Accidently added a duck egg

[EdgeC]

Was doing this early seasons chickens, produce about 300 every 18 days. I have ducks (Pekin) and accidently threw it in with the batch and its viable (and roughly 19 days). Noticed when I moved one batch over to the hatchers, its so far along I would feel like crap aborting it. Can I raise a single duck with a batch of roughly 50 chickens? It will have other ducks at feathering age, I would just add it to my flock. The rest of the chicks are at this point going to be turned into a mixed batch discount bulk straight run buy. Will that effect the duck? I was just going to introduce it to the main flock like I always do with new birds with no issues.

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

The only problem will be if it's a drake. In my experience they can become chicken aggressive and attempt to also mate chicken hens. If you keep your flocks separated than it shouldn't be an issue.

 

[MysteryChicken]

Was doing this early seasons chickens, produce about 300 every 18 days. I have ducks (Pekin) and accidently threw it in with the batch and its viable (and roughly 19 days). Noticed when I moved one batch over to the hatchers, its so far along I would feel like crap aborting it. Can I raise a single duck with a batch of roughly 50 chickens? It will have other ducks at feathering age, I would just add it to my flock. The rest of the chicks are at this point going to be turned into a mixed batch discount bulk straight run buy. Will that effect the duck? I was just going to introduce it to the main flock like I always do with new birds with no issues.

I've raised ducks with chickens without issues. Ended up with 5 drakes, & 2 ducks. Butchered the 5 males at 6 months, & kept the females for eggs. The Ducks pretty much accepted the chickens as flock mates.

 

[EdgeC]

I've raised ducks with chickens without issues. Ended up with 5 drakes, & 2 ducks. Butchered the 5 males at 6 months, & kept the females for eggs. The Ducks pretty much accepted the chickens as flock mates.

Awesome, thanks!

 

[saeris]

One thing to note is that duck egg will take a good number of days longer (28 vs 21). Not sure what your setup is, but just to keep in mind!

We had the reverse issue. Let our momma duck brood a clutch, and one of the chickens had flown into the coop and laid an egg in the nest without our knowing. Imagine my surprise on day 21 when out popped a chick! We took her away from momma so the duck wouldn't try to teach her to swim and raised her in a brooder with 3 ducklings I had purchased.

The only "issue" we had was that she took a LONG time to learn she was not, in fact, a duck. So just note if you keep your ducks and chickens separate, it might take a little extra coaxing to keep it with the ducks, but given it is a pekin might not be as big of an issue since they can't fly like our chicken could. We had to finally put her in with the next batch of chicks we bought once they were feathered so she could re-learn she was not a duck. That finally stopped her flying into the duck run (we free range chickens and have a run for the ducks).

 

[EdgeC]

One thing to note is that duck egg will take a good number of days longer (28 vs 21). Not sure what your setup is, but just to keep in mind!

We had the reverse issue. Let our momma duck brood a clutch, and one of the chickens had flown into the coop and laid an egg in the nest without our knowing. Imagine my surprise on day 21 when out popped a chick! We took her away from momma so the duck wouldn't try to teach her to swim and raised her in a brooder with 3 ducklings I had purchased.

The only "issue" we had was that she took a LONG time to learn she was not, in fact, a duck. So just note if you keep your ducks and chickens separate, it might take a little extra coaxing to keep it with the ducks, but given it is a pekin might not be as big of an issue since they can't fly like our chicken could. We had to finally put her in with the next batch of chicks we bought once they were feathered so she could re-learn she was not a duck. That finally stopped her flying into the duck run (we free range chickens and have a run for the ducks).

Yeah, no worries I have a few of those GQF Hatcher/Incubator cabinets. This is actually how the mix up happened, we are just letting it run about 4? days longer and just reload it with the next batch and I will just hatch the duck egg with a 3rd batch... that was incubated about 3 days after the duck/chicken egg batch was incubated.

Thanks for looking out.

My ducks adult ducks are mixed with my chickens, they keep to themselves. I will watch out, for it being a drake and separate before sexual maturity. Thanks again.