Combining ducks and chickens??

[grasjm36]

Hey all,

I have 14 chickens and a big ol roo...is it ok to combine a few ducks into their run (after an intro'duckt'ion of course)?? There would be a male duck with a few hens. Will the male duck and rooster fight or stay away from each other?

I noticed some duckies for sale in the area and have always wanted some. Their eggs sure taste good!

 

[Kittymomma]

I have two ducks with 25 chooks and for the most part it works out well. Integration was much better then when adding new chickens, but do keep an eye on things since drakes are RANDY and might fight with the roos and/or try to mate the hens. They can hurt the hens (chickens) so you'll probably have to seperate them if that gets to be a problem. The other thing to consider is that ducks are way messier then chickens and they need to be able to put most of their bill under water so you'll need at least one watering station that will accomodate them.

 

[newchicksnducks]

You might try posting in the duck section. Last year when we got our first chicks and 2 ducklings, Wifezilla was a font of information. We found the ducks to really be waaaay messier than the chicks. The chicks also learned to return to the coop in a short amount of time, the ducks we had to chase around the run nightly to put back in the coop. The one time my daughter decided to let them spend the night in the run (with access under the coop for "protection") was the time we found 2 dead ducks right at the edge of the coop! (victim of weasels...who knew we had any around!?!) You can try to co-habitat your birds, but I would plan a seperate area to keep the ducks if it does not work out for you. Good luck!

 

[grasjm36]

Thank you so much for the info! Chasing ducks in at night wouldn't be the best situation for us. My run is big enough to split for the duckies but I would feel bad. I want them to be able to free range. I will have to do some thinking...

 

[Kittymomma]

Now that mine are adults and the hen is laying they come back to the coop without having to be herded up the hill--I did have to do that for a long time though. They go to bed later then the chickes do, the chooks are all tucked in before full dark, but the ducks wait until an hour or so after dark before they go to bed.