Call Drake after ducklings

[chickenwhisperer]

Hi all,

My three little ducklings are now 3 weeks old, and doing great! I have kept my drake separated with a baby gate from the duck and wee ones, as advised. I was told that he was unlikely to hurt the ducklings on purpose, but might step on them, etc, and hurt them accidentally. This a.m. he slipped through the gate as I was adjusting it, and went after one of the ducklings in what seemed a quite aggressive way (pinned it down, pulled out some feathers). Obviously, I removed him from their area and secured the gate between them.. My question is: IS this normal?! I had hoped to house the 5 Calls together when the ducklings were a bit bigger, and I am now wondering if this will be possible or not..?

Thanks in advance!

[Evy]

Hi all,

My three little ducklings are now 3 weeks old, and doing great! I have kept my drake separated with a baby gate from the duck and wee ones, as advised. I was told that he was unlikely to hurt the ducklings on purpose, but might step on them, etc, and hurt them accidentally. This a.m. he slipped through the gate as I was adjusting it, and went after one of the ducklings in what seemed a quite aggressive way (pinned it down, pulled out some feathers). Obviously, I removed him from their area and secured the gate between them.. My question is: IS this normal?! I had hoped to house the 5 Calls together when the ducklings were a bit bigger, and I am now wondering if this will be possible or not..?

Thanks in advance!

Don't try until they're adult size & weight. He obviously intends to do serious damage. When you do integrate them, do it in neutral territory that he doesn't feel he has to defend. There will be some squabbling but, by then, they can take it.

[Leo]

Some drakes can be mean. Like Evy said, wait until the ducklings are grown and then there may be a little aggression shown by the drake to the younger ones but they will be able to get away from him until they all get used to being together.

[Katy]

Agreed with the other replies...and I've found too, that when I begin to integrate the birds, there is normally one female who I can trust to be "friendlier/more accepting" of the younger ones, and I begin by fencing her seperately with them to get adjusted before integrating with the entire flock...this sometimes help to create an ali with one of the mature ducks and it doesn't out-number the young ones all at once. When all is said and done, pecking order is a natural process that all new ducks deal with, and when they are of similar size, it's pretty harmless except for some feather pulling and chasing on occasion.