Can chickens and ducks be raised and/or kept together?

[Goatduck]

My goat, chickens, and ducks live together just fine in the same barn at night. In the day I let them wander around my house. I have three drakes but I have seen one of my chickens jump into the pond when the ducks were not there. The chickens I have had for a while are fine, it has been just any new chickens, young and old, that seem to have the problem of jumping into the duck pond.

 

[arrowti]

We've had chickens that will get dehydrated and die rather than get up and drink water from a waterer about 3 feet away. We also have chickens that cross the entire yard to get to their favourite waterer to keep hydrated.

Basically what I'm saying: unfortunately not every chicken is made the same. Some are smart, some are... not. Sometimes it is based on breed (our hybrid layers are less instinctive than our heritage), and sometimes it's just the individual. There are turkeys who will drown themselves in their waterer if it's deep enough.

The best recommendation would be to separate the new chickens into an area with no access to the pond. We had a batch of chickens this summer that were so dumb we had to pick them up and put them by the waterer for them to drink, otherwise they'd be dead by evening. Good luck with your chickens, and hopefully you don't lose anymore!