Duck Problems

[cherami]

We have demi Savage Ducks (Cross with Malards)
First female had 13 ducklings and took them directly to the large pond, which is in fact a old Fosse now with rain water, but no fresh running water. First few day all was fine then one duckling went walkabout. Second mother comes onto the seen and drops her 4 ducklings into the pond too. Next day the two mothers started to attack a couple of the ducklings, we managed to capture one of them but he/she died that night.
Next few days and the Duckling are going missing at an alarming rate. The temprature here is in the 40's at the moment so it' hot. Now the two mothers do not seem to be concerned at missing ducklings or the remaining. So we decided after reading from J Seymoores book that it is best to take the duckling away, but now the second mother is creating like mad and we are at a loss to know what to do to save the remaining five ducklings out of 14. We have now accounted for most of the ducklings found dead in the water.

Ps Since posting the original of this I have found that one should not allow two mothers together on a pond with Ducklings and to be attentive of chickens who can also cause the Ducklings problems.

But anymore information would be a great help.

[Millymollymandy]

Is that what they would do out in the wild then? Sounds strange. It's interesting though as I am thinking about getting some ducks from the market to put on my pond. They would be, hopefully, semi-tame.

Did you buy your ducks or were they already there i.e. wild or belonged to previous owner of the house?

Anyway I always thought you should have quite a few female ducks per male because they rape the females in the mating season and if there is only a solitary female she can get a bit, er, worn out So there's a dilemma - one female or more???

I hope someone can help!

[cherami]

Good Morning MMM,

First things first I thnk if they were completley in thier natural habitat they would possible have one mother to a designated area of say the river and that other females would not be allowed in to that area. I believe the mistake on our part was to allow the second mother access to the pond and to allow chickens to use the same area, the Geese did not seem to mind in fact they didn't go on the pond as normal. the other problem may have been that we have three cats and one in particular may have caused the ducklings to stay in the water longer than normal, as that is where we found most of them laying on the bank. Demi Savage ie Semi Wild bought at our local animal Market St Aout department 18. I bought these ducks as a present for my older son, not for eating dont think they have a lot of meat on them anyway. Ok to look at though and become tame with time. ps cost of each duck 8 euros. about average. Ps would like to have Aylsbury if I could find.

I would recommend more than one female, because as you say the male can become a bit randy, maybe that is why some religions allow more than one female, to give them a rest I will next year take the additional eggs away and let only the one hatch her eggs.

Your chicken looks like a Rhode island red maybe or just the red chicken that the French like. We hope to breed Dorkings when we can buy some.