Expert: Roger Lederer - 7/29/2009

Question
Hello Mr. Lederer !

We live on a man made lake surrounded by homes, the lake contains bass,perch,Koi,turtles,ducks,(mallards), egrets,visiting mud hens,and geese. I have raised 4 domestic ducks, Black Swedish, blue Swedish and a Peking, I have witnessed a couple of drakes drown other ducks by jumping on top of them in the water and pushing their heads underwater and pecking the back of the ducks neck. My ducks are now 11 weeks old, and they have not been in the lake yet and only forage on the grass when I am present. They are good about staying on their deck, while they are curious of the lake, they still are not sure what it is. Is there a way to introduce my ducks into their wild environment without sending them to their death. I want them to be able to enjoy the lake, but come home safely. (my ducks sleep in at night). I also rescued 2 Mallard eggs and hatched them, they were 2 out of 11 eggs, the mother hatched 8 and took them to the lake leaving these eggs, my curiosity got me again, as I checked for life and sure enough peep peep peep,so they are 5 wks now I need to re-introduce them in the future any suggestions? by the way the 8 chicks did not survive, the fish eat them or the other ducks, maybe drowning too.

Thank you,
Victoria  

Answer
What you observed is copulation (mating). The males get on the female's back in the water and grab her neck and mate with her. This is perfectly normal. Unfortunately, sometimes the female dies - especially if several males try to mate with her. There is no way to keep your domestic ducks safe from this as wild birds are more aggressive than domestic ones.