Raising ducks and chicks together, good or bad idea?

[PoultryCrazed]

Raising ducks and chicks together, good or bad idea? I've heard mixed ideas on this, someone said that the ducks are some how harmful to chicks (and mille fleur d'unncle bantams) but i've also heard that they are fine to raise together.Any feedback would be much appreciated.

 

[muscovy joe]

hi, iv been raising ducks and chickens together for one year now. Muscovys and Bantam chickens. they seem to leave each other alone because the chickens are so fast the ducks cant really mess with them. what is important is that there is enough girls to boys, I think 1:6 is normal. that way the males wont try to breed a the other fowl. it doesn't work for everyone but I would say try it and see. take time to see how they interact and go from there!

 

[Pyxis]

I raise them together all the time and I'm doing it right now. I've never had a problem. Ducks are much messier with water than chicks though, so you have to be ready for that. And they also grow much faster, so at some point you may have to split them out so that the ducklings don't accidentally squish the chicks if the size difference gets too extreme.

 

[chickenbuzz]

I raised my ducks and chicks separate because the ducks like to splash water everywhere. They like it damp and the chicks don't. the chicks can get sick easier if everything is damp and soggy. Other than the water there is really no other reason they should be separated. They don't fight or pick on each other.

 

[PoultryCrazed]

Thanks much appreciated I will raise them together

 

[kmartinez]

I agree with chickenbuzz..I have 2 ducks and 17 young chickens. My ducks are alot younger than my chickens and they are much bigger, they grew fast. I had them in a plastic kiddie pool and they would also make a mess out of their water within seconds. I am raising mine separate My chickens are in a coop and after cleaning up the water from the waterer from those ducks I don't want the ducks to have access to my chicken coop, I know that they would dampen it which could cause health issues inside the coop. I heard some people say that keeping no water in the coop would fix the issue. But honestly ducks like to be in, around, splash and they just trash the water. So my ducks have a separate pen in front of the chicken run, they got their dog house and kiddie pool with water and they always in that water. I was thinking that because they had the pool their drinking water would not be trashed as quickly but the ducks have proved me wrong LOL they still trash their drinking water so quickly.

In my situation I don't want those ducks trashing my coop with dampness so they are on their own. the ducks got loose in my spare room twice as they got older and they managed to trash the room quickly took me 3 hours to fully clean the wood floors and the mess they made,, nah nah they not doing that to my chicken coop lol

I think its personal preference decision some people can pull it off , me i just not even going to try to house them together

 

[PoultryCrazed]

Thanks

 

[susan6sw]

I have 4 chicks and 2 ducklings (same age) and they tend to stay together and seem to get along well. But the ducks are really messy - water all over. I found a way to keep the water contained though (to a point) . I bought a 4 inch high plastic rectangular plastic storage box at Walmart and hung the waterer above it. The water stays in the box (mostly) and the babies all drink out of it. I refill the 2 gallon tank daily (it's dirty!) and dump the box too. Pull out the damp bedding and put in dry wood chips. All I can think of is 4 more weeks in our workroom!

 

[PoultryCrazed]

Nice idea Susan6sw I think I'll try that not only with duck but with my geese