Hi all, got some ducks and chickens

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@ TwoCrows, thanks for pointing me in the right direction, over the next few days I'll have a look through the section. @ Herechilychiky, Fun? Started that way, but with momma duck being broody, the 2 white males are trying to have there way with her, and the male drake isn't having any of it, I'm even having to step in in some situations, like for instance, whilst I was typing my intro post earlier I looked out the window to see one of the white males on top of momma duck in the pond! Out the door I go running, trainers loose and by the time I get there the male muscovy "dada duck" (my names for them are crap but sod it) is on top of the white male, with momma duck still under, In a situation like that, I have no choice but to intervene incase the momma duck drowns. In all honesty the 2 white males are being a complete pain, as momma and dada get on so well and the affection between them is quite cute. The chickens are fun, it's hilarious on clean out day, as it's usually dark by the time I let them back in, they be knocking on the door until they give up and sleep outside, then when I go to let them back in, it's like they can't see in the dark or something :S so I have to lift every single one of them into the doorway so they see the light and potter on in, the rooster won't let me pick him up, so I just guide him in. He's very skittish though, would love to pick him up, he must weigh something. We have 1 or 2 hens that have a **** good weight to them and the rooster is so much bigger. @Alaskan, thank you very much for that info, I'll use that as a rough guide, I have an area I can let momma and dada be together, at the mo he has supervised visitation rights to the eggs lol, he just looks at them, bobs his head and looks at me I'm not sure if he's thinking, "oh god what have done" or "omg I'm gonna be a dad!" My ducks usually have a casual drink around a bucket before I have to usher them in to their coop. I'm sure they'd stay out all night and be secretly partying til morning. But we have foxes in the area, not seen any, but heard their screams in the evening, so none of my birds can stay out at night. With momma duck I think, together with using what you done as a guide I'll have a read through the duck section of what others have done and come up with a plan of some sort. Something along the lines of of sitting, keep her in her coop with a visit from dada in the outdoor section, and <day25 onwards keep her in the coop and outdoor bit with no distraction of dada. Should be interesting... @ all, thank you all for your warm welcomes :)
 
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47Shire said:
Hello, I'm Dave, an English lad newly living in France, and the house we recently purchased came with 7 ducks and 18 chickens.
It goes without saying that I've had many many questions, and google searches 9 times out of 10 brought me here, so have finally decided to sign up as BYC is such a wealth of information!

Anyway,
Ducks:
3 males - 1 a Muscovy and 2 (I think brothers) are the all white breed.
4 females - 1 a broody muscovy named "momma duck", a small white one and 2 sisters (one being grey, the other in muscovy colours)

Chickens, we actually started with 19, but sadly over the course of us moving in (2days), one started standing still and by the time we'd finished, the poor thing had keeled over. But how-and-ever we still have 18 - one of which is a rather big and handsome rooster.
Chickens are laying around 6-8 eggs per day.
We were told they are Sussex chickens, but there are 3 colours, mostly black, mostly white with black dotted collar, and the gingery orange ones. No idea if the Sussex breed is single colour or can be any colour.

At the moment we have no interest in hatching any chicken eggs, however the ducks... About 2-3 weeks back our ducks were sleeping in the chicken house and I noticed an odd looking egg, and over a few days a couple more appeared, I dismissed it as being a slightly bigger paler chicken egg, but I started letting the ducks out during the day (to roam 2 hectares and access to the pond) long story short, momma duck laid an egg outside, so that was that, 7 ducks eggs after her first, I realised and I now have her seperated at night in her own duck house. I'm making a few mods for her as it's still chilly at night 1-3°c and need to modify the electrics to accommodate a heat lamp for when the ducklings arrive. By the way, those 7 "chicken" duck eggs were discarded and now she's on her own at night she's laid her 11th in her nest - getting a little crowded so I'm hoping she'll stop laying soon and start sitting. I noticed this morning she's began pruning herself to create a fluff which was all over her eggs so I'm hoping its a sign she's going to start sitting.
Speaking of which I have a question, in the morning I feed the chickens and let the ducks out the human door, close it, pop round the back and release the chickens into their 2300m area, and head to the duck house where momma is. The duck house has a divide in the middle, momma duck has the whole area at night, so nest, water, food, space. During the day, I close off the area her nest is in so the others cannot access it, and leave them all access to the food and water. When momma starts sitting what do I do?? When the ducklings come, I'll read on here what to do in terms of keeping them inside and paint tray for swimming lessons etc but when I let them outside, they have a trap door leading to an enclosed area. But in terms of momma sitting, what do I do, let her out for a few hours then close her back in against her will. Obviously the duckling will be seperated from the other ducks until they're big enough.

But that's me (for now-so many questions) and our setup.

I look forward to reading more of BYC, asking lots of questions and maybe even helping one day.

Au revoir for now.
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Alright Dave,
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great to have you here with our BYC flock
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Ducks are great and easy to take care of and yes it get's cold in France
as I remember but your Chicken's and Ducks can easley take -20*c if
you just keep them out of the wind and my Geese just love it when it is
this cold but do get upset if the water Freezes
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Sounds like you have a great place for your flock
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gander007
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