Can a duck live with chickens in a chicken coop?

[Alaskan]

For one year I had both.......

The ducks are supposed to be able to have water that they can dip their head into, supposedly they need that to keep their eyes clean or something.

It is true that it was great fun to watch the ducks even in just a deep snow sled full of water, they LOVE water!

BUT, their poop is super much worse than chicken poop, and they make the water super much worse than chickens do.

I simply could not stand the extra mess, so I ate most of them (tasted worlds better than my home grown chickens) and got rid of the rest.

I should mention that mine always went into the coop at night, I think for the first few weeks I had to herd them a bit, but I don't remember it being a problem.

 

[joannp]

I have a chicken house and 4 little yellow runner baby ducks. They all live very harmoniously but one duck alone I would certainly provide a heat lamp for nights. I find that a little light in the coup is all they needed to tell them to come in on the 2nd night. The first night I put them in myself. The ducks have a little hay bed on the floor that they love. We have had ducks before and always supplied them a little plastic pool, in fact 2 little plastic pools (from toys r us), they loved the pools and would fly from one to another in the early evening to clean themselves. We would laugh at how fast they could get from one to the other (we spaced them only 5 feet apart), but it was hysterically funny.
Hope this helps.

 

[Henlee]

I have a 13-year old Indian Runner duck who lives with a Wyandotte pullet and a pair of juvenile Ameraucanas in a predator-safe, enclosed shed and small covered, fenced outdoor area. Also, there is also a 7-year-old Dutch rabbit who is is completely bonded with the duck, as she is to him – they've been together all the rabbit's life.

Both the aged Indian Runner and young Wyandotte lay eggs regularly, each on average 4-6 eggs a week during the warmer months. Although there are several options, they seem to prefer the same roosting spot and often lay eggs one right after another.

In March, when I first put the point-of-lay Wyandotte in with the older Runner, the duck was a bit aggressive with the chicken – not mean, but very bossy, chasing the chicken around the enclosure, and shooing her precious rabbit away to "safety." I brought the Wyandotte into a separate enclosure in the basement each night. Outside during the day, the Wyandotte remained polite and got out of the way. After awhile, she politely stood her ground with the duck. And that was that. Today, just a few months later, they get along fine. Often, I see the duck, bunny and Wyandotte sleeping together, literally lined-up, side by side.

Same procedure took place April when I introduced the much younger Ameraucana pair. Both chicken and duck chased the juveniles around, although the Wyandotte has always been a bit gentler with them. Now, several months later, the duck continues to boss the young pair around, although I have a sense that she acts more aggressive with them when I'm present. Regardless, the duck keeps the poor Ameraucana cockerel on the run. Poor fellow, hasn't dared crow yet, and he's old enough to have started by now! I've found that having several raised perches for the chickens really helps them quickly get away and find "peace" from the duck, who stays on the ground.

For me, the biggest issue with the duck and chickens being housed together is keeping their space clean and dry. The duck is, as ducks will be, messy with water. Although, by duck standards, mine is quite tidy. Regardless, whatever the bedding, shavings, straw/hay or a combination, she is constantly adding it to the water, dirtying the drinking water, her rubber pan "swimming pool," as well as all the bedding around the water area. She's often foraging around the bottom of the pen, then dunking whatever she finds into the drinking water, leaving a mess of bedding in the waterer. During these hot summer months, I refresh/cool the water two to three times daily, and the Wyandotte comes to enjoy her fresh, clean water each time I change it. If/when I add a watering system, this will fix the soiled drinking water issue. The bathing area for the duck, however, will still remain somewhat problematic – although, I can't put all the blame on the duck for the dirty bath; the Wyandotte likes to wade in the bath water as well.

As far as poop goes, honestly, with her magnificent golf-ball sized poops, the Wyandotte makes a bigger mess than the Indian Runner.

With consideration for the water/cleanliness issue, I imagine that raising a group of pullets/hens and ducks that start out all together as youngsters would not present any unusual problems at all.

Hope this helps!

 

[Hokum Coco]

I have done it with just a few problems when my Muscovy ducks became broody and cantankerous.

 

[merlg]

As long as you have enough space I think it's fine. I have Muscovys (5) and chickens (12) together in a coop (10'x10'). The Muscovys mostly stay on the ground while the chickens stay up in the roosts. The ducks will peck at chickens if they get too close, but they don't follow and harrass. One rooster mates with them. Their poop is reallllly messy though and they are horrible with water. They make it dirty and splash it all around when they drink so everything gets wet. I switched to nipple feeders and they really love those, more than the chickens it seems. That helps, but you still need something under the nipples to catch extra water when they drink otherwise your bedding gets wet. Something like a pan with a hardware cloth over it to prevent them from drinking out of it.

They are also messy with food and it may be better to feed pellets instead of crumbles, but I stick with crumbles because they add soy to the Dumor's (TSC's in store brand) pellet layer feed, and not to the crumble layer feed.

 

[smithtammy542]

as far as the mess goes with the water and the duck i seen on a video some one took and raised the the water up and put mesh under it so there was no mess on the floor but i have i have 3 chicks and a duckling in the same brooder all is going pretty good except for the mess of course with the water they even stand up for each other one of the older chicks die bombed me to day trying to protect the duckling

 

[CHchickie86]

I had to separate my chickens and ducks. My two Mallards were jumping on top of my chickens and holding them down, my Swedish cross ducks could care less about the chickens. My Mallards are alo hens, so no drake activities going on.

 

[Suga85]

Hi guys!

I'm having a bit of a (probably unnecessary) panic! I have some hens and a mallard and they all live happily in a beautiful coop and enclosed run (with a paddling pool for Huey the duck) We decided to give hatching some runner ducks a go as I've always wanted one and we thought Huey would like some duck buddies.

It appears that only one of the eggs is going to hatch - started today. (I'm 99.9% sure the others are dead) I'm now panicking as to how this little lonely runner duck is going to cope? We were intending on getting a separate house to go in the run for the ducks as they wouldn't all fit in the current coop and assumed that over time Huey would migrate to the duck side rather than living with the chooks. But as only one duck is hatching its kind of scuppered our plans!

Do you think he/she will be ok with Huey and his girls? He will be in the brooder for a while, could I get other ducklings to go in with him?

Any advice would be gratefully received for this newbie!

 

[CHchickie86]

I would get at least one other duckling to grow up with the hatchling. And keep them separate from the grown duck until they're old enough to fully go outside safely with him with no supervision.

 

[jackhorn01]

So can ducks eat laying pellets with no health concerns or do you have to feed the mixed flock of ducks and chickens something else?