Help. My Khaki Cambells are fighting.. On Week 4.5 and 2 of the 6 Khaki's are getting bullied/are Injured

[khakitroubles]

Hi Guys.. New to the water fowl world. Two of my ladies are getting bullied excessively and they're currently bleeding from the wings as they're growing in. I am trying to figure out fowl behavior. I have a sneaking suspicion one of them might be a drake in disguise.. but I am not sure when you can tell officially.

Most importantly what do I do? The largest duck is of course dominant in the group.. and I was a little desperate to stop the aggression that was getting progressively worse over the past 3 days.. So I did the "alpha duck thing" took him/her out and gently held them against the ground for a minute.. This didn't work. They went straight back to pecking the injured ladies. I have since gone on a walk with the bully in my hands and visited the neighbors dog -- and I told bully that I was going to feed him to the dog if he keeps hurting the other ducks. I walked them back and the ducks have since calmed the attacks against one another. Perhaps I am now the villain? Khaki's are so nervous that interrupting behavior is difficult task.

What are typical elements that lead to in house-fighting (assuming all the ducks are female), will it end before their is a permanent injury? and why is this not somewhere on this forum-- Am I the only one with excessively single-breed aggressive ducks?

 

[TheOddOneOut]

Hi Guys.. New to the water fowl world. Two of my ladies are getting bullied excessively and they're currently bleeding from the wings as they're growing in. I am trying to figure out fowl behavior. I have a sneaking suspicion one of them might be a drake in disguise.. but I am not sure when you can tell officially.

Most importantly what do I do? The largest duck is of course dominant in the group.. and I was a little desperate to stop the aggression that was getting progressively worse over the past 3 days.. So I did the "alpha duck thing" took him/her out and gently held them against the ground for a minute.. This didn't work. They went straight back to pecking the injured ladies. I have since gone on a walk with the bully in my hands and visited the neighbors dog -- and I told bully that I was going to feed him to the dog if he keeps hurting the other ducks. I walked them back and the ducks have since calmed the attacks against one another. Perhaps I am now the villain? Khaki's are so nervous that interrupting behavior is difficult task.

What are typical elements that lead to in house-fighting (assuming all the ducks are female), will it end before their is a permanent injury? and why is this not somewhere on this forum-- Am I the only one with excessively single-breed aggressive ducks?

How much space are you keeping them in? Can they escape from the bullies? When you aren't around, do they continue? Have you put something like Blu-Kote (is that really the spelling?) on the wings?

 

[khakitroubles]

They got big so fast. The wood is where we're going to build a fence. But this is the enclose so far. I have since took out the main bully. And it seems to have calmed the aggressive behavior - A LOT. So the bleeding just started happening because the bully was pecking where that part of the wing was developing maybe one day ago? I am going to wait a day before I move toward bandaging.. mainly because Khaki's are So skittish and it really does seem to torture them when I have to pick them up/ corner them. Balancing emotional trauma with physical I guess?

question response: moved main big bully to neighbors chicken enclosure (they don't have chickens yet) for a day. Waiting to see if behavior changes. And yes --- the bullying would happen constantly (regardless of whether or not I was there). They're so quiet - but you can hear the pain squawks when they get pecked.

 

[TomCahalan]

I think that bullying among ducklings is pretty rare. I have raised about 33 ducklings and only 1 bully so far. You should probably just cull him.

 

[Miss Lydia]

If you can keep the bully separated for longer so when brought back he may become the less dominant one like bringing in a new duck to a flock

 

[khakitroubles]

Well - its been the main part of the day and the bleeding on the two ducks has stopped and from my observations the aggressive behavior has also stopped. Its amazing how it just takes one bad duck to make the other ducks feel like its okay to injure their sisters! And now that the bully duck is gone -- they're not biting each other anymore! Thanks for the advice on what to do with the bully -- Also thank you for letting me know that its rare! My partner has never had a pet before and these are first animals together.. So she was kind of devastated and I was worried that I was going to have to deal with more this into the future..

 

[HalfWayUpAMountain]

Well - its been the main part of the day and the bleeding on the two ducks has stopped and from my observations the aggressive behavior has also stopped. Its amazing how it just takes one bad duck to make the other ducks feel like its okay to injure their sisters! And now that the bully duck is gone -- they're not biting each other anymore! Thanks for the advice on what to do with the bully -- Also thank you for letting me know that its rare! My partner has never had a pet before and these are first animals together.. So she was kind of devastated and I was worried that I was going to have to deal with more this into the future..

I've only been keeping ducks a few years but so far I can confirm that the learning doesnt seem to stop !

It sounds like you've good instincts and its unlikely you'll come across something that nobody here has.

So you are in the right place - glad the rest settled down and I bet they love that pen !