Ducks and chickens?

[Attackdog4]

Well I’m incubating chicks and I wanna know If i can incubate ducks and chickens together and or brood em together how much of a difference of the inubations and stuff?

 

[BirdsBeesTrees]

You can't brood them together the chicks will die. Ducks poop in the food and water, the chicks get sick and die. Ducks get everything wet and the chicks get cold and wet and die. You get the picture. You can incubate them together but ducks like higher humidity and chicks need less, but you could just go mid range around 50%.

 

[BirdsBeesTrees]

Oh and Hi by the way!

 

[Alaskan]

I find that they incubate fine together.

However, most ducks take 1 week longer (muscovy ducks take 2 weeks longer) to incubate.

So you put in the duck eggs first, then the chicken eggs a week later.

I like a lower humidity... so in the 30 range until time for hatch, then I increase the humidity.

As to brooding them together, I have done that without any deaths.

However, you need to clean the cage/brooder ALOT because ducks are pigs!

I do NOT like to brood them together longer than one or two weeks because I worry that ducks raised with chicks might get confused as to what species they are. Drakes are much larger than chickens.... if a drake tries to mate a chicken the chicken can be injured or killed.

To avoid that I separate them after the first week. Usually after the first week I can put the ducks into an outside brooder.

 

[AquaDuck]

I incubate and brood both together, and they're fine. Ducks need slightly lower temp than chicks, so at 37,5 C (38,5 for still air) they're both happy. And obviously there's a time difference, so set the duck eggs first and wait with the chickens so they all hatch at the same time.

As for brooding them together; change their bedding OFTEN, and have a system with the water so it's easy to clean up the spillage without everything else getting wet. I use old towels the first week, and change them twice a day. The ducks grow faster than the chicks, so they need a lot of space, as much as you can give them.