Chicken & Ducks

[Denverchickee]

Hi,

Kinda new. Looking for a little advice please.

I have 7 hens, 6 are a year old, 1 is 3 months old.

I have to take the roo to the chicken swap tomorrow. If I traded him/or bought ducks how difficult would it be for the flock to adjust? Or maybe just don't even recommend? We are in a urban area, smaller coop but enough space for what we have and a couple. Free range most days, weather permitting.
Fed great homeground food plus treats. Average a dozen eggs a week.

Any thoughts is greatly appreciated.

Cheers!!

 

[lauranickerson]

I'm no expert, but I've always been able to keep chickens and ducks together with no problems. Given, I never introduced ducks after the rest were established, but they always get along fine for me. I feed them the same starter/grower and scraps that my chickens get. Female ducks seem to quack a lot louder than males, so maybe males would be better for you if you have close neighbors. When I was a kid we had two male ducks in with our hens, then our roosters in their own pen. The two male ducks always tried mating with the hens, but obviously nothing happened from it. That may happen for you, too. Sounds like I was fortunate to even have the two male ducks be friends...sometimes they get into fights (that's my concern now as I have 3 male ducks and one female growing up...yikes!).

Another thing you may not know if you've never had ducks is that they are much messier than chickens. They poo a lot more, and it's runnier because of the amount of water they drink...which is tons. I have a 3.5gal waterer, and it is gone by mid afternoon...which is why I recently stopped giving them water in the coop. They play in it and make a mess, forcing me to change out my wood chips every few days because it would be mud. Now I only give them and the chickens a trough and a pool in the run, and they're out of luck at bed time after they're closed up.

I love ducks...almost more than chickens. They are so goofy, adorable, and clumsy. Just be prepared because they drink/play with as much water as you are willing to give them, eat at least 2x more than a chicken (and spill a lot, too), and make more of a mess/poos smell a little worse. If that's no problem for you, I would say DO IT.