Advice on size of duck 'family' please

[cardoon]

Hello everyone. I'm new to this forum, not very experienced with ducks - hence the question! We have had our first successful batch of Indian Runner ducklings this summer, with 9 survivors out of 10 hatched. Hooray! They're all doing well with both parents, that makes 11 in all - of the youngsters, 3 are male and 6 female (not a bad ratio).

My question is, what is a good balance between males and females in the long term ? My husband wants to reduce the number of males (he eats meat, I don't!) but I want to keep as many females as possible for eggs. Is there an ideal male:female ratio, should we keep (or get rid of) the dad, are there any guidelines in terms of future breeding as to who we should keep? The parent birds are not related.

I would be very grateful for any advice, many thanks in advance.

 

[dorsetduckowner]

Hiya and welcome
An ideal ratio is 1:3/4/5 BUT saying that it really depends on the ducks.
You may find that your flock all get on very well OR you may find if you have 1 drake and 5 ducks that one of the girls gets picked on by the drake and outcast. It really is a wait and see kind of game really.
I would say you are fine at the moment, just keep an eye on them during pairing and mating season.
As far as breeding is concerned... it really depends on what you want to breed them for.... eggs/table or showing?
Zo
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[cardoon]

Thanks very much, that's helpful. Unfortunately since I posted my question, one of the females has been wounded - I'm not sure how - and looks like she may not make it in which case we'd be left with 4:6 males to females. Poor girl, is there a chance the male(s) could have hurt her - she's got a gammy wing - to the point where she's badly wounded? She's definitely excluded from the group now.

 

[dorsetduckowner]

Oh, sorry to hear that... although if you get her to a vet sharpish she should recover well, they don't really use their wings much so cope very well. It's hard to say what happened to her without seeing the injury, a vet would be able to tell probably. When/how did it happen and what did the vet say?
zo
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[daniellesdogs]

iv 19 in all only 6 are girls bad ratio but i cant bear to eat them or cul im such a wimp.
iv not had any problems with agresion at all apart from the 2 oldest boys went through a teen boy thing about a year ago good as gold since
sorry to hear about baby girl its sad when it happens

 

[cardoon]

Thanks for these responses. The ducks are a bit 'feral' down on the lake here, I can't get close enough to the injured girl to catch her and don't want to make her panic. I'm putting food near her each morning to make sure she's eating. At the mo my partner is in the UK (I'm in France) but when he's back Monday we'll try together to catch her, more likely to put her out of her misery than to take her to the vet, to be honest. Sounds ruthless I know but ... c'est la vie I'm afraid.

If anyone wants to see what the ducklings looked like at a few days old, plus proud mum, here's some (shaky) youtube footage
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6qmX-phT5CQ[/youtube]
which makes me feel even worse about the sickly girl...
Thanks again for your help/advice, zo and daniellesdogs.

 

[dorsetduckowner]

Ahh what a shame about the girl, you may find she gets predated upon in the mean time if she is weak. This may even be the cause of the injury.
Keep us posted. If they have lots of space they should figure out numbers themselves and with enough space you shouldn't have too much of an issue.

zo
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[daniellesdogs]

they so cute but only like that for a week or 2 then they all grown up looking, thats why i got so many i think lol