Should I add another pair?

[Mochitheduck]

Hi y’all. I have a set of 2 khaki Campbell drakes, who have been raised together since they were ducklings. I have no interest in females, as they are just pets and I have no desire for eggs. However, I’ve been wanting to get another pair of drakes, but I’m not sure if they’ll ruin what my two boys already have. I’ve read posts about the allusive “bachelor flocks” but will this work? Or should I just let my boys waddle on. Thank you.

 

[ruthhope]

Hi y’all. I have a set of 2 khaki Campbell drakes, who have been raised together since they were ducklings. I have no interest in females, as they are just pets and I have no desire for eggs. However, I’ve been wanting to get another pair of drakes, but I’m not sure if they’ll ruin what my two boys already have. I’ve read posts about the allusive “bachelor flocks” but will this work? Or should I just let my boys waddle on. Thank you.

Welcome to BYC Mochitheduck

I have an all male flock. Mine are rescues and rehabs and the drakes are hard to rehome so I keep them.

In my experience, you can add more drakes --= and another two coming in together might be better than one and later another one. However, the additions will not have the same relationship with your original drakes as the original have with each other.

My first boy, Daffy, a muscovy was rescued soon after hatching running around in a parking lot in a rain storm on his own. I brooded him in my house and then acquired 2 drakes from a wildlife rehabber when Daffy was about 7-8 weeks old, as I needed to socialize Daffy with ducks. The two that came were another muscovy, O Pato, of the same age as Daffy who had been rescued from a retention pond where he was waterlogged and abandoned by his mother duck and rest of the clutch. And Ping a crested pekin that had been attacked by a raccoon that had killed its clutch mate. The pekins were easter ducklings and Ping is 4 months older than O Pato and Daffy. But Ping was cared for by the rehabber with O Pato once Ping was well enough to run around, and when O Pato was 3 - 4 weeks. The two bonded and are still very close -- inseperable actually. Daffy got on well with Ping and O Pato and would cuddle up to O Pato and rest his head across O Pato's shoulders when they were little. But last spring that changed as drake hormones kicked in. O Pato and Ping remain bonded; Daffy and O Pato had major skirmishes to determine top duck. That settled down and they went back to amicable living -- parallel to each other not close. Daffy thinks he should be a house duck and will try and get inside at every opportunity. He is on the margins but if the other two go off to the far corner of the garden, he does follow.

Butter my more recently added muscovy was rehomed to me in December as he was being ostracized by his clutch mates now they were adult. He sticks around with O Pato and Ping, like Daffy does, and like Daffy isn't close to them. Actually its Daffy and Butter who are having skirmishes this spring.

I suspect that if you add another drake, or two, they will be like Daffy and Butter -- they will hang around with your original pair but will not be close and inseperable like your original two. There will be skirmishes when the drake hormones surge, but mine have not been serious fights. Some drakes are seriously fighters -- I don't think you can predict which ones will be and which ones wont.

Over the two years I have had ducks [I originally started with three pekins from TSC that are technically my son's but they need more sustained care than my son offers]. I have had many more rescues come and join us until they are re homed. Most recently two pekins that were tightly bonded, but abused by their previous owner and dumped on the side of the road. Those two boys never were close with the muscovy but were real water babies and spent all day in a wading pool -- they had their own so that the muscovy got a chance to bath. Another pekin drake came for about 5 months this time last year and wasn't close to mine but did hang around on the periphery. He had to be rehomed as he was mean to Ping, my crested pekin with the damaged bill from the raccoon attack.

So really you have to decide whether to stick with your boys and their enjoyable life style or whether to take the risk of introducing a disruptive drake or two. The new ones won't be like your original boys but like mine will probably give you lots of pleasure. You will have to deal with pecking order skirmishes and should have a plan for rehoming one or both of any new additions if the new boy(s) turn out to be disruptive.

Good luck and let us know how you get on!