New here! Duck advice needed!

[wildsilence]

Hi everyone!
I’ve been reading this forum for the best part of a year and have taken some great advice from it for us as new duck owners!
We’re in the UK and have had two ducks for the past 7 months, a female mallard and a Khaki Campbell (we think he’s crossed with something else) drake.
They have been inseparable since they met at 6 weeks old and of course we didn’t know what sex they were going to be. They’re now 7 months and unfortunately our drake has started to mate with our girl. As duck owners will know it’s pretty shocking to witness the first time you see it! He’s doing it a lot and we’re scared he might hurt or drown her as he does it in the pool a lot and her head is held under water. We always stop him if we catch it.
So as she’s smaller than him we knew right away we needed more girls, so we now have two Muscovy females who have been living in the pen next door for the past two weeks. They’ve all been able to see each other but not interact.
We’ve been extending the pen to give the 4 of them around 100sq ft of space and built them a nice big 16sq ft house.
Today we tried to put them together for the first time in the new extended pen but our Mallard girl just went absolutely crazy on them. Really aggressive. Chasing them and sitting on them and pecking at them. The two Muscovies are terrified.
We currently have them fenced off from each other in the same pen, but the Muscovies are too scared to even come out the house, they’ve been in there all day (with food and water).
Could anyone advise… when our old ducks attack the new ducks should we intervene and “tell them off” each time? Or should we let them fight it out? It’s pretty aggressive.
We are going away on Friday for a week and our neighbours will be looking after them twice a day for us. But I’m really worried about it. I don’t know if we should keep the new girls separate while we’re away or keep the drake separate (though this would distress our mallard) or leave them all together.
I don’t even know if we should be considering rehoming him for her safety. They’re so attached but he’s a danger to her health/life and it’s not even mating season so I can only see it getting worse.
Any advice much appreciated!

 

[Debbie292d]

Hiya, and welcome to BYC!

We have some duck people that will be coming along eventually, but you might want to also post something about this in the Duck Forum.

Later, once you get this figured out, check out the Duck section in our Learning Center for tons of articles on ducks. Something there might interest you.

 

[wildsilence]

Hiya, and welcome to BYC!

We have some duck people that will be coming along eventually, but you might want to also post something about this in the Duck Forum.

Later, once you get this figured out, check out the Duck section in our Learning Center for tons of articles on ducks. Something there might interest you.

Oh I’m sorry! Silly me I didn’t realise. Thanks for the heads up and the link

 

[Jenbirdee]

hello ! so glad you joined!
is your mallard girl actually injuring the muscovies? like deb said the duck forum will help and I will look for your post there. in the meantime :

 

[sourland]

Hello, and welcome to BYC. Muscovies are not a mallard derived breed - they speak a different language, and this can lead to problems with acceptance.

 

[janiedoe]

Welcome to BYC. I hope you will find your answers in the duck forum.

 

[ruthhope]

Integrating muscovy with mallard derived ducks can take time. My son had to take my female muscovy when I accepted muscovy drakes to rehab. His females accepted the muscovy after 2 weeks of see no touch and they were soon all bathing and eating together. The drake did not. He had to be in a fenced off compartment in the coop. We put a shared bowl of food under the partition and the female muscovy tried very hard to inveigle the pekin drake. She was ok during the day as they free range and she had plenty of hiding places in the shrubbery. In the end, my son's drake had to come to my flock and one of my pekin drakes went there. They settled down quickly.

With your 10x10 space (which is big enough for your ducks) your muscovy have no where to run and hide. I suggest you keep the see no touch for at least another 2 weeks. I am hopeful that all will work put OK in time especially approaching the shorter days when duck hormones wane.

It would cause both your drake and your original female a lot of stress to separate him (rehome him) i would not do that at this stage. After 2 weeks, you should try again letting the ducks out together. If the female continues to attack the muscovy, put her into "jail" . It may be that if your drake bonds with the 2 muscovy--drakes like to have a hareem--he will the stop the aggression

 

[wildsilence]

Integrating muscovy with mallard derived ducks can take time. My son had to take my female muscovy when I accepted muscovy drakes to rehab. His females accepted the muscovy after 2 weeks of see no touch and they were soon all bathing and eating together. The drake did not. He had to be in a fenced off compartment in the coop. We put a shared bowl of food under the partition and the female muscovy tried very hard to inveigle the pekin drake. She was ok during the day as they free range and she had plenty of hiding places in the shrubbery. In the end, my son's drake had to come to my flock and one of my pekin drakes went there. They settled down quickly.

With your 10x10 space (which is big enough for your ducks) your muscovy have no where to run and hide. I suggest you keep the see no touch for at least another 2 weeks. I am hopeful that all will work put OK in time especially approaching the shorter days when duck hormones wane.

It would cause both your drake and your original female a lot of stress to separate him (rehome him) i would not do that at this stage. After 2 weeks, you should try again letting the ducks out together. If the female continues to attack the muscovy, put her into "jail" . It may be that if your drake bonds with the 2 muscovy--drakes like to have a hareem--he will the stop the aggression

Thank you! I’ve replied in the duck forum