Will full size drake pair with bantam females? Will females be harmed when mating?

[UrbanFarmerGirl]

We have a lonely Ancona drake. The female duck we intended to for him to pair with was killed by a dog as a young pullet. He was raised by a broody chicken, and has always flocked with the chickens and slept in their coop at night. Now that spring has sprung, he is aggressively attempting to mate with the chickens. We want to protect them from his pursuits, and find him a more suitable mate to direct his affection towards. We have a yard that is a little over a third of an acre, and intend to build a duck enclosure for them and give them daily access to the yard. I would ideally like to get him a couple of females, but space is an issue (we have 7 chickens as well), and the only adult females for sale in our area seem to be bantams. Can anyone with more duck experience tell me, what would likely happen if I put two bantam females in with him? Can a full sized male and bantam females pair up / mate without problems? Or is it like chickens, where the bantams form a separate flock? Will a large male duck potentially harm the smaller females when mating? Or is it usually fine? Thanks so much for the input!

 

[3 Leopards]

Hi

Drakes are pretty unparticular about their hens, while some do tend to have favorites,( I have an old rouen drake who prefers his pekin mix hen to anyone else) they'll mate with any hen, no matter her size, though a bantam hen might not appriciate the advances LOL.

mating will do them no harm and any ducklings hatched from them will likely stay small as in my experience they take after the size of the mother rather than the father.


last year when some wild mallards visited our pond some of my drakes got a hold of them, and when the mallard girls hatched out babies there was a wide assortment of colors from the ducklings and I watched the wild girls little love children grow up, with the exception of a couple, most of the young stayed small, a little bigger than mallards and were able to fly away with their mothers in the fall, but a couple ducklings got to just under large breed duck size, they cannot fly and are now happily a member of my flock.

 

[jdywntr]

Large breed drakes should NOT be kept with bantam hens as they can injure or kill them. Drakes should not be allowed to even attempt to mate with chickens as the species are not anatomically compatible and breeding is dangerous or deadly for the chicken. Seperate him now. Regardless of what you find you will need to introduce the ducks to him. Since he was not raised with ducks he is not necessarily going to take to them. You need to protect your chickens from him. That should be your first priority.

 

[3 Leopards]

I completely missed the part about the chickens *derp*

yes, ducks should never be allowed to mate with chickens, ducks have a penis, chickens do not, if a duck mates with a chicken it can seriously injure them, not to mention ducks are very rough when they mate, a lot rougher than a rooster