Adding new chicks...

[aart]

You may want to house your ducks and chickens separately anyway,
wet mess of ducks bests kept separate fro chickens-especially in a Michigan winter,
so now would be the perfect time to build a coop/run for the ducklings.

 

[Beccazon]

Around 3-4 months.I usually am able to tell by voice changes at this age.Males have a raspy voice while hens quack.By three months hens are usually quacking or at least every other few words their quacking,whilst at this age the drakes are making little to no sound,bbut hissing and maybe a raspy duck sound,bbut no quacking, it’ll be quite obvious.By four or five months the drakes usually start growing into their adult feathering and changing colors and drakes almost of all breeds have a curl at the end of their tail, sometimes two or three curls.

I have heard the curl. My Campbell is NOISY!! Squeak squeak QUACK QUACK SCREECH! So cute when she? started last week with a wannabe quack. The smallest of my ducks. The most adventurous. First in the water. First to start feathering. But is my least sociable with humans. We will get there lol. The Pekins are nearly twice her size I swear. One has attempted a weak quack here n there. Though they are all very vocal. All the time. Tweets and chirps and sqeaks. (Was veeeeery quite inside with the chicks while the ducks were outside today...yapping at the world!)Not the other. And they are nearly identical yet.

 

[Beccazon]

You may want to house your ducks and chickens separately anyway,
wet mess of ducks bests kept separate fro chickens-especially in a Michigan winter,
so now would be the perfect time to build a coop/run for the ducklings.

That is definitely a concern. I am thinking about a "partition" in the coop, come fall for the winter. These darn chicks...at least for now...really love their cuddly duckies lol. I would like them to be able to at least socialize closely even if they need physically seperate living quarters.

 

[Roo5]

You don’t have to,you can consider it, but it most likely won’t effect the birds, once they grow up their likely gonna want nothing to do with one another Unfourtently,but that doesn’t mean they won’t coexist.I kept geese and ducks some of the nastiest waterfowl with my chickens and never had a serious issue,I kept the water lifted high so the ducks couldn’t climb into the waters and try to attempt to bathe, most they do is fiddle in it and drink with their bills,I kept them stacked on large cinder blocks,it helped the issue greatly.
Drakes will rape chicken hens but I’ve never had it happen , but it won’t happen as likely as long as you keep duck hens available at all times.Hormonal urge may cause you to have separate your ducks if anything from each other so they don’t fight too much during breeding season and so the duck hens won’t get overbred.

 

[Beccazon]

I had planned for the non-winter months at least, to keep a somewhat separate area for the ducks' wading pool...away from any bedding area and feed. When I last had chickens, about 12 years ago, we had a dozen plus 2 ducks. We kept an old snow sled filled with water for the ducks. The chickens rarely went near it. We found that keeping it on a bed of stone (big stone like golf balls so they wouldn't try to eat it) with about 2 feet of stone surface surrounding it, kept the area pretty well dry. (Plus it was kinda pretty lol). Because our winters here are so unpredictable and generally very cold, I don't plan to let them have access to a large water source like that during the winter. Y'all are worrying me now about drakes. Surely hope my 3 are all ladies! We are prepared, however, two separate the ducks from the chickens if any issue arises!

 

[Beccazon]

Well we did it. Got my sis-in-law her Pekin. Got another for us too cuz there were two "senior" babies that need homes. They are almost 3 weeks. I thought that might be a little bit less Trumatic since they are not tiny babies. After Mocha, my Khaki Campbell yelled at them for five minutes they melded into the flock very peacefully Then I opened up the small brooder and put all the new babies in Yup couldn't leave without more! So now we have a total of 14 chicks and 7 ducks The new littles should be a nice size to add with the juveniles shortly and my coops will be ready. We decided to do a second coop/run attached to the first so the ducks will have their own space now that we have a full flock of ducks lol.