can you keep ducks and chickens together?

[busybychoice]

It sounds,,, as I'm reading over the threads that the ducks and chickens are kept together. How are the needs of each provided for?

and how do I keep my gentle ducks from getting hen pecked?

 

[Paganrose]

I raised my ducks chickens and geese together..... they eat the same homemixed feed (the waterfowl do get extra protien type kitchen scraps) I have a small pond in the run, the chickens perch on the edge to drink while the waterfowl swim, never had anyone drown. They all shared a coop until this spring when the geese got ther own 4'x4' house to lay in since the male was getting very protective..... It helps that I have a very large run (after a year it still has grass!!!!) and the bird free range on my acre and in the landlord's orchard whenever some one is home, which is almost always.

My four ducks are defently capable of handling themselves!!! they even bully my lone goose (mate died) and chase her off of her nest and out of her "house" which they have taken over!! Now that the goose is not laying this is not a problem so much. In fact they often are fed outside of the run so the chickens and goose can also eat.

 

[terriw]

Reading through this I was wondering if they can free range ok but have different coops? I have 11 hens and 2 roosters. I was thinking about getting 2 ducks to start off with.

 

[claudiag]

Hi,
We have 16 ducklings, almost a week old. We got them at one day old. We were thinking that they should be getting out & enjoying the outside as opposed to a brooder box in our entranceway. Started giving them dandelion greens. Gave them lettuce & then thought I don't want them free ranging in the veggie garden (will this be a concern & herb beds?). We were thinking about putting them in the run/coop with our 3/ 4 week meat chicks (38). Do you think they would be fine together? We have a kiddie pool we can give them. Our hopes were to eventually let the ducks free range with an island retreat in the middle of our pond. We also seem to have a resident muskrat in our pond. Would he be a possible predator as these ducks are for meat for us?
thanks,
Claudia

 

[ChickenToes]

The general consensus is yes, you can keep them together, but in the long run it's probably better to keep them separate. Ducks need water and generally make a mess, I don't know how well chickens would deal with that. Also, if you're feeding them different feeds I don't know how you would keep them out of each others food. If you do put them together, let me know! I'm interested to see how well it works.

Your ducks won't necessarily get pecked - it's an iffy thing. I've had chickens get pecked bloody and I've had to isolate them. Some get returned to the coop without a problem, while others get attacked.

 

[dacjohns]

Quote:
My "gentle ducks" are now the biggest birds in the yard. They don't get pecked. They are the aggressors.

When you have ducks and chickens together it is difficult to meet the preferred dietary needs of both types of birds.

 

[josh]

I had to seperate my ducks and chickens. The male duck just wanted to breed my hens. Wouldn't breed my female ducks.

 

[Katy]

I don't keep mine together since ducks are sooooo messy!

 

[Promiselandfarm]

We had ducks and the fox ate all but the drake. I guess females taste better. He now thinks he is a Rooster and tried to breed our hens. So I would suggest NOT keeping them together. We had to seperate them for the hens sake.We are going to get him some more females tomorrow, have an appointment set~ I guess if you did not have a drake then maybe?I had gotten a few young ones(ducks) from a friend and tought I could keep them in with our big pullets ~ that also was a mistake as I lost 2 of my pullets because even though the ducks are very young they stepped on the older pullets and killed them~ hard lesson learned

 

[jacyjones]

I have always kept chickens and ducks together without a problem. My birds are free ranging over 2 acres in the day (2 ducks, 6 chickens) and they share a run and coop at night. They eat the same food so that is not an issue. I think the fact that they have so much space means we have ltittle mess and so the chickens are quite happy. Nobody pecks anybody else most of the time.