Housing chickens and ducks together

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mohawkbrian

mohawkbrian

Chirping
7 Years
Dec 17, 2012
208
1
71
I just wanted to see what peoples views are on housing different types of poultry together. I converted an old water tank shed into a coop by adding prches nest boxes and put dogcages(now used for poultry) so that the ducks can go in them to roost. I have 4 bantams, 6 ducks and 19 large fowl chickens. Iknow people say the twwo should not be housed together as ducks are messier than chickens butthe chickens keep to their part and the ducks keep to theirs with the odd chicken sleeping on the floor with the ducks. At the moment their is also a pair of red golden pheasants in one of the cages while I repair their run. So what is everyone elses view on this?
 
It can work. That being said, ducks do tend to foul the water that the chickens will be drinking. Also if one of the drakes decides to start breeding the chicken hens it can cause serious problems. Have a plan B just in case problems arise.
 
They are not in arun. They free ange so that is not a problem. they have lived together for about half a year and they are all kind of the same flock. They all fit into the pecking order nicely.The ducks fit in roughly in the middle of the order and about the drakes mating, we have 4 drakes and 2 hen ducks but they pair up nicely. A runner drake with cayuga hen, two hybrid ducks together and then two mallard drakes who i will be getting mates for soon. The drakes never mate with different hen ducks and their are never any big fights. Its just one mallard and a hybrid drake that sometimes scrap butr its just the mallard holding onto the hybrid. The hybrid ignores him. Itrs actually quite funny sometimes, as they never do any harm.
 
We housed them together and it did seem to work nicely.
Several runner ducks, mostly bantam chickens (a mix of more hens than roo's) plus we still had our big embden gander too.
Everyone lived in the same 9x12 coop, with a variety of places to roost, rest, sit, snuggle, nest etc.
they were penned, but it was 5 or 6 times if not more than the size of the coop.
Now, the total population wasnt enormous, maybe 25 total birds?
But the ducks kept to themselves, the chickens to themselves and the gander just lorded over everone.
The pecking order was always underway in terms of minor changes each day, but no one bird got worse than any other.

We did have trouble with the ducks messing the water fast, but a garden hose nearby made it easy to freshen up the trough often.
(just dump it out and rinse, then fill it up again)
 
That sounds like my shed. Except light sussex insted of gander. I have a sand pit full of water for ducks and i refill it everyday. My birds free range so the chucks find their own water
 
400
 
I have had 8 chickens, with 3 rouens for a year, and they got along nicely..all hung out together, and my silkies and ducks cuddled together at night.


My biggest complaint was I couldnt keep water clean, I would go out there 3-4 times a day and wash out waterers and refresh..tried having a chicken waterer and a deep dish for the ducks..still didnt work.

Also, before the ducks my run was nice and grassy, and my chickens stayed clean....after ducks it turned into a mudd pit. I just rehomed my ducks a couple days ago due to a hawk attacked, and it wasnt fair to them to keep them caged in like i can do with my chickens. (I use the let them free range every few days)
 
My birds free range so i dont need to worry about those type of issues. Mine also cuddle each other at night. My only.prblem is that a warren and a runner seam to have a disliking and always peck each other
 
So what are you asking in your post? From what i got from it your building a coop for the species to sleep together, and want to know if that works out? Am I missing something..
 
i just wondered what peoples views are. Cos some people have different views. Thats all
 

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