Anna Ranieri
Crowing
Hi, I'm hoping someone can help please -- after visiting a farm on the 15th of May this year, my daughter and I took my grandson to a commercial farm for a day out, one of the many features was that kids get to hold chicks/ducklings. My grandson wasn't so interested in holding the chick we were presented with so my daughter held it so's not to interrupt the farmhand delivering his educational talk, during this time she fell in love with this tiny ball of fluff and a cute duckling so we brought them home to live with us, and a week later returned to the farm and bought another chick and a duckling. The first two are about 13/15 weeks old now and the second set about 10/12 weeks old. We were told by the farm that chickens and ducks can live together and having no experience what so ever about keeping poultry, trusted what was said to us and so far haven't had any difficulties or problems, they all get on well and are in fact inseparable, crying, screeching and running around in a panic if one or more are removed or separated from the flock and will only calm when reunited, they sleep together all huddled up, even though the chickens have roosting bars and when free ranging they follow each other about, and won't move far from each other and the chickens often get in the pool with the ducks too, so we keep it very shallow to ensure the chickens won't drown. However, We have spent uncountable hours researching and finding out as much as we can and I have come to know that there are no fail safes in homing chickens and ducks together and can be unpredictable. We are as certain the chickens are hens, there is no wattle development, both have yellow combs, neither have sparring claws and they look like typical chickens and from what I have read, both would have shown signs weeks ago had they been roosters. The ducks are Indian Runners, hybrid - Mallard variety but could possibly be mixed with other breeds although not certain of. The eldest was almost completely black aged around 3/5 weeks, however as of two days ago has green head feathers appearing, wing feathers turning white, there is a white ring around the neck and the sounds made are like whispering and raspy with no distinct quack so I am convinced this is a drake but there is no sex curl feather yet. The younger Runner, who was female coloured from birth, still is to a degree but as of a few days ago has wing feathers gradually turning white, has white ring around throat and sounds whispering and raspy with no distinct quack so I am 99.9% sure this is a drake too. We have a fair size garden and a fair sized coop and pen, we could probably manage another two birds so are thinking it might help to get two runner hens for the drakes? But we wouldn't be able to accommodate any more than a total of six birds. We don't want to part with any of our birds, they are pets, we don't care about eggs, we love our birds and they are now part of our family - the chickens sit on my lap and sometimes will nap roosting on my shoulders while the ducks are snuggled up curled around my feet, and are very tame with us all. But I have read such awful things about drakes with chickens although I have found of others who haven't had any problems and their drakes have never tried to mate with their hens. It will be so devastating if we have to part with any of them and although our garden can accommodate them adequately in one pen and in free ranging we do not have the room to separate them, we are going to get a two story coop so the chickens can sleep upstairs the ducks on the bottom, but they will have to share the run and garden. It has been suggested to get one rooster and one duck hen, thinking that the rooster will guard the chickens but I have read two drakes to one duck can have devastating results and can even lead to death also. I have also been told that if the drakes have ducks they'll leave the hens alone, but can two ducks for two drakes be enough? Does anyone have any advice for me about this please? And what you think would be the best way to go?
