I have chickens, guineas, ducks, and geese that all live and range together. If you have read my article on how to keep different poultry types together, well this is just another page I made with some of my pictures, and advice.
The Coop
Well here is the coop, and their yard is behind it. I let them out in the morning through the back door, which is the same one I use(no little chicken pop door here)
. view from front door view from back door
I have four nest boxes, two on each front wall.There are roosts on either side with metal poop boards under them. They work great, and I just scrape the poop into a bucket once a week.
There are two yards that they get to run in, and are connected by a makeshift hallway. Each chicken yard has it's own waterer and feeder, so if it ever gets crowded, they can just go to the alternate yard and eat or drink there.
Yard 1 Yard 2
In the hall that connects the two yards, there is a perch made from a piece of an old Home Depot shopping cart, and a nest box for the ducks. This hallway has doors on either end, so i can close both and use the hallway as a mini coop. This mini coop is where the ducks sleep at night. They lay eggs around 4 or 5 am, so they sleep here because this is where their nest box is, and they couldn't reach the elevated ones in the other coop.
They have various roosts to play on as well as a dust bathing area
Food
This one of the feeders And this is the second one
Having two feeders keeps them from crowding around the feeder and getting pecked by each other.I like to put a sheet of metal under the feeders, so when feed is spilled, it isn't forever lost under all the bedding. With pellets, it doesn't matter if they spill, because the birds can scratch them up and eat them, but if for some reason you have crumbles or mash, this is a good idea.
Water
Waterer 1 Waterer 2
I made a auto bucket waterer. It does save a lot of time, but it gets very dirty. When I used to use water bowls, I would wash them every day so they were clean. These only get washed/rinsed once a week. But they allow them to drink as much as they want and more, which is something the water bowls hadn't the water capacity to hold.
Clear water turn to brown water after about 20 seconds when you own ducks. Their bills have little rivets all along the edges where dirt is, and when their bill hits water, it all comes out. This is normal. I clean the water regularly, it never smell or has algae, muddy sludge but it will be brown.
I never have problems with the bedding in the water though. I have it set up on top of a sandwich made of half-cinder blocks and plastic grids. I't does great at keeping the bedding around the water dry, and keeping the bedding from being kicked up into the water.
Free Ranging
Here they are ranging in the back yard. I used to free range them full time, but due to predator problems, it's now only part time. They get to come out whenever I'm home, so that's just in the afternoons when I get back, and all day on the weekend. They will be back to full time free range when summer's here because that's when I'm on vacation, and I also need them to eat all the summers bugs, weeds, peaches and figs that fall on the ground.
Winter
Summer!
This my small family of Sebastopool geese.The geese get to range all day. They are mostly herbivorous, so they need the greens in their diet. The rest of my fowl avoid them these days, because the Gander chases them off tying to protect their baby. They are very nice to have and alert me whenever there is a car pulling up in the driveway or when there is a predator.
My peafowl
just thought I'd throw in some pics of them.
The Coop
Well here is the coop, and their yard is behind it. I let them out in the morning through the back door, which is the same one I use(no little chicken pop door here)
. view from front door view from back doorI have four nest boxes, two on each front wall.There are roosts on either side with metal poop boards under them. They work great, and I just scrape the poop into a bucket once a week.
There are two yards that they get to run in, and are connected by a makeshift hallway. Each chicken yard has it's own waterer and feeder, so if it ever gets crowded, they can just go to the alternate yard and eat or drink there.
Yard 1 Yard 2
In the hall that connects the two yards, there is a perch made from a piece of an old Home Depot shopping cart, and a nest box for the ducks. This hallway has doors on either end, so i can close both and use the hallway as a mini coop. This mini coop is where the ducks sleep at night. They lay eggs around 4 or 5 am, so they sleep here because this is where their nest box is, and they couldn't reach the elevated ones in the other coop.
They have various roosts to play on as well as a dust bathing area
Food
This one of the feeders And this is the second one
Having two feeders keeps them from crowding around the feeder and getting pecked by each other.I like to put a sheet of metal under the feeders, so when feed is spilled, it isn't forever lost under all the bedding. With pellets, it doesn't matter if they spill, because the birds can scratch them up and eat them, but if for some reason you have crumbles or mash, this is a good idea.
Water
Waterer 1 Waterer 2
I made a auto bucket waterer. It does save a lot of time, but it gets very dirty. When I used to use water bowls, I would wash them every day so they were clean. These only get washed/rinsed once a week. But they allow them to drink as much as they want and more, which is something the water bowls hadn't the water capacity to hold.
Clear water turn to brown water after about 20 seconds when you own ducks. Their bills have little rivets all along the edges where dirt is, and when their bill hits water, it all comes out. This is normal. I clean the water regularly, it never smell or has algae, muddy sludge but it will be brown.
I never have problems with the bedding in the water though. I have it set up on top of a sandwich made of half-cinder blocks and plastic grids. I't does great at keeping the bedding around the water dry, and keeping the bedding from being kicked up into the water.
Free Ranging
Here they are ranging in the back yard. I used to free range them full time, but due to predator problems, it's now only part time. They get to come out whenever I'm home, so that's just in the afternoons when I get back, and all day on the weekend. They will be back to full time free range when summer's here because that's when I'm on vacation, and I also need them to eat all the summers bugs, weeds, peaches and figs that fall on the ground.
Winter
Summer!
This my small family of Sebastopool geese.The geese get to range all day. They are mostly herbivorous, so they need the greens in their diet. The rest of my fowl avoid them these days, because the Gander chases them off tying to protect their baby. They are very nice to have and alert me whenever there is a car pulling up in the driveway or when there is a predator.
My peafowl
