Chickens and Ducks

[Nocila]

I know this question is asked a lot, but I had always thought it was a bad idea (because of diseases), and now, I've seen some people who seem to think it works well, but that breeding is an issue...

I've got about 23 chickens at the moment, three of which are roosters. I was thinking about getting a few female ducks in a few months, but I'd have to keep them with the chickens most, if not all, of the time. Of my roosters, two of them are banties, and the other is a standard sized boy, but I'm not sure he'll ever try to breed (he's got a bad leg at the moment [scaly leg mites, we're trying to heal him, but I haven't heard whether they heal once they've started limping], and I think he may have been inbred... [he's a wheaton, but he has a female's coloration, and he just seems a bit slow...]). I heard that roosters can be rough on female ducks, but, considering most of the boys are small, I was wondering if they'd cause a duck hen any trouble...

I'd be interested in muscovies or runners, if that makes any difference...

Also, about 10 of my girls are bantams, and two of my standard sized hens are games (an old english and an asil), so I'm assuming that I couldn't get a drake, right?


The coop my birds are kept in has 4 large nesting boxes, a concrete floor covered with straw, both roosting bars and flat boards for sleeping on, and is connected to a small run. I could see letting the ducks free range during the day, if necessary, as we have a large, medium, and a small pond that they would enjoy, but they would definitely be together at night, and, if a duck starts sitting, then she will be kept inside until the eggs hatch.

Any thoughts/suggestions?

I've put a poll so that it will be easier to keep track of what people think...

 

[Y N dottes]

In my experience ducks can be kept with chickens just fine, so no problem there.
I have no experience with runners and really don't know if duck breed makes a difference, but having drakes should also be fine

 

[jeri l]

My chickens and ducks have done fine together for over 5 years, just make sure those ducks get to the water during the day.

 

[Nocila]

Thanks for the responses. Also, my parents haven't gotten ducks yet because we have fish in our pond, and my parents used to have ducks (they might have been wild, I'm not sure) that ate the tails of the fish. Do any of your ducks have access to fish? Do you know whether muscovies or runners would be likely to eat the tails of the fish? Thank you very much for your time!

 

[jeri l]

Our ducks eat crawdads, minnnows and frogs, but not that often. They prefer the roots and grass and bugs. A fish would have to be quite small for our ducks to eat it.