakes to one duckless family. So they have all my dudes.

 

[Blondiega1]

So you think it may be better to rehome my girls at some point and just have drakes??

I still think my big drake Jmatt will try to get some loving from the younger drakes.
He doesn't seem to care if they are male of female. He just grabs whomever he can get!!

 

[Oregon Blues]

I've never had any problem with my drakes fighting. It can happen, but it is not typical drake behavior. Usually, the worst of it is a little pushing and a little shoving to test who is the strongest.

The problem is that all the drakes will line up to mate the ducks at one time. If you have 4 drakes, the duck will be bred by all four in a sort f community sharing. If there are only 2 ducks, they will get a lot of drake time, because drakes do a lot of breeding.

That's going to be very hard on your ducks.

 

[larkflying]

It isn't how you raised them -- it is that breeding instinct is SO strong in drakes . . . more so than chickens or geese. It would happen whether you had them together as babies, or whether you bought a new drake and put him in with some females that he'd never met before.

It is easier to rehome the girl ducks -- so if you are attached to the males, I'd just keep them and sell the girl ducks to a nice home with a pond . . . I'd think the insistent drake would get used to things without the girls around to remind him -- and even girl ducks will mount each other at times for dominance . . . I've heard of some people keeping the excess male birds all together in their own space so they don't have to deal with the breeding issue.