Ducks with Chickens?

[sadies chicks]

Hi everyone,
I am thinking of getting two ducks (my DFIL has offered them to me) and I am wondering if I can put them in with my chickens - I have 9 chickens, they are 14 weeks old. They have a portion of the yard sectioned off for them, so they can all live together, I am just not sure if that is usually done? also, what type of housing do ducks need? We have rats, crows and squirrels at the moment, haven't seen any racoons yet...(fingers crossed)...

thanks!

 

[gryeyes]

I kept a pair of Cayuga ducks with my chickens. When young, they slept in the coop with the chickens, but in their own corner, so the duck poop was contained in that spot (until I mixed up the bedding). No water in the coop itself, so they didn't mess up the water for the chickens or make a bigger mess of the bedding (pine shavings).

As they matured, they decided they didn't want to go to bed "early" with the chickens, and since there is an automatic door on the coop, they just stayed outside in the run. For a while, I left my second A-Frame coop open for them, but after a while they didn't even go in there at night. Now that everybody is ranging freely during the day (there is no run fence), the ducks find special places to sleep in grass hillocks at night. They are up most of the night, patroling the yard. Because they are all black, I called them my Ninja Stealth Ducks.

They all get along fine. I now have 7 ducks in my flock.

 

[sadies chicks]

Ok good to know, thanks!

 

[SaraFL]

I've had my ducks in with my chickens now for several weeks and everything is fine. I'm not sure about when they get old enough to mate, but I do plan to get rid of the male ducks, so hopefully it will avoid any problems. The main issue for me is the increased mess because of the ducks.

 

[sadies chicks]

Quote:
That is what I am concerned with too, the mess. My girls are pretty clean (as much as a chicken can be clean) and I know adding the ducks will change that...still thinking

 

[Baymule]

Quote:

Do they wear tiny masks and tuck a sword under their wings??

(chokes on iced tea and snorts tea out of nose)

 

[sadies chicks]

Is there any fear of contamination by bringing the ducks in with the chickens? Over the weekend we got the ducks (4 white crested pekins), they are 10 weeks old, larger than my 13 week old chickens and messy! Do they need to be in quarantine for a while or can I put them right in? They have basically been in quarantine since they were babies, they have lived in a large dog kennel by themselves away from the other chickens and ducks (on my DFIL's land).

thanks!!

 

[Vitesse304]

We've kept ducks with our chickens for as long as I can remember. They do fine...sometimes, they can get a bit bossy around feeding time, but we solved this with multiple feeding stations. That also helps with some of the less aggressive chickens being able to eat in peace.

They are much dirtier...and they love to root through the mud and dirt and contaminate our water trough that they share with the chickens. We are looking at fencing off some area around the pond for them to live by themselves...but then they would be out of the protection of the coop...