Integrating Ducks with Chickens

[Micmac1234]

Hi! I am looking to integrate ducks with my chickens but not sure the best way to go about it (or if this is the right thread?). I have a large coop and large run and I wasn’t sure if the ducks needed their own coop or if they could all share? I do have a kiddie pool for the ducks in the summer.

 

[Jenbirdee]

i have 12 female ducks and i got 2 chickens both females and gradually put them together ( the first couple of weeks I let them see each other through a fence and get used to each other)
The duck yard is 3000 ft.² so the chickens have plenty of space to get away from the ducks, I thought… but here’s what happens. The chickens are the bosses of the yard they chase the ducks around and away from food and from treats. so nowi have 4 feeding stations. I set it up nice inside the coop so the chickens had their own corner with a roost and a poop board which seemed great. However, the ducks were terrified, and the chickens were jumped down off of the roost onto the ducks.
So now my chickens have their own nighttime coop, but they still chase the ducks around the yard during the day lol. one important thing how many drakes do you have and how many duck hens because if you have too many drakes and not enough duck hens drakes will try to meet with your chicken hens and injure or kill them. They are not anatomically the same as roosters.

 

[Micmac1234]

i have 12 female ducks and i got 2 chickens both females and gradually put them together ( the first couple of weeks I let them see each other through a fence and get used to each other)
The duck yard is 3000 ft.² so the chickens have plenty of space to get away from the ducks, I thought… but here’s what happens. The chickens are the bosses of the yard they chase the ducks around and away from food and from treats. so nowi have 4 feeding stations. I set it up nice inside the coop so the chickens had their own corner with a roost and a poop board which seemed great. However, the ducks were terrified, and the chickens were jumped down off of the roost onto the ducks.
So now my chickens have their own nighttime coop, but they still chase the ducks around the yard during the day lol. one important thing how many drakes do you have and how many duck hens because if you have too many drakes and not enough duck hens drakes will try to meet with your chicken hens and injure or kill them. They are not anatomically the same as roosters.

I’ve actually heard about the horror of a drake trying mate with a chicken. Is it an option to just get female ducks?

I was wondering if I should look into getting the ducks their own coop and then they share the run. I’ve witnessed first hand many times how mean chickens are! And I have 12 of them so I think the ducks might need their own space

 

[Micmac1234]

This is my current setup so I was thinking of adding a duck coop to the left and then creating an entrance into the run (they don’t have access to that brown shed, there’s an exit in the coop and then a tunnel that runs behind and next to the shed)

 

[KathiQuacks]

I’ve actually heard about the horror of a drake trying mate with a chicken. Is it an option to just get female ducks?

Yes, you can definitely have just female ducks.