Would a drake calm noisy hens?

[rachd1987]

So my 3 White Campbell girls are driving my partner mad. They are back yard duckies, I love them dearly, but my fella is after their blood at the moment! They are incredibly noisy at times. I always make sure they have fresh water, access to feed, grit, a pond, and I hang up greens for them to peck at. They have plenty of room, a nice warm dry house, they even have parrot toys to play with (spoilt). Sometimes they will quack (SHOUT!) until we give them peas to shut them up, sometimes they seem to shout just to be naughty, after eating loads of bribery peas! So, I am at a loss at what to do for them to make them happy (quieter). I don't mind the quack chatter, when I talk to them they answer me, and they give me their opinion on what I'm doing or how I'm doing it, this isn't the issue, this is part of what makes them loveable to me. It's the SHOUT SHOUT SHOUT quacking that is the issue. As well as my fella, I don't want to upset my neighbours, there's only so many keep the peace eggs that I can ply them with.

Does anyone have any opinions on if getting them a boyfriend would calm them down? They display the unusual mounting each other despite being all females behaviour that suggests to me they would love a boy to flirt with. However I think if I suggest adding to my flock without some experienced back up I might be sent to live in the pen with them! Especially as I reassured him before we got them that they would be quiet.... In my defence when I researched the breed they weren't known for being noisy! If this isn't the answer, does anyone have any suggestions for what I can do to reduce this behaviour, or what I could be missing that will keep them happy? Thanks!

EDIT: I should mention it is the leader of the pack who is the issue, she is a bossy boots in general, but her shouting encourages the other 2 to join in...

 

[Welshies]

I'm not sure if a drake would affect this, although I've heard females do this loud squaking to attrack a mate. In order to help block sound you could use trees and vegetation.

 

[Animal family]

How old are they? I’m not sure because I’m new to ducks, but mine was very loud while she was a teenager, she’s quieter now that she’s 10 months old.

 

[rachd1987]

I think their shouting could be to attract attention, sometimes they see me in the kitchen and start shouting

They are nearly 2 now

 

[chickens really]

Simple answer is no..A Drake will not stop the Quacking of the Hens... If anything they might Quack more.
Duck Hens are noisy.

 

[CarleeAnn]

Seems like they have associated loud quacking with getting peas! Try to give them peas when they’re quiet.

If they quack when they are separated from you spend about a week going in and out of their view- only when they are quiet though! Teach them that quacking loudly doesn’t get them anything. Explain to your partner that your working on it and it will take some time, maybe they can assist too.

 

[rachd1987]

Seems like they have associated loud quacking with getting peas! Try to give them peas when they’re quiet.

If they quack when they are separated from you spend about a week going in and out of their view- only when they are quiet though! Teach them that quacking loudly doesn’t get them anything. Explain to your partner that your working on it and it will take some time, maybe they can assist too.

You're probably dead right! I will give this a try. Hopefully they will survive long enough to learn quiet means peas! Thank you

 

[pamelajean]

Haha, I had the same question a few months back. My husband does not love the ducks, nor their LOUD quacking. I find it endearing. We lost one to a bobcat a little over a week ago - that really quieted them down for about a week. Now the two remaining are back at it especially when they see me or even when they hear the house door open/close. Training them to be quiet is an interesting idea! I'd like to hear how it goes if you try it out!

 

[CarleeAnn]

This is what my husband and I did to transition our ducks being outside who were very attached to us:

We would put them outside and walk out of sight, timing how long it took them to start quacking loudly. I think it was less than 30 seconds.

We went back, calmed them down, then went away again- but only for 20 seconds- came back before they started quacking. We did this about three times at the 20 second interval and then we extended it to thirty seconds.

We continued this, adding increments of time and if we were gone too long and they started quacking again we would go back two times (so if we were up to 1 minute we would go back not 45 seconds but about 30 seconds). We did this till we got to about 5 minutes the first day, 10 the second, I think 30 the third and then by the fifth they would not cry for us anymore unless they heard us talking! By the seventh they would stay quiet even if they heard us talking.

To stop them from crying when they hear us we did the same procedure just talking the whole time.

You don’t have to add just 10-30 seconds at a time, especially once you get over the 2 minute mark. But we wanted to be very thorough! And it worked!!

Good luck!