4m x 3m Omlet pen, cube, new auto door still boxed and coop light

[TheChookKeeper]

I have had my 2 Silver Appleyards, a boy and girl since last summer - all was well, but dear Gerald decided he wanted babies this year... and poor old Alice can't really put up with his constant "attention"

 

I knew this would happen, and the plan had always been to hatch a few Indian Runner eggs, and get a few more females. Now - I incubated 3 Indian Runner eggs earlier in the Spring, and of 3 eggs, got 2 babies... again (typical) a girl and boy.

 

Now - I have a willing party who will take any boys I have (within reason), so now I have a quandry.

 

Gerald, the adult male Silver Appleyard isn't very nice... he picks on the new babies almost constantly, so they don't get to take advantage of their own food as much as they should, or the pond. He is just NASTY. Alice, the female Silver Appleyard is FAR more chilled, and if she wasn't so attached to Gerald, would get on with them quite well I think.

 

SO - I was considering perhaps rehoming the nasty Gerald, rather than the LOVELY Jeremy (the baby male Indian Runner).

I know Jeremy will probably become as mean as Gerald once he reaches maturity, but at least that gives everyone a while to get used to eachother, before he gets nasty.

 

Just to complicate matters, I am now incubating 3 more Indian Runner eggs, in the hopes that I can get another 1 or 2 females to go with my existing "flock".

 

Again, I thought the absence of nasty Gerald would help with thier introduction to the flock as well?

 

 

My only real concern is that Alice will be lonely without him - or will she just make friends with the new babies (about 7 weeks old now)?

Also, if I rehome nasty Gerald, with a lovely baby male from the new batch in a month or two, will he settle down, due to the lack of females, and live happily with his little "brother"?

 

 

Sorry for the long post - I thought background details would help!!!

[miller30]

Hi i have 2 indian runner drakes and they are a total nightmare they are running with 8 females and it is not enough my oldest big bird is nasty they all have bald heads and are bleeding i find the older they get the worse they get his son sir francis is not as bad but is still a pain if it was me and you are not planning on breeding from them dont keep any drakes i forgot to say mine have also started fighting and it is so bad i have to go and break it up before they kill each other after my experience over the years ive kept ducks i wont be keeping drakes anymore.Alice should be fine with the babies they might have a few punch ups but should settle down sorry if i sound harsh about the drakes but their not worth the grief .

[TheChookKeeper]

You raise a very good, and very obvious point. I had never planned to have drakes - the people I bought Gerald and Alice from were rubbish, and (apart from various parasites) were sexed wrongly - Gerald was once Geraldine!

 

Anyway - you make a good point, drakes are pretty useless to me, so it would make everyones life much easier and happier if they ALL found new homes!

 

Will the boys settle down if there aren't any girls around? Or will they fight still? I understood that boys are fine together, as long as there isn't the slightest whiff of a female?

[miller30]

Ive never kept boys on their own but a lot of people say that you can keep boys together if they have no females to fight over good luck with your decision leanne.

[Guest]

I love your names Sir Francis & Gerald that was once a Geraldine

 

I have only kept one drake and he never was rampant he was very gentlemenly and did guard his girls..in fact it was the wild mallards that would grab the Aylesburys and campbells on our pond...

 

Try to rehome the drakes and keep just one

 

good luck indie

[miller30]

Well maybe its something to do with indian runners because before they had babies and i only had 1 drake he was still a rampant beast who had 6 females and kept on at them all the time and they were still bald my partner has told me to put a pair of my sons undies on him or give him a sedative

[Lesley]

We bought a pair of White Campbell ducks (already named Mork and Mindy) Mork was fine until Mindy sat on eggs and hatched fout ducklings. He constantly tried to kill the ducklings. We separated him but then Mindy quacked constantly so we had to put him back and keep an eye on him. The ducklings were all boys and they went off to the freezer. We kept a girl duckling (Jemima) from the second hatch and also bought an Indian Runner (Shiraz) so that Mork had more 'company'

 

He really is a pain and Jemima and Shiraz both have bald, bleeding, heads and necks We have decided that Mork has to go Jemima spends all day running away from Mork and hiding in the duck house.

 

Keeping a drake is so different from keeping a cockerel - a cockerel looks after his ladies and keeps the flock calm............a drake is just a pain and as we don't really want to increase our little flock of ducks so we'll just keep the ducks.