Why do my ducks do this

[HappyDuckie]

Hey, I don't mean to butt in, but having two drakes and one hen can cause a lot of problems. They can badly hurt, if not kill her. It will be even worse in the spring. I recommend separating or getting more hens.

 

[FernbergFarms]

@duckiemum yeah I know.. but my males aren’t very dominant over her so far.. that’s why I was gonna hatch some more out hopefully get a hen.

 

[HappyDuckie]

@duckiemum yeah I know.. but my males aren’t very dominant over her so far.. that’s why I was gonna hatch some more out hopefully get a hen.

Ok! Just be careful, especially in water (which is where most ducks mate). Just earlier today I saw a post where someone's hen was drowned in a pool from their two drakes

 

[FernbergFarms]

Can they interbreed? Like if Donald and Daffy has a baby and I kept their baby and Donald bred with his daughter. Could they have a duckling that would live? Sry that sounded weird
I know! I’ve gotten worried about that but I’ve only seen my drakes breed with her in clean water (I clean it often) but when it isn’t fresh like they just don’t care about her... but hopefully I will get some more hens! And that is awful!! Poor hen!!

 

[graypes]

Are your ducks really friendly? In the picture you shared it looked like you had ur hand on their bills. My ducks like me but they don’t like me holding them and they’re a little skittish. They used to be soooo skittish but they’ve gotten so much better!! I thought it was because I got them at a farm supply store and I spent SOOOO much time with them talking to them and singing to them and all that but they don’t come up to me and let me pet them! How did you get your ducks so nice?

Its been so long! Sorry for the late reply, I went dormant for my midterms and final exams, but alas, on Christmas morning, Josh laid her first egg! and they've been plopping out once a day ever since! They're the same color as daffy's except the first few had a "sooty" charcoaly color that washed off with a sponge! I'm not sure if they're fertilized or not, so I think the first batch will end up as breakfast BUT I definitely need to adjust my layer feed to regular feed ratio before I even think about hatching out her eggs. I've been giving her way too much layer feed and so the inner membrane on the first egg was crazy thick, no duckling would be able to pip out of that!

To answer your question: yes they are sweet with me but only when I calm them down. Josh, the female, doesn't like to be handled so much but she does cuddle up underneath me or on my feet when I sit outside in the warmer months, she know's I'll keep her safe. The drake, Nipple, on the other hand, is a vicious and naughty boy. He is SO protective of his baby girl (so much so that I fear introducing a new duck to the equation) and will go to great lengths to keep her safe. This includes biting and twisting my feet and hands when I enter his territory. I establish dominance with him but it never seems to work. Naming him "Nipple" is fitting though, seeing as he "purple nurples" my feet all the time. All the viciousness aside, once I get him calmed down he falls asleep right in my hands as I pet his cheeks and head and when I stop, he begs for more. They were only a few days old when I got them and I spent everyday with them out in the yard over the summer so maybe they view me as "one of them" or maybe they just recognize me, who knows.
I have heard that once you have 3+ they group up and develop an instinctive skittishness, but just having the two I'm seeing more of a possessive spousal dynamic unfold amongst my "flock" lol

also with the boy I don't give him treats by hand because apparently it lets them think their "stealing" food from you, making them the alpha duck... not sure on that though!

 

[FernbergFarms]

@graypes hi!
Awe Josh knew it was Christmas!
So I hatched out ducklings! I did 6 and 3 hatched. They all made it to internal pipping (except one was malpositioned) the other 2 must have given up or roles over their safety holes... I noticed you said that too much layer feed could make a duckling not pip out of the membrane..? Could this be why they gave up because it was too hard of a shell? I only feed my ducks layer feed and occasional treats. And her shells are hard! Daffy hasn’t laid an egg in over a week (unless she’s hiding them) but it is sooo cold! So I think that’s why. When I hatched out my 3 babies the first one loveeed me! Because it was a whole 12 hours till the next hatched so I was with him the whole time so he was super friendly and then the other two hatched so close together that they were cuddling in the incubator and so they were inseparable. So my first born loved people.and my other two liked people but not as much as each other. Then they would follow me around the house and loved cuddling and they were really friendly and then when they began to get older they got more skittish and then we moved them to our schoolhouse ( like another house but we keep like baby animals in it and it’s heated) then they slowly got more skittish and now they will not barely get near me when I give them water! We finally got them outside and they are about 2 months old. I got 2 more boys and 1 girl... so I have 4 boys and 2 girls... im gonna keep my boys in a separate coop in spring and I’m going to hatch more out so sell and I’m going to buy more girls because 4 boys against 2 girls isn’t the best... but I’m a little scared to introduce the boys to the little boys like whenever I show them to the big boys they are shaking and the big boys want to eat them or something they just get soooo hyper when they see the little boys! We’ll sorry that was soo long

 

[graypes]

OH MY GOSH BABIES!!!! Do you have any pics? I'd love to see how they turned out!!!!

As for the membrane thickness, I'm certainly no expert BUT Josh's eggs were so tough they wouldn't crack when I was feeding them all layer feed. So I started playing with ratios of layer and purina all flock and landed on 25% layer and 75% all flock. Since then, her eggs have had more of a normal hardness. But the membrane itself is still a little tough, maybe I'm feeding them too many additional treats and they have too much protein?

And for Daffy's laying, do you have a light on them in their coop? That's how I keep josh laying. Like chickens, they when daylight is longer, so when the sun sets early in the winter they usually stop laying or stop laying as much. Recently my brother watched my ducks for a day and he put them to "bed" early, and without a few extra hours of light. Those two days she was under his care, she didn't lay at all. The day I got home I left the light on for a bit after sun down and sure enough next morning the egg was there!

I followed this guide on supplemental lighting:
https://metzerfarms.blogspot.com/2011/03/how-to-use-lights-to-increase-duck-egg.html

I'm SO happy to hear about your new babies!!!! Its funny you got the same sex ratio as last time, those poor girls though, those boys will be bothering them all day lololol

 

[FernbergFarms]

Hey!! Yes I do have pictures! It was so much fun to have babies again! I’m hoping to do a little hatching business this summer/ spring! I just ordered more babies might be addicted... well I got 2 more pekins and a breeding pair of Indian runners (fawn and white) they’ll be coming May 24th! Soo exited!
Okay good to know on the feed! I’m feeding daffy and all my ducks layer feed, and a vitamin supplement. I’m feeding Daffy some cat food each day because I heard the extra protein will help them start to lay again..? I do have a heat lamp on but I need to get it on a timer!! Right now the highs are -10 in Minnesota so I have to heat lamp going 24/7 for the past 3 days. It’s soo cold! It was like -40 yesterday!!! But yeah Daffy still isn’t laying eggs and their is a sell/swap/buy for animals coming up in April so I rlly need to get some eggs in the incubator by March 1st! But she isn’t laying so I’m praying she will start to lay soon! Are you planning on hatching some of Josh's eggs?

I have soo many more picture but the website isn’t letting me put them on but I had a lot of fun with these babies and they were soo nice! Like my other ducklings were just skittish and not nice at all but these guys were like wanting me to pick them up all the time and letting me watch 4 hr movies with them and they had big personalities! (You can tellin the pictures! Especially the last one LOL) but now they are full grown now I’m waiting for Autumn to lay eggs!
I named them Opal Autumn and Hazel (Hazel and Opal were boys so I renamed them Emeric and Murphy) they are almost fully feathered

 

[graypes]

OH MY GOD!!!!!!!

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


THEY ARE SO CUTE!!!!!!!

and their trout feathers!!! I am in LOVE!!!!!! I'm so happy they see you as "mom" Nothings better than cuddling with ducklings. Once my babies feathers came in they were like BYEEEEEEEEEEEEEE so I miss that stage so much

I hope I can hatch mine soon... I don't have any room in my life for more ducks so I want to find someone near by who wants ducks so I can relive the duckling days if only for a moment

Is daffy molting? That's the only reason I could see a less than one year old duck stop laying. ducks stop laying when they are molting so maybe that could be the reason if its not daylight related.
https://www.metzerfarms.com/blogs/Why_Has_My_Duck_Stopped_Laying.cfm?article=29

I'm not super well versed on protein ratios but maybe if nothing else is working maybe its a protein overload? but maybe not also lol I have NO CLUE what I am talking about so take my advice with buttloads of salt! https://morningchores.com/protein-requirements-for-ducks/ (This link also mentions that once feathers start coming back in, if you notice feathers sticking up then you should drop protein ratio to avoid angel wing.)

Or maybe she's stressed from the cold NEGATIVE 40?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?! I didn't even know that was POSSIBLE I think I would die. It got down to negative 10 last week here in Missouri and I near turned into an icicle

 

[FernbergFarms]

@graypes i know right!! They were such sweet babies! Now they don’t want to be held as much and are a little more skittish and all feathered out
Daffy is not molting. I stopped the cat food cuz it wasn’t doing anything and it kinda froze so they weren’t able to eat it anyways. I let all my duckies swim in a pool because they were looking rough and that did wonders!! They were all spotless and their bills weren’t dry and they were happy! I even got my babies to swim in a big pool for the first time!!
Haha! It was -50 for a couple weeks!( once it was -75!!!) that was rough! But now it’s like. in the 30s so it’s is warming up!! I’m so exited for spring! I was hoping to hatch babies really soon like in March but none of my babies are laying yet last night was the first night I let all my ducks sleep together. When the boys and girls are all together the boys are constantly fighting but when it’s just girls and just boys the guys are pretty chill (they stay with their friend usually so like 2 different groups) and then the girls don’t get along. Daffy is always lunging at her but my little girl Autumn just wants to say hi then I noticed Daffy had a bloody back toe! and it was bleeding a lot! So I tried to clean it up and put cornstarch and anti biotic ointment on it but she just went back in the mud so idk how much good that did was Josh still laying eggs in the cold weather there? Oh and! I ordered more ducks! I’m literally addicted well I’m getting 4 more ducklings on the week of May 24th! I got 2 Pekin hens and a pair of fawn and white runners hen and drake!!I’m trying to think of names and I was leaning towards runners: peaches and cream pekins: Delilah &Clair but idk and I have to wait a longgg time. Ru thinking about more ducks this spring?