Help! Aggressive drakes fighting

[ReebArbutt]

Hello,
I am not the adult of my family and raise my ducks for being pets,
They are three call duck drakes and they hatched in July of 2017

They have been fighting a lot lately (as expected for mating season) but I'm growing more and more concerned with their health and well being.
Often times my two smaller drakes will gang up on the larger drake (last year was worse, this year it's more balanced but he is still targeted from time to time)
I noticed one of their battles my largest drake seemed to hump one of my other drakes and the other squawked before the one on top gestured. In the scenario that a drake attempted to perform a mating act on another drake, can this be harmful? Many times feathers are torn out and the acts are clearly painful for the losing duck.
I know their hormones have been built up and they haven't been able to properly release themselves with another female, so this may be the case. Their fights get pretty awful, beating each other with their wings and desperately trying to overcome the other. I know this could possibly be amplified by instincts and a need to mate being not filled.
I am trying to not intervene but it's hard to watch.
They often chase my feet (especially in brown boots) and seem to attempt to mate with them as well.
I know a possible fix would be to get females but currently my family is not in a state to care for more animals (we don't have a farm just keep a group of drakes as pets) and females would be problems for neighbors (noise). Also we would have to care for a large group of females, and were not prepared for that at this time

Does anyone have any solutions for this situation? Worst comes worst I know by a few months this harmonically charged aggression will calm down
Any help is appreciated, thank you!

 

[danceswithronin]

Not having kept ducks, I'd probably keep a few buckets of iced water on hand and dump it on them any time I saw them start to squabble. And conversely have treats on hand for when they are comingling peacefully.

 

[Wolfefarmyard]

Honestly I don’t see how you can fix this unless you house them separately or rehome them.

 

[Miss Lydia]

@thumper650 has all drakes I call on them when we see someone having problems like this.

 

[cheezenkwackers]

I think some of this is normal behavior. The mating isn’t necessarily sexual frustration it is also a dominance thing. I have two boys and four girls and I have had the boys do it to the other boys as well as girls with girls. I think they are just working out the pecking order. Obviously you don’t want any of them hurt though. I hope others have some ideas for you.

 

[thumper650]

Yep, I was outside, and the boys were going at it. I have them separated into pairs but noticed the pairs have started fight amongst themselves too.
I think it's amplified when the pairs can't see each other, which is only at night, since they're housed separately.
All you can do is separate them. I've read that keeping them in the dark for 24 hours can work, but i've not been able to try that yet.
Separate them before anyone gets hurt is my advice. And yeah, they will chase feet, especially open toe sandals!