Can a duck live with chickens in a chicken coop?

[QuietPony]

I want a duck too. lol

 

[SD Bird Lady]

I have my duck in with chickens and they get along fine. I have 2 ladies that are growing up now so he isn't lonely anymore. I would suggest getting a friend for your duck while it is small. As they do seem happier with their own kinds. I use a heated dog dish in the winter outside It is on a old grill grate that I set atop a frame of 1x4's lets most of the dribbles fall into the area below creating less ice. At night he goes in with the chickens and gets locked up and then goes out to drink the next morning. They learn their routine pretty quickly and just don't eat if there is no water. The duck does sleep alone on the ground but doesn't seem cold. Just gets pooped on once & awhile.

 

[BGMatt]

Have done this many times before. Most of the time it works out fine. One suggestion with the water, I would always build a raised platform with hardware cloth on top for the water (which I put in a bowl, or a clean unused cat litter or oil change pan) so that the ducks could bathe) that way the ducks can play in the water and make a mess but it doesn't spread to the rest of the coop and/or run.

 

[JoeyOsborne]

You can keep them together but keep a sharp eye on them just to see if there getting on, if they are everything should be fine as long as there is no water inside the coop so the mess can be kept to a minimum and maybe just a little paddling pool as far away from the coop as you can in the summer other than that everything should be fine between them both, ive done this before and i find that indian runners are one of the best to keep with chickens as there not very flighty which neither are the chickens! hope this helps

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[LeslieDJoyce]

Our pair of ducks came to live here because the drake was trying to mate with the chickens at his first home. That can be bad, even fatal, for the chicken. Watch out for that behavior and be ready for Plan B.

 

[jackhorn01]

Thats why I haven't mixed ducks in yet, I heard that from multiple people about drakes trying to make with chickens and killing them.

 

[jackhorn01]

Have done this many times before. Most of the time it works out fine. One suggestion with the water, I would always build a raised platform with hardware cloth on top for the water (which I put in a bowl, or a clean unused cat litter or oil change pan) so that the ducks could bathe) that way the ducks can play in the water and make a mess but it doesn't spread to the rest of the coop and/or run.

Do you mean just hardware cloth on the top with the contained sitting in the middle of it? So the water just falls through?

 

[JoeyOsborne]

adding to my earlier comment i thought you ment duck as in female which should be fine not as in drake with that you would have to watch regularly and if he tries to mate with the hens then take him out straight away

 

[JTifft]

Our pair of ducks came to live here because the drake was trying to mate with the chickens at his first home. That can be bad, even fatal, for the chicken. Watch out for that behavior and be ready for Plan B.

I was going to add this. My wife lost several hens before finding out the duck was "loving them to death". She says 'No more ducks!"

 

[BGMatt]

Do you mean just hardware cloth on the top with the contained sitting in the middle of it? So the water just falls through?

Oops, yes this is what I meant. I did try cutting a hole in the middle and setting the bowl down in that but got annoying to clean.

As far as ducks trying to mate with chickens is concerned it hasn't been an issue for me ever. Other than some laughs when I let call ducks live with Langshans and the call ducks tried to mate with the hens...it really defied description.