stupid question...do ducks roost??

[woogie g3]

ok so i have chickens and am planning on getting some ducks in the spring.. do they roost like chickens and can they be in the same pen as chickens? ..thank to anyone who read the post!!!

 

[shelleyd2008]

Muscovy ducks roost as do most wild duck breeds. I'm not sure about flying mallards, I'm thinking no on those. But most ducks (pekin, cayuga, saxony, etc.) don't roost. You can keep them with your chickens but they make a HUGE mess...so just keep that in mind.

 

[katharinad]

One of my Saxony girls will climb onto anything to sleep on. For a while it was the lid of the feed bin which is actually a trash bin. I was getting tired of her pooing onto the lid, so I had to put a wall up to keep her off it. She proceeded from there into the pine shavings bin. She manages to get 3 feet off the ground to get onto those bins. Pain in the neck. I guess it is her version of roosting. She is not be able to sit on roosting bars, just flat surfaces. In general wild ducks and muscovy ducks roost. Mallard derived including domestic species usually don't.

 

[woogie g3]

well i was thinking of getting call ducks....if they don't roost do they need something special to sleep on/in

 

[janastasio]

My ducks do not roost. We own 34 ducks ranging in large size to bantom sized. All of them sleep on the ground in the coop. We keep a thick layer of shavings in the coop and in the winter months I put hay on the ground on each end of the coop for them to nest/sleep in. Our ducks share the coop with 10 chickens.

 

[Amiga]

If the ducks will be in with the chickens, make sure something is under the chicken roost so the ducks won't get pooped on.

Aside from that, just a nice decent pile of shavings or straw (I have shavings under straw in the winter - the straw gets changed out more often, but I like it for the loft and warmth). I have a couple of cheese boxes for nest boxes, too, with straw in them.

 

[ThePolishPrincess]

Quote:
Nope. Mine sleep on the bottom of the chicken coop. Nothing fancy.

 

[Gypsy52]

I have 6 hens, 4 2month old chicks, rooster and two ducks. They all roost on the 2 by fours I put up. The ducks too. I just got the ducks a month ago. They go into the couple and climb to the roost. The 2 by 4s are plenty big for the ducks feet. They sit like the chickens over their feet. Never seen the likes. Did not know ducks, and wild ducks roosted till now. Lol