Mixed flocks - How does it work?

Finally some real and truthful information on mixing chickens and geese. This article lessens my fear on adding 2 geese to our family. Thank you!

I have a mixed flock of bantam chickens, standard rooster (he chose to be in this pen) and khaki Campbell's ducks. My bantam hens have been surrogate hatching mommas to 6 ducks and 6 standard chickens plus 6 bought standard chickens over the last year. My bantam hens are 3 1/2 years old and don't lay as often, 2 go broody every few months so I let them sit on others eggs at times. I limit each hen on how many eggs they can try to hatch so I don't have too many babies at one time.
Pictured below are my 2 bantam surrogate hens (white 1 is a Showgirl, grey 1 mix breed) with 2 of the ducklings they hatched and chicks I bought together in nursery coop. 2 more ducklings hatched a few days later.
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I have haven't had any problems with my mixed flock other than the ducks constantly muddy the water. I allow all my pens of chickens and ducks to mingle in a larger fenced area outside their 4 pens. There's a total of 69 between all of them of which there are 8 roosters (1 bantam), 49 hens and pullets, 2 drakes and 4 ducks. The 6 chicks (5 pullets, 1 cockerel - bought as pullet) are kept separate since they're under 9 weeks.
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It has been my experience that mixing ducklings in with adult chickens may not work but raising chicks and ducklings together works. It is a good idea to pay close attention as the ducks normally grow much faster than the chickens. Aggressive ducklings may damages chicks. I use a broody hen to hatch fertile duck eggs. The very first brood that my hen "Sally" hatched out was interesting. She seemed to know they weren't chickens. Now 2 years later she still knows that those 4 Ancona ducks are her "children" and they recognize her as "Mom." Sally was really upset when 4 of her "children" were lost to a weasel. I am rebuilding my flocks. My Ancona ducks will be hatched in an incubator. My Speckled Sussex chickens (new breed for me) will be "1 day old" from a hatchery. I do plan to keep a Sussex rooster and incubate more Speckled Sussex that will be imprinted on me. Then my ducks and chickens will be very well imprinted on me. I will then sell my original chickens from the hatchery. It's just my preference. I know people that want socialized chickens that are already laying eggs so selling the adults will be easy. I enjoy training them to come when I call. That makes it easy to put them in their roost. It also allows "mobility" in case becoming nomadic is necessary.
My Ancona ducks come when I call. They are very tame to me but not other people. My chickens love all humans. They are shameless beggars but very friendly.
It is my opinion that recommended space requirements are absolute minimums. My duck house is 240 sq.ft.(12'x20') It houses 20 ducks and 4 drakes. Adding more ducks would be crowding them. I do not believe in crowding them. My 30 hens and 3 roosters have a coop that is 148 sq.ft.(12'x14') They have less space but are actually not crowded. When it is well below zero and the wind is howling it doesn't really affect the ducks but the chickens aren't happy. They huddle together to stay warm. My pasture is not really bug enough for 57 birds but the fence is only 40" high so the chickens free range the "neighborhood" which consists of huge pastures where black angus graze and huge hay fields. They automatically go to their roost late in the day but not the ducks. I have to walk them to their house and sing them a James Taylor song. The ducks are confined to a pasture that is approximately 6000 sq.ft. and I wish it was bigger. Space is really important for keeping really healthy birds. I eat raw eggs and raw duck meat often so free ranging and bug eating is absolutely necessary for my birds. Eating bugs prevents Salmonella. That's my story and I'm sticking to it .
Peace!
MagicDave
PS "Sally Two Toes" is still laying an egg every day year round at 5 years old. She is a Golden Comet.

We have chickens and ducks together - 3 female Pekin ducks and 18 mixed breed chickens, including one Russian Orloff rooster over the whole group of females. We had our ducks separated from the chickens when we had more ducks. We had 12 ducks and they were turning our yard into a huge mud puddle, so we sent some to freezer camp and then moved the remaining in with our chickens. They all get along really well - now the ducks don't have constant access to a pool in their run, so that helps the mud puddle issue.

Nice and helpful article.Thank you. We are planning a mixed flock this Fall. We have 3 coops currently of chickens-6 hens with one roo, 5 hens and a baby with no roo, and 3 adult Silkies & 4 babies from incubation that are still in the brooder. We also have 5 adult ducks and five 3 wk old ducklings, still in the brooder. Our plan is to keep our Silkies totally separated, and keep only the hens from the 4 chicks. But integrate our 2 flocks of other chickens, keeping only our one rooster for them, and integrate our adult ducks, but keep only hens from the ducklings as we already have 3 drakes, and put all those chickens and the ducks together. Except for our Silkies,they all free range now, but have their own spaces to do so, and they all can see each other, but they are spread out. We want to dedicate one portion of the property for them all, and we will even keep the Silkie coop and run within those same confines. Wish us luck, this all goes well.

Good information and insight to different requirements.

Nice article to read when considering a mixed flock.