I have ducks and a chicken (was chickens, but the fox picked off the other chickens 2 years ago - will be getting a few chicks this spring so she has chicken friends again).
They currently have separate housing. I like their separate housing in how each functions, but since we removed a crap ton of trees, I do not like how their current housing and pen look.
We are going to convert my 25' x 25' garden into the new pen. They are penned during the summer and early fall when the local fox family likes to prey on my birds, otherwise free range during the day.
I'd like to build a nice looking shed that houses both the ducks and the chicken (and new chicks once they are ready to combine with the girls).
DH thinks I might be asking for trouble as the ducks are semi afraid of the chicken (chicken hangs out with them a lot, but they aren't always very sure about her being close to them).
My thought is the chickens will be up on a roost and as long as I have a poop board or something to prevent ducks from being pooped on... all should be fine. It doesn't seem as though the chicken moves around much at night. Once she's up on her roost, she's good until morning. The ducks, judging by the poop from one end of their house to the other... they move around a bit at night.
If you have ducks and chickens sharing a nighttime house - what has your experience been with that set up?
Currently, the duck house is hosed out each morning. Chicken house is cleaned out once a week or as needed. Whatever they go into, I'd like to continue with the hosing out the house each morning from the ducks.
They currently have separate housing. I like their separate housing in how each functions, but since we removed a crap ton of trees, I do not like how their current housing and pen look.
We are going to convert my 25' x 25' garden into the new pen. They are penned during the summer and early fall when the local fox family likes to prey on my birds, otherwise free range during the day.
I'd like to build a nice looking shed that houses both the ducks and the chicken (and new chicks once they are ready to combine with the girls).
DH thinks I might be asking for trouble as the ducks are semi afraid of the chicken (chicken hangs out with them a lot, but they aren't always very sure about her being close to them).
My thought is the chickens will be up on a roost and as long as I have a poop board or something to prevent ducks from being pooped on... all should be fine. It doesn't seem as though the chicken moves around much at night. Once she's up on her roost, she's good until morning. The ducks, judging by the poop from one end of their house to the other... they move around a bit at night.
If you have ducks and chickens sharing a nighttime house - what has your experience been with that set up?
Currently, the duck house is hosed out each morning. Chicken house is cleaned out once a week or as needed. Whatever they go into, I'd like to continue with the hosing out the house each morning from the ducks.
