Help! My ducks have all gone insane!

[loofa]

It's hard to explain just how crazy my ducks are today. My husband checked on them at 4:30 this morning because he heard a racket and thought that I'd forgotten to put them in the coop last night but they were just being noisy in the coop - not normal 4:30 a.m. behavior but he dismissed it and went to work. Then when I woke up later I heard them being really noisy and got up to let them out - instead of their normal route to water and food, they just ran around quacking noisily and ATTACKING each other. Even my most docile girl got in a full on fight with another. Like, ALL five of them are acting possessed. One of them has minor injuries on her wing and I've separated her. It's been an hour now and they have not calmed down or really eaten - just passing head dunk in the water bucket. These ducks are about 2.5 years old and have never acted like this.

 

[loofa]

Also, since they are all being aggressive I cannot fix the situation by separating them - I don't have 5 different holding spaces.

 

[Summer_]

@Miss Lydia
@Isaac 0

 

[Canadian Wind]

It sounds like something may have alarmed them during the night and they are redirecting their nervousness on each other. Could an animal have been attempting to get in to the coop?

 

[loofa]

@Canadian Wind I thought of that too. This has never been their behavior in the past when something upset them though so I'm not so sure - even when I've pulled a hawk off of one that I was alerted to by them all screaming. They were super upset, but the banded together, they didn't attack each other.

 

[Launchpad]

It's hard to explain just how crazy my ducks are today. My husband checked on them at 4:30 this morning because he heard a racket and thought that I'd forgotten to put them in the coop last night but they were just being noisy in the coop - not normal 4:30 a.m. behavior but he dismissed it and went to work. Then when I woke up later I heard them being really noisy and got up to let them out - instead of their normal route to water and food, they just ran around quacking noisily and ATTACKING each other. Even my most docile girl got in a full on fight with another. Like, ALL five of them are acting possessed. One of them has minor injuries on her wing and I've separated her. It's been an hour now and they have not calmed down or really eaten - just passing head dunk in the water bucket. These ducks are about 2.5 years old and have never acted like this.

What is the male/female ratio? May not be a factor but may help if a male is being overly aggressive?

 

[loofa]

@Launchpad One drake, 4 hens - and the drake is not being the most agitated of the group, although they are all being weird.

 

[Miss Lydia]

Sure sounds to me like something has really spooked them have you checked to see if anything was digging or maybe left nail prints on the wood around your coop? Are they in as run or out free ranging? do you let them out to free range? if so and you haven't you might try it and see if it helps.

 

[loofa]

@Miss Lydia yes, they have an enormous fenced yard that they free range in every day all day long from morning until probably a bit later than they should and then they get locked in the coop, which is in a shut run, at night. Not sure why they would react this way this time if something spooked them when they haven't reacted this way in the past, but then I cannot claim to understand ducky thinking - they seem to have calmed down for the moment though, and it seems I may never know what set them off like that.

 

[HollowOfWisps]

Something has definitely scared them. Just like people ducks respond to fear differently each time. Think of it this way, someone makes you feel uneasy, but you only see them every once in awhile so while scared you're not panicking. Then one day you see this person peaking in your window and you lose it completely panicking. When ducks see predators at night it's like seeing Jason with a Machete standing out the window. The predators want to eat the ducks and the ducks are 100% aware that they are the prey.