Flock of all drakes

[Hoompla]

Hello, so about July last year my family got six ducklings, two Pekin, three rounen?, and I believe an apple yard. We were hoping for layers and thought we had sexed them to be all females, but they were all males. They are now mature and we are having problems with them being violent towards each other. My two male pekins are indoor right now as I’m treating them for bumble foot.

I love them and am hoping to make it work for them to be indoor ducks but I can’t find much on indoor ducks and if they can be happy that way.

We have a very small rounen duck who we love very much and we had to nurse him back to health as a teen. Unfortunately because he is so much smaller than the others he is getting hurt and has almost no feathers on the back of his head.

We have also a male and female Pekin pair separate from our six males.

My questions are would it be safe to keep six male ducks if no female were involved?

Can ducks live a happy life indoors if cared for properly and if so how do I stop the fighting during their hormonal season?

I may have to rehome. Culling is the last thing we want to do but finding homes for drakes where I am is very difficult and we can’t let them suffer.

 

[sourland]

Some people maintain all drake flocks, but it frequently becomes necessary to separate them during the breeding season whether or not there are duck hens present. Drakes are extremely sex driven. Frequently an all drake flock will select a smaller/weaker individual and attempt to gang breed him. It sounds as if that is happening to the Rouen drake. They are capable of severely injuring/killing him. I would definitely separate him from the others for his protection.

 

[Miss Lydia]

@thumper650 has had an all drake flock hopefully he’ll see this tag and tell you how he keeps his boys. I do agree you need to get the small Rouen out of harms way.

 

[Miss Lydia]

As for keeping ducks inside it can be done but they still will need some outside time for fresh air an sunshine.

 

[ruthhope]

I have all drakes and they all hang out together during the day. Where one goes the others follow. I currently have 4 but until December had 6. Others come and go as I rescue, rehab and rehome ducks.There is always one that isn't as close as the others are to eachother, but its usually Daffy who is standoffish. I rescued him as a 2 day old duckling and hand reared him in the house for 8 weeks. He's the biggest and he thinks he should be a house duck. He tries to get in the house at every opportunity. There is an occasional fight during the day in the spring but I rarely need to intervene. Bullying in the duck house overnight can be a bigger issue -- I am alerted when one of the boys wont go in at night. I had been using dog crates to sleep either an aggressor or a bullied drake depending on the dynamics bet9ween the ducks. I currently have a little pekin drake in a dog crate -- which he likes and is often first into bed -- because he can be very annoying and when he annoys a muscovy drake he inevitably comes off worse.

Then Daffy started leading me on a song and dance round the back garden, three nights on the run, 2 weeks ago. I realised he must be being bullied and fashioned a compartment for him from the sides of a temporary dog pen. He's not caged like in a dogcrate -- he could get out at the front. But he has his own food and water and is happy in there. The other drakes could get in there too, but it has only happened once and they now all recognize eachothers roosting space

So most inter-drake problems can be managed, and separating at night is often the only intervention needed if they have plenty of space to run around and hide during the day

 

[thumper650]

My drakes are nuts right now, but this happens every spring. Usually I separate them with small fences. I have 4 boys in one pen, usually I separate them, runners on one side and pekin on the other. For whatever reason, my pekin are going at each other, so they're separated from each other. Your fences don't usually have to be high. Mine are made of hardware cloth on wooden frames. Just make sure there's no sharp edges. You'll have to experiment with who gets along with each other.

I totally understand your plight. I love my duckies and could never get rid of them, no matter what. It just takes a little extra patience and work to keep them all safe.