Help me! I'm so lost!

[meckler]

So I have had 18 chickens for several years and on an impulse buy, I added 4 ducks to my backyard flock. I currently have 2 coops for my chickens and thought that I would just integrate the ducks into one of those coops. Then I started doing my research and found that chickens and ducks don't always coexist well. My chickens free range for about 50% of the day - sometimes more.

I decided to get a coop for the ducks. I was going to purchase a small coop and attach a 5x6 dog run for playtime before they're let out to free range alongside my chicks.

Now I'm pretty sure that I have 3 male ducks and 1 female... bad news for my poor lil girl! So now I think the only solution is to get a few more girls... but that means a larger coop and run...

How much coop room do ducks actually need? I've read that they need 3-10 square feet PER DUCK, but all pictures of duck enclosures are these tiny, cute little huts for them to hunker down in at night. How much do they really need? What do your coops look like? How many females should I buy if I have 3 males and 1 female already? (Khaki domestics)

I would appreciate any advice. I did buy the Lisa Steele book and it's helpful, but has a lot of conflicting information with what I've found on this site.

 

[meckler]

Too small for ducks?

 

[TLWR]

Depends on their use of the coop.
Mine are in it at night only. Their house is 18sq ft and I have 4 ducks (there were 7 in there for a short while and it was fine). I am in the south, so no snow or nasty cold to keep them in the coop other than at night. I have cooped them when we have tornado warnings and it is looking nasty out though.

As for girls to boys... you want 3-4+ girls per boy. If you got the ducks for eggs, you might want to consider finding a new home for 2 of the boys and then pick up another girl or two.