young ducks

[kari76]

I have a question about my older male ducks. I have younger ducks as well and they are now outside. They still have some downy left but most of their fathers.anyway my males won't leave them alon they are trying 2 mate with them every chance they get, and their not 2 afraid of me when i run them off. How do I control this, and will they hurt the younger duck? I mean this has to happen in the wild beings part of nature

 

[Speceider]

yes, he can hurt the young ducks. You need to keep them separated. It doesn't happen in the wild because drakes go off to molt while the duck incubates and raises the young so they are not in close proximity. Also, wild ducks are more seasonal layers and after breeding the hormone levels in the drakes drop, unlike domestics which have a much longer breeding season.

Clint

 

[ducksinarow]

I am in the same boat as you. I have been keeping my young ones and adults separated. I read here that an adult drake should not be allowed to be with the ducklings for 5-6 months. Maybe someone has better information but I understood that the adult drake could really hurt both male and female juveniles. You could just separate the drake and let the rest run together. I will be watching this thread to see what others say. Best of luck.

 

[ducklover87]

Do the older drakes have any females? If so then I'd separate them where they can see each other but the babies can't get hurt give it a few days to a week then let them out together and see what happens. Mine were fine when I did that. If you don't have females than I would keep them separate until they are fully grown.

Edited to fix auto corrects errors.

 

[Nebraskagirl]

This week I had to take my Welsh Harlequin drake back to the farm where I got him because of this very issue. Our drake WOULD NOT leave our two five-week old ducklings alone, even though he had an adult female Welsh Harlequin to keep him busy. (They are both the parents of our young. We incubated the eggs.) We supervised them outside and kept them separated, but the drake managed to get a hold of one of the ducklings and injured her leg fairly badly. Since he has been gone, the adult female and the two young ducklings have finally bonded for the first time and it VERY PEACEFUL here.
Take heed, the drake WILL kill a duckling. I look at it this way: Do I want one drake? Or do I want ducklings?

 

[kari76]

Thanks for all of the advice. I put both males up while the duckings are out, they were waring me out chasing them constantly lol. I was hoping since the ducklings run with my gosslings they would be fine because the geese are as big as the adult ducks, but I guess they are still 2 young as well. They will charge at the adult males, but they will run away as well. I will just keep them up better safe then sorry