Introducing chickens to ducks.

[Bloo]

Hey.
I have 2 ducks, one drake and one duck, they are around 7-8years old now. I recently got 4 4month old female silkie chickens as companions for them for them.
ive added the hens to the the aviairy with a divider in the middle to have a slow introduction.
I was wondering if anyone has experience of introducing chickens to ducks or having a mixed flock.
I hope for them to eventually be able to share 1 coop. My main consern is that the chickens might kill one of the ducks with there pointed beaks. As i’ve seen this happen before when chickens team up against one of the hens in the flock, however that was with big reds and I bought silkies due to there timid nature to try to reduce the chances of this.
My second concern would be regarding my drake mating with the chickens, he is highly sexually driven and I do exspect that he will try it on with as them. is it safe for ducks to mate with chickens?

 

[DuckGirl77]

I introduced mine like you are doing with a divider. After a couple weeks, I would let them free range together, or in a large pen where they have space to get away from each other. See how that goes. With mine, the ducks bit at any overly curious chickens, and the chickens soon learned to not get in their faces.

Mine get along just fine. They ignore each other for the most part, although if a chicken gets in a duck's way the duck will shoo it away. The chickens don't hurt the ducks at all. As always, the more space you have, the better they'll get along.

I have 6 ducks and 9 chickens - one rooster but no drake. I do know it's not safe for a drake to mate with a chicken, but I don't know if he would try it or not. Hopefully someone else can chime on their experiences with drakes and chickens!

 

[Yardmom]

My Drake (who currently has no duck hens) free ranges and occasionally sleeps in the coop with my chickens. He has never tried to mate with them that I am aware of. Others have had different experiences, so keep an eye on it. It is not safe for the chickens if a Drake is trying to mate with them. Their anatomy is different.

 

[EarlJ]

We've got chickens, ducks, and guineas.

Chickens came first, and had their own coop.
The ducks were brooded alongside (but separate from) a flock of 29 meat bird chicks. When they were big enough to go outside, the meat things and ducks were put into a coop together.
Then came guineas, who got a coop all their own.

Eventually the ducks didn't want to go in with the meatbirds at night. Two of the six got picked off by predators in the night. So we rounded up the remaining ducks and put them in with the guineas (who were confined to their coop so they would recognize it as home when it came time to free range).

I thought the guineas would fight them, since I'd read they could be territorial and domineering... but there was no trouble. And when I left the door open a few weeks later, the ducks had no issues returning to that coop. All of the ducks, chickens, and guineas have been free ranging with no squabbling.

Cut to a few months ago... a few of the chickens have been laying eggs in the guinea coop (in addition to the ducks and guineas)... and now an older broody chicken stays in there overnight too. No problems.

A few days ago, one of the chickens injured her leg somehow. I put her in the Guinea coop too - the other chickens would pick on her, but the menagerie in there just ignore her. I was afraid I'd have to cull her, but it seems like she's getting better.


Oh! And 3 of the 4 ducks are male, 2 of the 3 guineas are male. None of them seem the least bit interested in mating with anything not their type.