Noisy new ducks, waking up the neighbours

We recently adopted three young Cherry Valley ducks from a rescue charity;  apparently they are just a couple months old, though full sized, and have been raised in a barn with very limited human contact.  We got them about a month ago and boy are they nervous!  Everything (still) scares them, and they quack LOUDLY.  Including in the middle of the night and early morning, and I've had a complaint from a neighbour.  She was polite about it, but obviously this needs to be sorted out.

Probable reason for all-hours quacking:  we have two more ducks, a mated pair, and the drake has been very aggressive towards them.  Drakes are jerks in my opinion, but we've had this guy and his lovely mate for eight years now.  He lives here, it's not really an option to get rid of him;  his mate would be heartbroken I'm sure.  He's been chasing them around in daylight hours, so probably doing it all night too.  But these three ducks quack a lot, not just when being chased.

My quick fix after talking to the neighbour the other day:  we locked up the mated pair in their own small yard and made another temporary small yard for the new ducks on the other side of the garden.  Now the newbies are next to the neighbour on the other side and it may be he will want to have a word with me in the coming days too!  So this is not a long term solution.

Long term options?  Thinking out loud here:

I have a chicken coop and yard, with eleven chickens.  Is it feasible to keep the new ducks locked up with the chickens and put them away at night in the coop?  The coop is on that neighbour's side of the garden, but perhaps being inside would muffle any unsociable quacking?

I also have a small detached garage which we use as a large shed;  new ducks could be locked up at night in there too (but I dread to think of the mess).  

And one more place to separate them:  we have a small coop and yard (currently empty) at my allotment, a few blocks away.  We are not allowed cockerels on the allotments as we are a bit close to some houses (not as close as my neighbours though);  while I'm willing to risk bringing them there, I may also get another noise complaint.

However, ideally I want to integrate all the ducks;  they had all been free ranging over the whole garden together until the complaint.  This is not the first time we've adopted new ducks, but none of the others were this nervous and loud.  The last time we adopted new ducks it took a couple of months for that jerk drake to accept them.  I can't let them wake the neighbours up for that long.  Any suggestions please?  

I suspect you may have to take a multi-pronged approach.

1. Yes, I do have chickens and ducks in the same shelter, but it requires much more attention to wet bedding. If the coop has a wooden floor, depending on the size, something like a bucket inside a small wading pool, might do. I would be hoping this was temporary night accommodation, with the ducks joining the Drake during the day so you're not just kicking the can down the road.

2. Yes, I generally find Mallard domesticated ducks both very high strung and very noisy. They are the very bottom of the food chain. If they were incubator hatched and raised, that will make it worse. I can remember one group we had that I *tried* to acclimatize to humans by bringing them duckweed every day. They adored the duckweed, and I would toss them bits and try gradually to get it to land closer and closer to me, but they never did learn to reliably take it from my hand.

3. Long term the only solution may be sound insulated night accommodation that makes them feel secure and in the dark and only let them out once the neighbors are awake. The noise may not bother the neighbors as much if it's not waking them at night.

4. If the Drake is chasing them, have you considered crating the Drake at night? Put the crate in with the girls, but not able to rile them up? He should be fine with no water or feed overnight.

Thank you Jay, I would never have considered just crating that jerk drake overnight, but maybe that would be the best option.  Today I've let the new ducks out to free range while the two oldies are still locked up in their yard.  Newbies have been hanging out next to the oldies' yard most of the day but I'll try to get them herded back into their own temporary yard overnight, to make sure any panic attacks don't happen next to the neighbour who complained.

G Freden wrote:Thank you Jay, I would never have considered just crating that jerk drake overnight, but maybe that would be the best option.

No "trick" works every time. This just seems like an easy test to do. If it seems to help at night, you could try crating as a "time out" for 5-10 minutes if you catch the drake chasing the newbies during the day also.

Some ducks "mate for life". If your Drake has that tendency, he may just be doing what his hormones are telling him to do. Or if he also is an incubator bird, he may not know the subtleties of, "Hey, baby, I'd like to get to know you" behavior and be frightening the young girls.

Above all, I would try observing what seems to trigger the chase and how the birds are reacting on a day by day basis to see if things are moving in the right direction. I agree it would be wonderful to end up with a single, happy flock!  

Hey, G, how's this problem progressing? Any improvement?

Thanks Jay;  the flock is mostly integrated now, after a rocky start.  I wanted the newbies to be familiar with the whole garden and their new life, so initially I was keeping the mated pair locked up in their yard while they free ranged all day;  then everyone locked up in two separate yards overnight.  After about a week of this, the drake began breaking out of his yard in the middle of the night and into the newbies' (my small daughter was convinced he flew in and out).  After several nights of this, we just began locking them all up together, in the newbies' yard.  The original duck was very confused about being herded into this new yard, but the drake knew exactly where to go!

Now a month on, they all free range together and sleep in the same yard overnight.  I've seen them all peacefully wandering about, and have even collected the first two eggs.  I still hear the occasional quack during the day, but much less often, and for much shorter duration.  And the drake sometimes still chases them, but they seem to be less bothered about it.

I didn't get any complaint from the other neighbour--we are pretty sure his bedroom is at the front of the house, like mine (I can't hear them at all).  And nothing from the first neighbour either, so hopefully everyone is sleeping fine.

Here they are, enjoying some free range harmoniously.