Ducks...a good mix with my girls?

[SarahF]

Hello Everyone! I have decided to buy two ducks to make my family complete. I have 5 two and a half week old barred rock girls and really want to get two ducks. What is a good breed to mix in and will they live in harmony? Will I have to keep them seperate? Looking for a little advice.
Thanks so much
SarahF

 

[Critter Crazy]

Ducks and chickens get along just fine. Are you getting ducklings or Adult ducks? Ducklings are best in a brooder on their own, only because they make a huge mess,a nd get everything wet, including the chicks.
I keep mine in the coop with everyone else,a nd they get along great. i even have one female duck right now, that thinks she is a chicken.

as far as breed goes, I dont know anything about breeds, except the ones I have owned myself. these breeds have gotten along fine with my birds:
Cayuga
Pekin
Crested
Mallard
Silver Appleyard

 

[cockadoodlemom]

Critter Crazy is right on the money! They get everything messy, so I would put them seprate from your chicks. I too had a duck who thought he was a chicken

My daughter called him a chiduck! Dang bobcat got him

I now have 6 2 wk old ducks and 5 2wk old goslings + 27 6 wk old chicks. Good Luck with your new additions!

 

[JudyMcKinn]

I was thinking some ducks would be cute, myself, but I was under the impression that they needed a tub, or kiddie pool, or something, full of water to play in, when they are adults. something about a duck needing to be able to duck it's head in water?? So wouldn't this make a mess in the chicken yard and always have it wet and messy? Or do ducks do okay in a dry chicken yard? I would be interested in any comments on this, for both of us.

 

[Oaknim]

Waterfowl need to be able to submerge their entire head (or at least up to their eyes) in water for health purposes - they do this to clean their eyes and nostrils (and to get a good drink!) Remember - they've evolved to live in the water, so they cannot store water within their bodies for very long and without it, can get very sick or die.

You don't necessarily have to provide kiddie pools for them, but it makes them happy, it helps them stay cleaner, and it's just fun to watch them splash around and play in it. We have two large kiddie pools and one smaller one for our ducklings and goslings (they're 7 weeks old now!) They spend hours dunking their bodies and basically just enjoying being ducks and geese.

They do make a mess, but I put paving rocks/bricks around the perimeter of the pools when they're on dirt so that there aren't huge nasty mud puddles everywhere and I move the pools every other week to a new grassy location. The ducks and geese waddle along behind me as I'm dragging the pools, probably cursing me in their little quacks/honks. If this isn't an option for you, you could possibly just place sand and gravel along the perimeter of the pool to help with drainage.

I have a friend who runs her ducks and chickens together in a dirt packed yard, but has a bucket for the ducks to stick their heads in - it's untippable and surrounded by little rocks, so there's no mud. And her ducks are just fine, albeit a little dusty.

Hope this helps. ~ Oaknim

 

[Critter Crazy]

Quote:
Yes you need water, not necessrily a kiddie pool, but they need to be able to dunk their heads, as this helps clean out their vents, as well as help them swallow food. They need a constant supply of fresh clean water.

as far as kiddie pools go, I have 3 in and around the yard. one kiddie pool, and two 40 gallon old Horse Troughs. They enjoy all the water, and they dont make a huge mess with them. My yard is dry, and the chcikens are not bothered. The chickens use the pools to drink, more than their own waterers So I have to clean them alot. But swimming ducks are happy ducks, as it is Natural for them.

if you dont want to have a pool, the best thing is to make sure they have plenty of water. you can also on hot days, spary a garden hose, they love that, and will go nuts for it, and will just play with the hose!

They are very entertaining birds, and I dont want a day where i dont have any ducks!

Here are a few pics of my Ducks enjoying their pools and The hose!

 

[JudyMcKinn]

Thanks for the info. Those DO look like happy ducks!

 

[Judymae]

We raised two ducks with our chickies. I don't know what breed they are. Never thought to even find out. I know that one looks like the aflac duck. When I bought him his little leg was broke and if the man didn't sell him I don't think the little duckie would've had a very good future. The other duck is a brown and black duck. The man selling them said the brown duck wouldn't leave in the winter to fly south. The brown duck loves to steal my chicken eggs and she puts them in her nest. At one time we had to clean out her nest. She had 25 chicken eggs in it! It really upset her but they had been in there for way too long. She calmed down after my husband gave her 3 ceramic eggs. She stopped her quacking and jumped on top of the eggs. After a few days she lost interest. As for the water--we keep a kiddy pool in the run. It does have to be dumped once a day and to keep it from muddying up the run we dump it out the side of the run's fence. The grass always grows taller there!

 

[RoyalHillsLLC]

I have ordered 6 Muscovies to add to my bird collection! I plan to try to eventually add them to the chicken yard with my 11 bantams (currently about 3 months old) and my 4 guineas (about 3 weeks old).
I read up on them and decided they don't need water except to drink, as Muscovies are not related to the Mallard clan and are primarily tree dwelling ducks. I hope to free range them with my chickens and hopefully they will pen up at night like the Chickens.
Curiously, the guineas seem ten times as wild as the chicks at this age. Has anyone else had this experience, or I wonder if it's because we haven't had as much time to handle them. I wonder how well they will mix.