A Duck With Chickens?

[eggsamillion]

Hi, I'm new here and fairly new to chicken keeping. I've had my small backyard flock for about a year, and I love them. I have a leghorn, two Easter Eggers, one Silkie, one Welsummer, one Blue Copper Marans, one Production Red, one Barred Rock, an Amberlink and one Black Star.

About 3 months ago, a friend offered me a Pekin duckling and I was so smitten with the little duck that I brought it home. My duck has now been out with my chickens for about 5 weeks and everyone seems very happy. The duck is clearly very bonded to the chickens now, and waddles around happily with them. At night, my Silkie and my Marans even sleep with the duck in a ground level nesting box I've created for duck-nesting in my coop.

I'm not 100% sure yet but I am strongly leaning toward thinking that my Pekin is a male. He isn't quacking but instead makes a whistling sound, and I think his tail feathers may be turning up. I love him to pieces but am worried after reading (I've been a lurker) here on BYC that a male duck will not be able to live peacefully with hens after he hits puberty. I really hope to be able to keep him, so I'm wondering whether any of you have successfully kept a male duck as a pet along with your chickens without any big problems? Do you think that adding a female duck now would prevent him from getting aggressive with the hens or shoukd I wait and see how things go? If I do get him a mate, does she need to be a Pekin? I'm interested in Muscovies because I live in a neighborhood and I understand that they are pretty quiet. Would a make a Pekin consider a female Muscovy a suitable duck-mate?

Thanks for any answers you guys can give me. I really hope I can make it work with my sweet duck.

 

[gatorshark75]

Hi, I'm new here and fairly new to chicken keeping. I've had my small backyard flock for about a year, and I love them. I have a leghorn, two Easter Eggers, one Silkie, one Welsummer, one Blue Copper Marans, one Production Red, one Barred Rock, an Amberlink and one Black Star.

About 3 months ago, a friend offered me a Pekin duckling and I was so smitten with the little duck that I brought it home. My duck has now been out with my chickens for about 5 weeks and everyone seems very happy. The duck is clearly very bonded to the chickens now, and waddles around happily with them. At night, my Silkie and my Marans even sleep with the duck in a ground level nesting box I've created for duck-nesting in my coop.

I'm not 100% sure yet but I am strongly leaning toward thinking that my Pekin is a male. He isn't quacking but instead makes a whistling sound, and I think his tail feathers may be turning up. I love him to pieces but am worried after reading (I've been a lurker) here on BYC that a male duck will not be able to live peacefully with hens after he hits puberty. I really hope to be able to keep him, so I'm wondering whether any of you have successfully kept a male duck as a pet along with your chickens without any big problems? Do you think that adding a female duck now would prevent him from getting aggressive with the hens or shoukd I wait and see how things go? If I do get him a mate, does she need to be a Pekin? I'm interested in Muscovies because I live in a neighborhood and I understand that they are pretty quiet. Would a make a Pekin consider a female Muscovy a suitable duck-mate?

Thanks for any answers you guys can give me. I really hope I can make it work with my sweet duck.

no matter what you do when he gets up to breeding age he will go after the hens and will mate with them thats just a duck for ya been there done that and now have only chickens plus they are messy i had pekins and traded them for a turkey best decision i could have made

 

[PrairieChickens]

It's really not worth the risk. Without being too graphic, ducks have penises and chickens don't. A hen's anatomy isn't equipped to handle that of a drake, and if he were to mate with one of your girls, he could cause her serious harm. Even the presence of a female duck wouldn't guarantee that he wouldn't try his luck with a chicken. If it were me, I'd get him a girlfriend of his own kind and house them separately, for my hen's sake.

 

[gatorshark75]

It's really not worth the risk. Without being too graphic, ducks have penises and chickens don't. A hen's anatomy isn't equipped to handle that of a drake, and if he were to mate with one of your girls, he could cause her serious harm. Even the presence of a female duck wouldn't guarantee that he wouldn't try his luck with a chicken. If it were me, I'd get him a girlfriend of his own kind and house them separately, for my hen's sake.

i totally agree

 

[eggsamillion]

Thanks you guys.