Duck Fight

20 years ago

I have a question for those of you who have ducks. I have 6 adult ducks 4 hens 2 drakes. They were raised together and have been inseperable for almost a year. Today I go up to the barn and find one of my males seperated from the group laying by himself along the fence line. He looks like he had been in a heck of a fight ie....bloody and bruised bill and a wet and bruised neck and side of face. I picked him up to inspect him. I didnt find any lacerations or holes. He is just banged up pretty good. So I treat what I could and put him back in the pasture where the other ducks are. I noticed he was'nt going over to the others so I thought that maybe he had a foot injury and didnt want to walk. So I watched him for awhile and after about 10 minutes my other drake comes at him and starts laying into him, jumping on him and billing him and trying to pull out feathers on his back and side of face and most generally running him off. Now he seems to have been ostersized from the group and is off by himself. My question is, Do they fight among themselfs?(they never have)and should we seperate him from the others? Will they settle their differences and become one big happy family or we going to have to move him off by himself. I also wonder if something could be wrong or if he's sick(no symptoms at all)and they some how know it...any thoughts and or ideas would be welcomed. I would hate for him to have to be a lone duck. He gets along real well with our goats so I may have him bunk in the stall with them....I just found this episode very strange.....thanks in advance......Josette

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Comments (4)

GennyM
20 years ago
I would keep him away from them for a little while until you could go outside and watch them for an hour or two so you can make sure they won't hurt him again....Are you sure that a coyote or opossum or something like that didn't hurt him?? When you show him to the others again get on to them if they peck at him and what I mean by "get on to them" is just tell them "NO" I know that may sound funny telling a duck NO but whenever I bring new ducks home I always show them to the big ducks and if and when they peck them I tell them NO is a loud voice....that doesn't always make them stop completely because when a new duck comes they show which one is boss. I don't know of a whole lot to tell you because I don't know why your ducks are acting this way...I know sometimes they pick on the weakest one because we have a duck that when she was born her little leg was twisted and she has to hop around on one foot....and the 2 females (that are the boss) peck her more often than they do the rest....we don't have many...only 7 but they all know which 2 are the boss....I hope they start being nice to you duck!
Maggie_J
20 years ago
Ducks are not my thing, but it could be that now they are mature the drakes are fighting over rights to the females. If you find you have to keep the "underduck" separate, you might want to give him one or two of the females to keep him company, etc. (Especially etc. LOL) Then you will have two happy duck families instead of a family feud.
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Josette
Original Author
20 years ago
thanks for the info, we did end up moving him into a pen and we put one of the females with him as he was looking so dejected and lonely. So I guess we now have two duck familys.....go figure I still dont know what happened....
judyag_44
20 years ago
Josette,
You are handling this just right....putting hens with both drakes! I would keep them separated for a couple of weeks and chances when you turn the injured drake and his hens (I would give him an equal number as the aggressor drake has) loose your "duck people" will be much more peaceful.
I had a "situation" with a couple of my drakes (though it sounds like the physical damage to your drake was much more severe than mine) until I equalized their status by a similar dividing/reordering of their social positions.

Best of luck with them...they are such great little individuals.