Do you have advice about housing chickens and ducks? Please post your photos of housing that works w

[Wyndraga]

So I am looking for any advice or information about housing ducks with chickens. I would really love it if you can post your pictures of your coops/housing. I am brand new to ducks and still relatively a newbie when it comes to chickens. We were going to have 10ducks and 10 chickens bur due to an error by the hatchery I will have 15 ducks. They are so flippin adorable (and smelly and disgusting).... We have a coop we are working on that has about 120 square feet. During the day when we can supervise everyone can free range. Unfortunately we learned the hard way that the neighborhood has en evil chicken eating dog roaming about. Maybe evil is too strong of a word...how about murderous? At any rate I hate cooping them up at all but we have to keep them as safe as possible. What are your experiences with this. I'll take the good, the bad and the ugly.
THANK YOU for taking the time to respond and again please post your pics. I'll put some up as we get closer to completion.

 

[cosbackyard]

We have a very small flock of 5 (3 ducks, 2 chickens) that are housed together. So our coop is small. I built it knowing that I may need to put a divider up between the birds. It's nearly 4 sq ft per bird. More if you count the second "story" shelf and nesting boxes. I don't think it's enough, though.




Waterproof everything if you build with wood. Ducks will mess up every square inch.

If you can, build an enclosed run. Ours is as big as we could put in, which isn't much. 9sq ft per bird and it's not big enough. It IS secure, though. It has to be since I leave the door to the run open all night. Here's a pic before it was complete.




Good luck, and please post if you have any other questions.

 

[Wyndraga]

That looks like a very good setup! I am going to have to wait until I can get more material before I can make a bigger space. It's about 10 by 13 feet now... give or take and inch or 2. I have been home during the days and spending time in the yard watching the ducks as I either help my husband build the coop or tend my garden. Right now they are all coming in at night in big bins to keep safe and warm. I try to make sure they get most of the day to roam around the yard and the ducks get to play in the little pond I dug them. We are at a stopping point for the day but hopefully by tomorrow night my room will no long resemble a barn

I honestly didn't realize what a huge project this would be of course we've had lots or rain and lightening storms which have delayed us some. Sorry if I am venting too much. There's only so much my friends want to hear about my new flock/family members...

I am guessing you painted to waterproof? I am glad you said something because I don't think I really would have even thought of it. I thought we'd be done by now.

 

[cosbackyard]

Believe me I understand - my project took three times longer than I expected. You feel rushed because you need a place for your flock to live. It's exhausting. I used an outdoor primer paint to waterproof. I ran out before I could get the entire inside, but I got the bottom two feet of it and that's been good enough.

 

[HouseMouseHens]

10x13 is not anywhere near big enough for fifteen ducks and ten hens if you are not planning on letting them out. Or are you just talking about keeping them cooped in the coop while they are babies? If you are going to build a run or let them free range then it is a nice big space for them. Keep in mind if you build a run that 10sqft per bird is fine when you have a few birds, but when you get higher numbers I feel like it gets really cramped. We have about 10.5sqft per bird in our enclosed run with 13 chickens (well we had 13, we now have 10) and it seemed really small once they grew into adults. We ended up deciding to let them free range and are using the run with a small doghouse for our ducklings while they are small. I am building a smaller version of my chicken coop for the ducks(without the roosts and nest boxes) and plan to take the fencing off the front of the run to give them an open but covered aread outside the houses. You can look the the My Coop link under my picture to see what I am talking about.

Ducks don't need roosts and nestboxes like chickens do, they will just sleep on the floor. I thought about just putting the ducks in the coop with the chickens,but liked the idea of having two spaces for them at night so they don't sleep under the roosts and get pooped on. Haha! Ducks also tend to lay their eggs in the wee hours of the morning so it'll be nice to be able to keep them in thier own house until daylight and just collect the eggs when I let them out, then shut the coop so they don't make a huge mess of it during the day with water since they sleep on the floor. My chickens all lay at different times through the morning and afternoon, and ones always lays around 5pm(crazy chicken!) so I couldn't shut them out.

Just some things to think about...

 

[BarredRockGirls]

we love our chickens and ducks! and they get along just fine in their co-habitation. our coop is 8x8. we have 3 female Pekin ducks and 15 Barred Rock Pullets . the Rock girls have a roost and 5 nest boxes - but they are only 12 weeks old soooooo still waiting to use those haha the Pekin girls share a corner nest together thats were they will lay their eggs too - they are only 7.5 weeks though so they just snuggle together in it now lol
In the morning ... i go out and let the chickens out.....they are fully free ranged supervised or not.... not that i dont wanna supervise them but they will NOT come in willingly sometimes .... sometimes yes sometimes NO... they are stubborn ... (i have trained them w whistles and treats to come in at 7 NO MATTER WHAT though.).... i stand on my porch and whistle and call for them and give them a treat in the morning .
I also let the ducks out - and by " let the ducks out " i mean - my ducks are imprinted - i can leave the door to the coop open all day and they wont move outta there until I say so . so if i have time to supervise them - they are 4 weeks younger than the chickens (and i feel they are just too young yet to fully free range w/o supervision AND because im just more attatched/protective of them ) i will go in and tell them they may come out --- and then they do . and they follow me everywhere until i tell em to so swim then they swim till i get em out . then they go back to their coop or lay by me or play a bit then i put em back in till im back .
i feed.... i change waters ... etc ... i spend 2 hrs playing w them every morning then more through the day haha
they all get along fine the ducks and chickens wander around . they all have their own personalities .

these are old pics. - these are from when the Rocks were first moved in the new coop ... about a month ago . since then the ducks have moved in ... we've replaced the pine w/ SAND - amazing- no smell super easy just rake every morning and DRY!!! and feeders and waterers are all hanging ...

the ducks nest is right there where all the Rocks are destroying the hay hahahah its HUGE now tho

storage space





door

 

[Wyndraga]

10x13 is not anywhere near big enough for fifteen ducks and ten hens if you are not planning on letting them out. Or are you just talking about keeping them cooped in the coop while they are babies? If you are going to build a run or let them free range then it is a nice big space for them. Keep in mind if you build a run that 10sqft per bird is fine when you have a few birds, but when you get higher numbers I feel like it gets really cramped. We have about 10.5sqft per bird in our enclosed run with 13 chickens (well we had 13, we now have 10) and it seemed really small once they grew into adults. We ended up deciding to let them free range and are using the run with a small doghouse for our ducklings while they are small. I am building a smaller version of my chicken coop for the ducks(without the roosts and nest boxes) and plan to take the fencing off the front of the run to give them an open but covered aread outside the houses. You can look the the My Coop link under my picture to see what I am talking about.

Ducks don't need roosts and nestboxes like chickens do, they will just sleep on the floor. I thought about just putting the ducks in the coop with the chickens,but liked the idea of having two spaces for them at night so they don't sleep under the roosts and get pooped on. Haha! Ducks also tend to lay their eggs in the wee hours of the morning so it'll be nice to be able to keep them in thier own house until daylight and just collect the eggs when I let them out, then shut the coop so they don't make a huge mess of it during the day with water since they sleep on the floor. My chickens all lay at different times through the morning and afternoon, and ones always lays around 5pm(crazy chicken!) so I couldn't shut them out.

Just some things to think about...

I agree it's not big enough by any means to keep them in there full time. I am planning on free ranging during the day. I also want to add on sooner than later. In the meantime, it seems like the little chickens are being bullies. I might have to partition it off unless they stop being jerks to my poor ducks.

 

[Wyndraga]

Thank You for your post by the way.

 

[Wyndraga]

Hello BarredRockGirls

Thanks. I love the pics. I am thinking about getting sand too. It sounds like it works out so much better. I have to call and price it out. STILL working on the coop. I got 5 more baby ducks (I knew they were coming so I included them in my earlier count of 15) this morning because I thought the hatchery sent me the wrong ducks. These guys look the same so maybe I was wrong.... They also sent more adorable packing peanuts (another 7 roosters to add to last weeks 7

. I think I am going to take all the roos to the flea market or feed store this weekend. My bedroom sounds like a hatchery and after like 3 hours the smell isn't awesome either.... altough after I added diatomacious earth to their bedding the odor is much much better. If there was ever a push to get a coop finished it is here and now. Yet here I am...

OK OK. Off I go!

 

[BarredRockGirls]

U can put sand in the brooder too not just the coop have fun!!