Mixing different duckling ages?

[GrayHomesteadBrady]

Hello! I have grown chicks but I have a new mixed breed duck flock mom. I got some from my local feed store (khaki campbell, blue swedish, and 1 white layer) and then decided to order a few more. My first batch of 4 is now 10 days old. I got my 5 new babies yesterday (3 cayuga and 2 magpie), so now 2/3 days old. All ducks are unsexed. So there is roughly 1 weeks difference. I assumed that I would be fine to add my new babies in with the original 4 since there is only about 1 week of difference. But 1 (the white layer) of the 4 older ducks likes to pick on the little ones. It follows them around and some times when 1 of the littles will try to eat or drink it comes over and will sort of push the little out of the way. I even bought a bigger long feeder with like 20 holes in it so that they all had plenty to choose from but the big duck will still go to the hole that the little is eating on and shove its bill in to push the little down to another hole. The bigger 3 do not mind the littles at all. Just this one white layer. Is it possible that it is a drake showing rude behavior already? Or just a dominant duck? It seems a little better this morning, but I can still see it being a terd some times. Should I take the big duck out? Or let it run its course? Is it early drake like behavior? I don't want the other ducks in trouble because of one big bossy duckling. I just didnt expect this behavior so young. Help!

 

[Miss Lydia]

I found out that adding very young to older ducklings didn't work so well so I made a separation in the brooder with Scrap hardware cloth wrapped the edges in tape to protect them from injury then put the older ducklings [2] on one side made it larger and the 2 just hatched in a smaller side placed the heat lamp so both sides could stay warm. Then left them like this for a few days after that I started giving them some time together supervised. Wasn't but a few days later the young ones were laying on top of the older [2 weeks] and they were all best buds.

 

[bhaugh]

What we think is just a week or two doesn’t seem like much but to some species of birds, it’s night and day. I hatched out some quail that were three weeks older than the other quail that I hatched out later, and they had to be separated within 10 minutes because I knew that the older quail would kill the babies, and that’s just three weeks.

 

[HennyPenny44]

Hello! I have grown chicks but I have a new mixed breed duck flock mom. I got some from my local feed store (khaki campbell, blue swedish, and 1 white layer) and then decided to order a few more. My first batch of 4 is now 10 days old. I got my 5 new babies yesterday (3 cayuga and 2 magpie), so now 2/3 days old. All ducks are unsexed. So there is roughly 1 weeks difference. I assumed that I would be fine to add my new babies in with the original 4 since there is only about 1 week of difference. But 1 (the white layer) of the 4 older ducks likes to pick on the little ones. It follows them around and some times when 1 of the littles will try to eat or drink it comes over and will sort of push the little out of the way. I even bought a bigger long feeder with like 20 holes in it so that they all had plenty to choose from but the big duck will still go to the hole that the little is eating on and shove its bill in to push the little down to another hole. The bigger 3 do not mind the littles at all. Just this one white layer. Is it possible that it is a drake showing rude behavior already? Or just a dominant duck? It seems a little better this morning, but I can still see it being a terd some times. Should I take the big duck out? Or let it run its course? Is it early drake like behavior? I don't want the other ducks in trouble because of one big bossy duckling. I just didnt expect this behavior so young. Help!

Do you have any updates on your progress? I have 3 week olds and 5 week olds. They were separated in the brooder and saw each other for about 2 weeks but when I tried to integrate, the older ones were chasing the younger ones from their side of the box. I tried integrating in a neutral area yesterday outside but two older ones (one I know is a girl) were chasing the younger ones away and one even grabbed at a younger one’s neck. So they stay separated but see each other. The younger ones are so innocent and follow the older ones around but the two groups are not of the same mind.