Introducing the babies.

[duggat]

Hi does anyone have any suggestions?
Yesterday I put my babies in with my other two ducks. The older ones are a Cayuga cross drake and a Mallard duck aged around 3 and 4 years old.
I have put in my two baby runners who are 8 weeks old and fully feathered. Both females I may add as they are both making definite quacking noise as opposed to a rasp.
My drake is usually a very macho fellow with a lot of sideways head moving and will see anything off in the breeding season.
Whilst my older female has put the youngsters in their place and occasionally claims what they are interested in they dutifully stay out of her way with no bother.
The problem is my drake. When the youngsters went up to him at the start, he ran away and now they chase him wings flapping! Although they do not peck him as you can imagine his life is a little miserable now. They don't do it continually but its still upsetting.
At the moment they are all in a run that measures 20 feet by 8 feet with I have divided for when they are inside it. Most of the day they are free to roam the garden which is very large and they have the use of two pools so there is no squabbling.
I have just ordered more panels for the run so they will have a run of 8 x 12 feet each. They also have totally separate houses.
I didn't expect them to be bosom buddies; but I had hoped they would more or less ignore each other.
Is there anything I haven't done or will it be a case of just waiting till they settle. I suppose 24 hours may be too soon to hope?

 

[duggat]

Hi, I thought I would up date on the babies and co.
Although I had no response to my post; it seems that I just needed to bide my time and let them get on with it.
The 2 babies are just desperate to be part of the flock. They follow the other 2 everywhere but are realising that they have to be more respectful to the older guys.
They are still put in their place by my older duck and although they still want to be close to the drake and this means they run after him; he has now realised that they are no threat to him and the majority of times he allows them to be close without running away.
The older 2 would rather not have to deal with 2 whippersnappers but are tolerating them more every day.
I love it when they have all settled for a nap and the 2 babies are asleep next to them.
Perhaps is was asking a lot of my waddling older guys to have to deal with gangly hyper runner babies!

 

[chrismahon]

Hi Duggat. An interesting post this. Similar behaviour to pullets being introduced to hens. The pullets are desperate to join the flock, but when they get there the hens are less than welcoming. Guess they get a rough introduction to the pecking order!

We introduced a keen Leghorn pullet 6 months ago who immediately got beaten up. She was fighting the top hen for first place last week!

The cockerels are always welcoming though -too welcoming in some cases and we've had to separate one young girl and put her with the old Orpingtons.