Does My Duck Need a Mate?

Not necessarily, however, they must have at least one companion. Ducks are very social creatures, and you should never have just one duck. Your duck will not be happy alone.

It may seem ideal to have one male and one female duck, however, she may become over-mated. Male ducks have a very high sex drive. If this happens you will start to see signs of missing feathers around her neck, head and back, raw or bloody skin from the drakes claws and bill and can eventually cause death. If you begin to see these signs, for the sake of your female add two or three more females.

If you have more than one drake, you will need at least four to five hens per drake. If you have multiple drakes, they will fight each other over the females, and be harder on the females. Sometimes you may even see the males fighting each other while trying to mate a female.  This can be especially hard on her, and cause injury. So, the more females you have, the better. If you are still seeing this while having a good ratio, it’s best to separate them before serious injury occurs.

Never have more drakes than ducks. Just don’t do it.

An all-female flock is fine. They will get along quite nicely. One thing that might surprise new duck owners about this arrangement is when they see their females “mounting” each other. This is perfectly normal, and due to either hormones, or can be a dominance display.

An all-male flock will work as well. With no females there will be less fighting. There may be times however if you have an over dominate male, or just because they still have hormones, they will try to mate, and possibly cause fighting. If this occurs you may need to separate them for a while, especially during spring.

All male flocks might be a good option for people with close neighbors, because drakes are quieter than females, or if you are not interested in dealing with all the eggs from females.

One more thing to note about all male flocks: do not house them with chickens. Because there are no female ducks, they will try to mate female chickens, and this will kill them.