AUSTRALIAN POULTRY FORUM™

Evening all..

I just wanted to add a side topic to my previous one as I have kept my limping Pekin separated from the rest of the flock for 24hrs now and she seems to be on the mend.. Slowly but surely.

She is eating well and resting though still being bullied by the bully duck when close to the separating fence inside the shed. She also seems sad when watching the other ducks eat and drink together so I was wondering what is the best way to integrate her once she is fully recovered? And will she always be bullied because she has already been singled out?

The other three Pekin girls seem to have settled in well and the two khaki boys are being very well behaved.. showing the girls all their tricks!! One of the girls seems to be a little calmer than the other two so I thought maybe I could buddy her up with the injured girl to not only keep her company but also become a bit of an allies.. Would this work or do you think she might start to bully the injured girl eventually??

Duck politics is exhausting!!

Ducks generally aren't bullies, they might have a tussle but that is usually it, males have a bit of a fight over girls in breeding season but its not like chicken fighting.

You said you have four girls, leave two with the boys and take one out to pair up with her until she is fully recovered. Putting her back beforehand risks reinjuring her leg as the males will go straight to her and mate, both of them.

Thanks again Sebducks!!

I was thinking she could do with a buddy.. I am also working with her one to one to tame her up a bit so could maybe work on both of them now!!

The buddy won't pick on her would she?? I'll aim to get the quieter of the girls.. just in case!!

No the buddy shouldn't pick on her, as I mentioned ducks generally don't bully eachother. She'll benefit from a mate at this time and when the injured girl goes back she'll be fine.

Thank you.. and sorry for being such a Newbie!!

Don't worry, we were all newbies once.

Morning Sebducks et al..

I managed to get a second duck into the same pen as the injured duck (quite easily - thank goodness!) but this morning she seems to be a tad stressed that she is not with the other two ducks.. not overly, just tad.. and so I just wanted to check that this is normal behavior and to ask if she will settle down with her new pen buddy after a while..?

FYI.. The injured duck seems to making a slight recovery and all the new girls are slowly starting to get used to me.. mimicking the behavior of the two boys who are both very tame and showing the girls that I'm not too scary!!

Any movement of pens can be stressful, give her a few days to get used to things and she should settle down.

Hello again.. well the duck politics have changed again and I need some advice!! With the injured duck now buddied up and healing, the other two ducks were fine with the two boys but on Saturday they began to gang up on one of the girls.. both constantly pecking her, one even pecking her whilst the other one was mating with her!

Now I know that this can be classed as typical mating behavior but it seemed to be a little too aggressive so I have now separated the boys from the girls.. putting all the girls together - no more bullying of the injured girl (yey!) - and this seems to be fine but not an ideal set up for me as the boys are still chasing my dog when free ranging and only the shed is divided not the outside pen so I have to put them all shifts for outside time!!

So.. do I have to rehome my boys or will they settle eventually or should I separate the boys to have two girls each to stop the competition - though this still creates shift work for me which is not desirable. I don't want to breed the ducks nor separate the boys as they are very close.. but I am worried for the girls - help!!

So you don't want ducklings? If you don't want ducklings then it's easy, rehome the males and just keep the females. Female ducks get along fine without a male and infact would absolutely love life without one (or two). Yes your right, it is normal behaviour for the males to gang up and mate with the girls, each male wants to be the father of the offspring so he'll mate after the other one has, thus creating stress on the females.