Magpie Drakes - Wisconsin

[Duck Mum]

Hello fellow duck lovers!

I'm hoping someone in the WI area can help me out! I currently have 3 drakes and 1 duck/hen - 2 of the drakes are black and white Magpies. All 4 ducks are just over 17 weeks old and are starting to mate with our 1 girl (or trying to at least). We've been reading that Magpie drakes have a very high libido and so it's recommended that we keep a ratio of drakes to ducks of 1:5. Unfortunately, our town will only allow us to have 4 total ducks and so adding more girls is not an option (though we would love to). We hate to see these guys go as we've raised them since they were 3 days old (and they're such good foragers and have great personalities), but for the sake of our girl, we will need to re-home these guys.

Are there any breeders in WI that are looking to add Magpies to their flock or can anyone refer me to someone who just adores Magpies and wants them as pets? With their status considered "threatened" by the Livestock Conservancy, we want these guys to go to someone who is interested in conservation/breeding. We love them so much!

Looking forward to hearing from someone!

Thank you

 

[Kiki to Nana]

Who cares what the town says unless your telling everyone you have these pets.

 

[Isaac 0]

Who cares what the town says unless your telling everyone you have these pets.

Probably a lot of other people in the town who have ducks and dont want this to ruin there reputation.If she kept those drakes they would kill the hens.

 

[Isaac 0]

Hello fellow duck lovers!

I'm hoping someone in the WI area can help me out! I currently have 3 drakes and 1 duck/hen - 2 of the drakes are black and white Magpies. All 4 ducks are just over 17 weeks old and are starting to mate with our 1 girl (or trying to at least). We've been reading that Magpie drakes have a very high libido and so it's recommended that we keep a ratio of drakes to ducks of 1:5. Unfortunately, our town will only allow us to have 4 total ducks and so adding more girls is not an option (though we would love to). We hate to see these guys go as we've raised them since they were 3 days old (and they're such good foragers and have great personalities), but for the sake of our girl, we will need to re-home these guys.

Are there any breeders in WI that are looking to add Magpies to their flock or can anyone refer me to someone who just adores Magpies and wants them as pets? With their status considered "threatened" by the Livestock Conservancy, we want these guys to go to someone who is interested in conservation/breeding. We love them so much!

Looking forward to hearing from someone!

Thank you

Welcome to BYC!

I hope you find a home for them.You can consider posting in your state thread.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/wisconsin-cheeseheads.245700/page-6232

 

[Duck Mum]

Welcome to BYC!

I hope you find a home for them.You can consider posting in your state thread.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/wisconsin-cheeseheads.245700/page-6232

Thank you! I will do that!!

In response to your comment about the drakes killing the hen, I didn't know it could get that bad! How often does that happen and why? Just too aggressive? A couple of times one of the drakes tried mating with the hen while they were swimming and it made me nervous because her whole head was submerged under the water! Could she drown from this?

 

[Isaac 0]

Yep,Drakes will drown them to death.Sad but true.

 

[Duck Mum]

Oh no! Good information to have. So, we were planning on keeping 1 drake (an Ancona) and then getting 2 more hens (so 3 hens in total) - do you think it would be better to just have all hens then and re-home the Ancona as well?

We've been reading it is nice to have at least 1 male in a flock as they do a good job of protecting the girls..., but if they're swimming and we're not around to monitor them, I'd hate to have something happen to one of the girls!