Getting rid of my chickens!

[cluckcluckluke]

This may have already been asked but why cant you just have both. I have just got 2 ducks today and hope they go well with my 22 chickens.

 

[crissycriss]

Yes you can have both.I do have both and they are housed together.I only have my mallards with my chickens though.They get along fine.
But if you only have drakes they can and will try to breed your hens,that will kill or injure your hens.Just watch them closely and enjoy them.Watch out for duck math its as bad as chicken. LOL
I have 21 LF chickens with my Mallards. My pekins were in with them they ran all together until i got my muscovie (they are mean toward the others) so i seperated them from the others.I have 19 ducks all together.
I fell in love with the ducks a little more.For all the reasons OP listed. Hope this helped a little.

 

[sjshaw1980]

That's to bad your experience with the Muscovy breed was negative, mind you that could have been a duck of any breed. I have two drake Muscovy and neither has or had attacked a sole. I actually had quite a few drakes last year and again, all decent birds.

Not trying to convince you to try Muscovy lol, both breeds your interested in are popular, good birds, just felt I should share a differing experience with 'scovies

LOL Quackers, I'm sure I'm in the minority, most people seem to love their muscovies. It just hurts more when a 10 lb drake bites you rather than a 4-5 pounder.

 

[cluckcluckluke]

Yes you can have both.I do have both and they are housed together.I only have my mallards with my chickens though.They get along fine.
But if you only have drakes they can and will try to breed your hens,that will kill or injure your hens.Just watch them closely and enjoy them.Watch out for duck math its as bad as chicken. LOL

I have 21 LF chickens with my Mallards. My pekins were in with them they ran all together until i got my muscovie (they are mean toward the others) so i seperated them from the others.I have 19 ducks all together.
I fell in love with the ducks a little more.For all the reasons OP listed. Hope this helped a little.

Both my ducks are ducks no drakes because of the mating reason. I only plan on having 3 ducks if they work out so hopefully duck math doesn't get me.

 

[crissycriss]

Both my ducks are ducks no drakes because of the mating reason. I only plan on having 3 ducks if they work out so hopefully duck math doesn't get me.

Thats great. Boy it hit me and hit me hard.!!!!!Good Luck

 

[pbjmaker]

I have both chickens and muscovies. The ducks OBLITERATED my yard of anything green this summer, including creeping charlie - they do eat grass and weeds and the leaves off my Japanese maples when they can reach them. They will eat your garden too.

I can herd my scovies, but sometimes in the summer they don't want to go in the coop and they get stubborn. That is until a coon attacked the flock and killed 9 of them. Now I don't even have to remotely convince them to go in. (the coon attacked at dusk, I always lock my birds at night) My drake was awesome and rounded up both the chickens and other ducks that he could and got them in the coop for protection.

I will say my drake is the best rooster I have ever owned. He has scared off several hawks and speaks both chicken and duck.
I have one Indian runner girl. When her hatch-mates were killed in the attack, the scovies took them into their group.

Sometimes I think about getting rid of the ducks because they are so messy compared to the chickens but then they take a bath in a 3 gallon water dish and are so happy about so simple a thing as a bowl of fresh water (4 times daily in the winter) and I can't give them up.

On the whole flying thing - I clip one wing - no more flying to my garage roof.

 

[cluckcluckluke]

Thats great. Boy it hit me and hit me hard.!!!!!Good Luck

Yeah I hope to sell half a dozen duck eggs at the same price as my 1 dozen chickens eggs. I hope it all goes well to.

 

[Mrs. Fluffy Puffy]

I feel the same way about the chickens. I'm getting rid of all my chickens, but my Seramas, Splash Cochins, and Sussex. Everyone else is going. I love my waterfowl much more than my chickens, and enjoy them a lot more.

And on the subject of herding Muscovies...I have four of them and they are always the last ones to go in at night. I just walk behind them and herd them w/ my hands and they go right in. If they do any flying, they just fly right into their pen. I love'em.

More people need ducks

~ Aspen

 

[gryeyes]

I have both chickens and ducks. I also have two Toulouse geese, two BBB turkey hens and a MW Tom turkey ( soon to get a hen for him). They all have the same huge coop (17 X 20) but the ducks prefer to stay out all night. One goose stays with them ,guarding them, and the other goose goes into the coop. The turkeys go into the coop. Everybody eats in the coop (except for treats!) and I solved the watering problem in there. Everybody gets along, or at least knows who to avoid. Pecking order within the waterfowl and other poultry has been established and works well in the separate groups.

My Cayugas multiplied this year - plucky duck hatched 15 ducklings and 14 of them survived and grew up. I already had 12 Cayugas and a single call drake. Elvis has taken a Cayuga wife. "People" think I should get rid of half the ducks. No way. (But I'm not gone let any duck eggs hatch for a while.)

I love them all. But the ducks have stolen a little bit more of my heart. I

 

[missnu01]

I'm thinking of trying my hand with some ducks, but have a few questions...seems like as good a place as any to ask them...
What kind of a shelter do ducks need, and will they go in it at night the same way that chickens do?