HELP!!!! ducks fighting-Has anyone had this problem?

[hereachick]

ok, as of today my dominant male duck with the sore chest (missing feathers & raw) Is doing fine (healing up nicely) so is the other male. They are in seperaate outdoor areas with their pools each has a female in with them and their areas are about 10 away from each other.The ladies seem to get tired of the males after awhile and fly over the netting while the males just pace along the netting quaking at them.It's funny we have a pool in the middle between the 2 male areas and both females fly over and meet in this pool swimming and having a blast while the males pace back and forth all day watching them.I can't understand why the males don't fly over but, they don't!
At night, we've been lucky! We seperate the males into different sections.Seperated by chicken wire with a old blanket ceiling to floor so they can't see each other and put both females in with one male swapping the females from one male to the other each night.So far this is working well Hopefully it will continue to work.

I do have one other question tho......
one female doesn't seem to be laying eggs anymore,has all the male fighting upset her cycle? Or do they just lay for so long and stop? It's only been a short time that she's layed.The other female is still laying.thanks

 

[GoodEgg]

As far as your laying question ... I don't know ... but it might make a difference what breed of ducks you have?

Thanks for posting about this. I have 2 ducks / 2 drakes too. So far the drakes are fine with each other. They just patrol the yard, seeking out intruders to attack (including me if I go in the yard, LOL).

Unfortunately, one of them has started attacking the dog. Actually, it's been going on for a while. He can't hurt the dog, but the dog wants to play back, and I'm afraid the drake can be seriously hurt. So I have to keep the dog locked up when the drakes are out, or take him to another area on-leash. He's just a pup too ... it's been hard on him to have to ignore an attacking drake when he wants to play, but in a way it's a good training tool. Might as well toss in the temptations and get them out of the way while the dog is learning to behave around poultry.

I hope your current set-up keeps working for you, and you can find more ducks if that's what you decide. I'll keep that in mind if mine develop a problem, but I'm hoping they won't. Still, I know a 2-2 ratio is certainly not idea with ducks. It's just how it worked out, since we bought straight-run.

Best of luck with yours!

trish

 

[Kelvinator]

Hi, me and my two drakes (Kelvin & Quark) are newbies here and am finding some really useful info on duck care on this site, it's great! I have had the same problem with my two, one-year old drakes recently. One duck has absolutely ripped the feathers off of the other duck's neck to the point where there is about a 3 inch by 1 inch bald spot.

Strange thing is, these ducks are together constantly, never more than two feet apart from each other. They do have an extremely close bond (siblings) and get along well the majority of the time. There are no hens in the yard for them to compete for, so will this behavior eventually quit when the more aggressive drake realizes he's the top dog, or will this continue indefinitely??? I would hate to have to give one away, they are a really good "couple", and I think they would miss each other terribly. Any thoughts?

 

[dianaross77]

Quote:
Your drakes probably aren't fighting, they're probably trying to mate eachother. I think missing feathers on the neck would happen to a female being mated too often.

 

[beardiemom]

We have 8 male ducks (magpies), now about one year old. They were doing great as a unit until about May when they started picking on one. We moved him and another weaker one to the chicken yard and put them in the chicken run at night. Over the next month we moved over 2 more so that we are now 4 and 4. We made a second house out of a large wire dog crate covered with tarp and a plastic roof for now.

They have settled in nicely, but the few times we have left the gate open between the two they immediately begin to strut and fight like something out of West Side Story. So, we think we will keep them in the two groups and build a coop that we can divide. I would like to think that they will grow out of it, but who knows.

Sharon

 

[1234duck]

yikes.. mine are fighting too. I don't know how many fences i can rig up(by myself..Dam Hubbys NO help)

lmao ~Julie~

 

[beardiemom]

This is for Julie,

We are using cheap orange snow fencing and the cheap electric fence posts to make internal fences for our ducks. Cheap, light, easy to move. And yes you can do it yourself. The weave is just small enough that they can't really get their beaks through to fight. And, you don't have to worry about permanent fencing or posts in your space. We are thinking about doing this some more to protect certain areas of grass and give the ducks a range of foraging experiences.

 

[xke4]

I have had 3 drakes now for 4 years. (not by choice, they were all rescues). If left together in their pen, they would spend the day trying to kill each other. When free ranging on the grass (always under supervision) they will be fine together for 15 minute intervals. Then one will look sideways at another and the fight is on. The inside of my coop as well as the pen is a series of gates.

Outside pen

Inside coop

I use the plastic chicken wire and it has withstood the Canadian winters very well.

 

[NYRIR]

Quote:
x 2...and pronto

 

[1234duck]

What an exhausting day. I'm not quite sure who can be more stressful, the kids or the ducks. The drakes ARE Trying to mate each other. Both of my hens are broodie right now. The Golden Cascade has eggs in the dog cage, which the Rouen decided to sit on & the GC continued laying her eggs in another nest which she is now sitting on. Its kinda funny how the Rouen drake use to pick on the GC drake so I had to separate them. Well I decided to let all of them out to free range and get more exercise, so the GC drake decides he wants to be the mean one & starts fighting with the Rouen drake (rolls now reversed) When I first started putting my baby/Lucky Ducky outside with all the others, i was worried they would fight with him even though they were all separated by dividers. Well for some reason Lucky Ducky ends up being mean to his dad, the Rouen, always trying to pick fights. I try to distract them when I think they gonna be mean. ~Today I noticed that the GC drake is chasing the Rouen drake & BOTH of them are chasing my Lucky Ducky to mate. Grrrrr... those pervert ducks, there just aint no way any one is gonna hurt my Lucky Ducky. Lucky was at my feet all evening while i was preparing the other pen but daylight ran out so I'll finish tomorrow. I feel bad I put Lucky in a pen just for tonight instead of letting him out with the other 2 drakes but at lease they cant get to him. (I would get rid of all them before I would let anything happen to him.) Lucky is my 1st time, successful hatch in the incubator. He's my 17 week old Rouen. ~ Will the drakes always be like this? ~How long does mating season last? Thanks, ~Julie~