Mixed flocks

[plethora]

Hello,

We're adding some ducks to our flock of chickens this year and are wondering how you folks handle the feed. Everyone is free ranged. We bought separate duck feed from Purina, but of course the chickens love it. And the ducks have been spotted eating the chicken food. Any concerns here or is this just the way things roll?

 

[Amiga]

I have only ducks, but from anything I have read, a good flock food works well. I feed my ducks poultry layer feed, with free choice oyster shell.

 

[Duck Drover]

We feed Purina Flock Raiser to our chickens and ducks. When they are together they share the same feeders and have multiple sources of water but we have them separate now to keep the chickens from bothering our sitting ducks. We also had an issue with our roosters falling in the horse trough duck pond so we have to close off the pond if we let the chickens out with the ducks.

Our ducks do not use any of the shelters we have out for them and prefer to sleep in the open but our yard is pretty safe from predators. They also find safety in numbers since they are not night blind like chickens and we have a porch light on where they like to sleep so there are always ducks awake and alert for predators. Some people with fewer ducks and more night predator issues run them into a shelter every night but we have too many nesting that we gave up with the nightly round-up years ago.

I think ducks and chickens are fine together as long as your drakes don't try to breed your chicken hens. The drake anatomy can kill a chicken but our birds of a feather flock together so our drakes have never shown an interest in our chickens. It also helps that we have huge English Orpingtons with two-pound bantam ducks. The drakes would have a hard time mounting the chicken hens if they ever wanted to try, lol.