CAn you raise chicks with ducks?

[pattee]

I want in the worse way to get a duck! We have such a terrible slug population here in the Pacific NW...

My question is can you keep duck and chicks in the same coop?
Also I've heard that ducks don't need a pond of water, just enough to drink.

Anyone?

 

[angelmarie]

yes you can they make excellent compainions as a matter of fact i rasied a sex-link chicken with my duck and they're inseperable

 

[MandyH]

My stuff has seperate pens once they are big enough to go outside, but I do know from keeping them together before that the chickens will pick on the ducks. Chickens are just buttheads to everything.

 

[Katy]

I don't do it because ducks are so much messier than chicks are.

 

[snowydiamonds]

As much as ducks and geese love water, its just plain cruel to withhold as natural an environment as they should have from them. Its their absolute favorite thing and if someone withheld your absolute fav thing from you, you would absolutely know the answer...

 

[Lydia]

Pattee- I just placed an order with Ideal Hatchery today that includes two Cayuga ducklings. I have been doing a lot of research on this message board and the internet about how to have chicks and ducks living together and make sure each is getting what they need. Ducks do need water, so you need to keep the ducks with enough water for them to get their entire beak into in the beginning and then a pond once they're out of the brooder. The chicks need to stay dry otherwise they can get sick. (If anyone reading this finds my information to be untrue, please correct me.)

I understand that chickens and ducks can share the same space in the evening when you "put them to bed" as long as they've been raised together but I would say that you have to take every duck/chicken living arrangement on its own. I hope it works out for my ducks and chicks.

Lydia

PS. I live in Seattle too!

 

[professor-yellow]

Our ducks and chickens share the same range, but have their own shelters for the night. Does not have to be elaborate or large for either.

As far as water, I have a kiddy wading pool, and they get let out when I am home. The first thing they will do is splash and play, then they get down to patrolling for good things to eat.

I drain the old water every day and put in fresh. The drained water is fed to my bamboo, rasberries and perennials.

 

[dacjohns]

This is my limited experience and it is not the best situation. I was given two ducklings after Easter. The Easter ducks (feed stores should not sell ducks and chicks as pets at Easter) came to my house at about two weeks old. We had them in a big plastic tub which became a bad situation. We moved them to the shower and put them in a wire cage which is bad for their feet but we did what we could. It was much easier to clean up after them.

We moved them outside into the chicken coop. At first the big birds picked on them. Now they are the big birds and pick on everyone else. I know that it says to have deep enough water for them to completely submerge their bills for cleaning out their nostrils. I have not been able to do that but they are such sloppy drinkers I think they are managing it.

I have to take them to the pond but they don't seem to like it. They usually spend a very short time there.

I didn't want the ducks but they would be worse off if I didn't have them. They seem to be doing OK with the chickens and without living next to the pond. They do love mud puddles. If I had the time and resources I would make an Easter Duck habitat.

 

[mandylovespets]

When I bought my chick and ducklings (2ducklings, 1chick), they were the same age and I raised them all together in the same brooder. The brooder was about 4ft. by 2ft. so the chick had plenty of room to roam and roost, but the chick still to this day thinks that my Pekin duck is his mamma!!! They are now 9 weeks old and it's so cute because they absolutely love each other, they cuddle when they sleep, they eat together from the same pile and are always following each other around side by side!!! They are inseperable! When I first got a little kiddie pool for the ducks I filled it up with water and put the ducks in and the chicken went crazy when I picked up the Pekin duck, which he thinks is mamma, and the chicken flew into the pool because he thought he was a duck I guess!!!

It was cute, they love each other! As far as being penned together, I don't really know because mine roam all around the yard all day and night and I have a 3 gallon poultry waterer always full and far away from the pool so the chicken can have water too... But I purchased 3 Buff Orpington chicks about 1 or 2 weeks after I got the ducks and other chick and I raised them seperately because the BO's are smaller and I didn't want them to get squashed by the ducks. So now the BO's are about 8 weeks old and they are starting to range the yard when I'm outside to watch them and the ducks love them too and the other chicken is totally oblivious to them! He only cares about his mamma duck! So I guess it depends on each animal as far as how they will behave with each other... But mine are great!!! I guess I got lucky!!!

Good Luck!