Which drake should i keep?

[crissycriss]

I have 7 pekin ducks that i got in april.5 turned out to be drakes.Out of the 5 there is 2 that i cant choose between to keep.Drake one im leaning toward keeping but hes so big i thank he might be jumbo peking.He lays around alot so i wonder if he would make a good breeder?Drake 2 is a little smaller but his feet over lap one enother when he walks.I want to breed them but dont know which one to keep.Which one would you keep?Or should i keep both?I also have 3mallard duck and a drake.Your advice is greatly apprecated! THANKS

 

[duckyfromoz]

If you have the room for 2 drakes and enough girls for them- I would go with keeping two drakes. A spare is always good in the event that you somehow loose one.

 

[crissycriss]

I only have 2 Pekin ducks to go with them for now.How many would i need in order to keep both? 6 or7 or more?

 

[Mum]

I only have 2 Pekin ducks to go with them for now.How many would i need in order to keep both? 6 or7 or more?

Now that depends entirely upon the personality of your drakes. It may be possible that two girls will be enough for your two drakes and you really won't know until they start mating.

 

[PetesMom]

I find Pekin drakes are a little more aggressive with the mating....this is just from what I have gathered so unless you get more girls I would probably just keep one.

 

[crissycriss]

Thanks for the advice.I am only going to keep 1 drake.The biggest less active one

 

[jdywntr]

I would say it depends on what you want. Do you want to produce very large birds for the table or do you want to produce a smaller more active duck?

As stated before, they may be okay with 2 pairs together. If they have not started breeding yet, you may want to wait to make sure which is "doing the deed" more often/better than the other. The only thing I might worry about with the larger lazy one is it may be harder for him to catch the girls. I've never seen a duck willingly allow breeding so if he can't catch them, no babies. Also, my drakes have always been a bit "stompy" when breeding. They just trod up and down on the female. So, a bigger boy could potentially result in more injuries.

 

[crissycriss]

Wow thanks for that info. Yes i do want to breed for meat with my pekins.I havent seen him try to breed he just lays around. The other is wide open constantly after the ducks.So yea i will keep both for now.The bigger one just laays around except when in the pool.I am concernd about them trying tto breed my mallards and hurting my mallard drake.Should i be? thanks agian for all your info

 

[Oregon Blues]

For a small backyard flock, keep the one with the best temperament. You have to live with him, so you want a drake who is easy to be around.

When I had Pekins, I kept the fastest growing drake. That's a very important breed characteristic. The fastest growing drake happened to have the best temperament and personality, so the selection was easy.