Can I house ducks with my chickens?

[wordgirl]

I would love to have a few Anconas, but I'm not sure I'd be able to if they need separate housing. So can ducks be housed with the chickens? And if so, is there anything special that they would need other than what I normally do for the chickens?

 

[conroy]

I am curious about this as well....

 

[L0rraine]

I think there are some of us here who have had mixed success with mixing the two. The most common complaint is how messy the ducks are with the water. Even if they have their own little wading pool, they will still dirty the chickens' waterer. I think there have been mixed 'pecking order' complaints. In some cases the ducks get picked on, in others the chickens. My Runners do really well with my Silkies. I do have to make sure I freshen the water a couple of times a day and the Silkie rooster makes sure he and the hens get first dibs at the food (the ducks won't even try to eat until he is on to other things). My regular sized hens have bullied young ducks terribly, but they co-mingle with the adults just fine when they are free-ranging. My ducks have their own separate 'shelter' in the pen/run, so they sleep separately at night. It's probably worth giving it a try, but if you start with ducklings I would try to make sure they can be separated somehow until they are full sized.

Currently though, other than the pen that is shared by Runners and Silkies, all mine are separate.

 

[muddyhorse]

our ducks and chickens get along just fine. we have campbells, and caugas. the ducks are the last ones in the coop but they still go in every night. just be forwarned ducks are MESSY. my campbells out lay my hens. and start laying at about 16 weeks. we love the ducks.

 

[Smartie_Pants]

I have always housed them together, and had no real problems. I even managed to some up with a workable solution to the water issue. I just put out several different waterers, about three and spread them out in the pen. It seems the more water I put out, the cleaner the dishes stay. Also, the chickens will be able to have somewhere to drink.

 

[columbiacritter]

Mine are together though I wish the ducks were separate because of the mess. THe new runners will spend their nights in a duck house so they won't be messing up the chcikens coop.

 

[gryeyes]

I have 2 Cayugas, and they usually sleep in the same coop with the chickens. Sometimes they lag behind, maybe still swimming in the pool, or finding "dusk" goodies, and miss the automatic door's deadline. In that case, they go sleep in the bottom, pen section of my A-Frame "tractor-type" coop.

They always sleep in the same spot in the chicken coop, so their night-time mess is easy to clean up. It's not all over the coop.

They get along well with the chickens, although their curiosity does startle a hen now and then. They bill EVERYTHING, and if a hen is in the middle of a dust bath when the ducks play with her feathers just then, it really ticks her off. *chuckle*

I have lots of waterers around, with one made out of an Alhambra bottle just for the ducks, so they can put their heads into it and under the water. The chickens drink out of it too, but they have nipple waterers available to them. (I have seen the ducks actually drinking from the nipple waterers now and then!)

I feed everybody on grower/finisher (general purpose) feed, and a couple time a week I'll add some powdered Brewer's Yeast to a special tin dish just for the ducks (when the chickens are elsewhere, or have gone into the coop for the night). ....and I offer oyster shell free choice from a tuna can nailed to the inside coop wall, for the laying hens.....

Plus, I bought a 300 gallon stock tank to use as a duck pool. ;-)

 

[Count Von Chickula]

I raised Peking drake with chickens but other than the messy water issue, the drake would try to mate with them (not a pretty sight). Other than that they got along okay. Right now we have a runner and a Rohen. The Rohen is a drake and goes wild when he sees the hens, trying to mate with them, so we keep them apart. Throw a rooster in the mix and you might have different results... I guess if you raise them together from the beginning they are more accepting of each other.


Hey, this morning we just had our first Rohen/Runner duckling hatch! (Caught on video.) Other than the massive feet it looks so cute.

 

[Jeeper1540]

we have 9 adult chickens, and and living with them are 2 month old ducks (4) and chicks (3) and for the most part, they did ok. at first there was pecking but they are pretty good together now. you can tell the new ones are at the bottom of the pecking order, but they are not being constantly pecked or anything.

 

[Jeeper1540]

but yes they get the water dirty lol