Does anyone keep chickens and ducks together?

[FirstLady]

Does anyone keep chickens and ducks together? Can you please tell me how this has worked out for you. I know lots of people say its not a good idea but what if you do and you are able to clean the coop twice a day? Feedback? My ducks and chickens are super attached to one another.

 

[Truevalentine]

The lady I got my girls from had a Mallard Drake living with them. She swore he thought he was a chicken too, except that he liked to go for a swim. I don't think she had any real problems with them together, just said he was messier than they were. I didn't take him though, only the chickens so I don't know from first had experience.

 

[FirstLady]

Thanks for the input. The ducks definitely think they are chickens. I feel bad for giving them a complex however I definitely don't mind cleaning up their mess if they are happy.

 

[ThinkingChickens]

I've visited people who've had the ducks and chickens together. I've considered this myself but I think chickens is going to be the most we can handle in our backyard.

 

[FirstLady]

I wish I could find someone first hand who has chickens and ducks in the same coop and how this has worked out for them.

 

[gryeyes]

Well, I have a Cayuga pair in my flock of chickens, but they don't stay in any of the coops with the chickens.

They DID when they were younger, but these two Cayugas, being all black, are my Ninja Stealth Ducks, on patrol around the property most of the night. They stopped going into the coop at least 9 months ago, because there's an auto door that closes and I think they figured that out. No wandering at night if they go in the coop.... They have various places they sleep, and I think they sleep a LOT during the day to make up for their night patrols.

When they DID stay in the coop, they had one corner where they slept together. Although I have feed in the coop, I also feed outside and water is only available outside of the coop. So the only extra messy place was their corner of the coop. No big deal - I use a deep litter method and scoop out gucky litter and add fresh over it.

Thelma and Louie fit in with their chicken flock members just fine.

For a while I had four call ducks, too, and they also had their own little place to sleep at night, not in the same coop with chickens.

Everybody ranges freely; they're not confined in a run.

 

[feather and mountain man]

Well I have 10 laying hen and a breeding pair of peking ducks living together and they all get along and are very healthy. I have a duck box under my chicken coop which is 2 1/2' up off the ground and although my ducks are messy the chickens scratching seems to cover the mess pretty well so I don't have to much of an issue there.

 

[josef]

i keep pekins ducks and gesse whit chickens,my bigger trouble is whit water ,they make a mess

, the chickens sleep in the coop and the ducks outside under the trees

 

[Captain Carrot]

At the moment I have 7 chickens with 7 Muscovy and 1 Pekin. They all sleep in the same shed, it's about 300 square feet so they have plenty of room.
They also have access to a run which is about 750 square feet, it was bigger but I've fenced a part off for some new chickens. They where also totaly free range, either going to the stream or scratching about in the forest. Now because of a very active fox last year they're only allowed into the stream or forest when I'm arround to watch over them.

The ducks are very messy, but the chickens pick up any spilt food. The ducks also make a mess in the shed, they poop all over the place. But they also use the nest boxes for the hens, which saves me time searching for eggs (the boxes are on the floor).

they get on fine though, I think it really depends on the breeds of both the chickens and the ducks.

 

[Teach97]

I have many chickens with many ducks and many pigeons. I have a few roos that will mate anything they can catch...drakes seem a bit offended by this behavior. I also keep rabbits in pens in the run. the ducks like to get pooped on by rabbits apparently because that is where they hangout. They do make a very big mess of the water but I keep several different types of waterers available. The ducks don't pay attention to where thye lay eggs..well...one or two don't because I regularly get eggs in the swimming pool or the middle of the run.