Why are my female rouen ducks attacking female pekin

[Miss Lydia]

Yep being the Rouens are older of course they want to push the young Pekin around. These birds make me think of the playground at school there is always someone who thinks they are top dog and will pick on a younger kid.
They see her as an outsider since the Rouens have most likely been together since they hatched. How are they with your KC drake?

 

[Wildbill5566]

Yep being the Rouens are older of course they want to push the young Pekin around. These birds make me think of the playground at school there is always someone who thinks they are top dog and will pick on a younger kid.
They see her as an outsider since the Rouens have most likely been together since they hatched. How are they with your KC drake?

So far the rouens and KC drake get along great!

 

[Wildbill5566]

So far the rouens and KC drake get along great!

 

[Miss Lydia]

Just wondering, sometimes older females feel the need to also put young drakes in their place too. lol

 

[Wildbill5566]

Think what I’ll be doing is have the bully one in a cage inside the pen while others are playing around etc. hopefully building a bond with pekin.

 

[Wildbill5566]

Just wondering, sometimes older females feel the need to also put young drakes in their place too. lol

Haha. True. Just bugs me when I see the female rouens picking on the young female pekin and the drake seems to playfully bully the pekin

 

[Miss Lydia]

She's young is the reason. Give her time to mature hopefully she'll hold her own then. My Runner drake likes to bully my Muscovy females by chasing them away from his girls. I tell ya they are so much like kids.

 

[FrostyMilkshake]

Are all the same age and come from the same place? I see a drake how is he with the Pekin?

It's great when they have some scuffles and then all is worked out but sometimes it just doesn't work and the poor duck that is being picked on is so stressed it can lead to sickness. Especially if she is bullied away from food and water. I have 11 yr old Muscovy females who have to go through time out because they can pick on one of their own. At time for bed I won't tolerate one picking on another when there is no place for the one being picked on to get away. I keep a large dog crate in my largest coop and that is time out overnight. Try and watch to see what is triggering this behavior. Possibly even the color of her feathers? Rouens being dark colored and the Pekin being white may have something to do with it. Separating the Pekin with the lesser bully might work to start to solve this let them be together for a week or less depending on how it goes, then introduce the other to them and see if that helps with the behavior. How old are they because hormones is what usually causes the bullying here

Wow I never really thought about colors being a trigger for bullying in ducks. I may have to reconsider what ducks I pick up later since I only plan on 3 or maaaybe 4. I've heard about crows bullying and excluding white crows before. How common is it to be a problem in ducks? Is it more common in smaller groups?

 

[Miss Lydia]

The reason I mentioned it was I've seen it a few times here on BYC. Where ducks would bully another duck that wasn't same color as they are dark compared to light.

Not related to bullying but I have 2 female Buff ducks and even though they were hatched with Runners they are always together maybe it's the fact that they see the same color of each other and are bonded because of it. Someone needs to do a study on this.

 

[Luv Ducks]

I am fortunate. I have a white Muscovy Hen with a gold colored chest, two Rouen Hens that look like big Mallards, two small Mallard, a brown Khaki Campbell Hen, two little Mallard looking Call Ducks, a very Big Black, white and gray Muscovy Drake, two gray and brown Mule Ducks and a Mallard/Rouen Drake with a green head. All of mine seem to get along just fine but maybe its because they are colored blind! LOL I know they can see color, I was just kidding.