Ducks and others? Dreaming here.....

[ChickenPox]

I have chickens now, but I want to get some call ducks eventually.

I also want to get peacocks, turkeys, pheasants, geese, you get the picture! Haha!

I don't want to get a whole slew of all of these, but maybe breeding pairs or trios. I was just wondering what of these (if any) will get along together if I were to make a rather large aviary? Silly question, but I don't have to worry about interbreeding, do I? Would any of the non-swimming birds have issues with a pond?

I know I still have a lot of research and work left ahead of me, but I'm just trying to figure out which direction I want to go in. Thanks for any advice!

 

[scratch'n'peck]

I can speak to mixing ducks, geese and chickens. You might want to add a new species each year so as not to overwhelm yourself. I would start with the smaller birds like the call ducks. Try not to get too may males of any breed or the females will pay the price from being over mated. Then the following year you can add goslings and raise them around the ducks and chickens so that they see them as part of their flock. I would give the chickens their own coop/roosting area/ shelter and a separate shelter or two or three for waterfowl. I don't think any adult birds would have problems with ponds.

I think I have heard something about pheasants being more susceptible to chicken disease, so you may not want to raise them in the same enclosure. You would have to do some research on that.

You don't have to worry about interbreeding.

 

[DurhamDuck]

Quote:
I would raise goslings and ducklings together. Turkeys can carry disease sometimes so be careful with them mixing with the rest of your flock.

******I'd read/buy "The Backyard Homestead" by Carleen Madigan- very informative about raising poulty/livestock in a backyard. It's the "one stop" book with it all and well worth owning if you truly want to have all those critters in your yard! We borrowed this book from the library then quickly ordered it from Amazon.com and its been very useful to my family.

Good luck!

 

[mogrl840]

peacocks are very mean and messy. they will get on top of things and rip it apart. get on cars and scratch them. They use to case my 3 year old son around and we got rid of it.