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?

 

[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.

 

[crazychickengirl]

I have 2 ducks and 22 chickens roaming around and they seem to get along just fine. My chicks and ducklings grew up together so maybe that's why. We have a little wading pool for the duckies which the chickens aren't interested in and they both eat the same feed.

Haven't had issues with my drake breeding my hens, however he's not quite old enough yet, so we'll have to wait and see. I imagine my roo will keep him away if he tries!

 

[bwhite28]

Quote:
You should have let him and see what kinda of bird would hatch like a ducken or something.

 

[Promiselandfarm]

We call our duck Chuck because he likes the hens