Is this feed ok?

[OzarkEgghead]

I've raised chickens for a decade & feel very comfortable caring for them. This May, I'll be moving into new territory by adding 7 Ancona duck hens & a drake. I plan to manage my ducks & chickens as one, mixed flock. Since I've never had ducks before, I'm still researching & learning what I can feed to both bird species without leaving one of them undernourished. I'm currently feeding a dry layer mash feed to my chickens (see photo below). Would this feed be adequate/appropriate for adult ducks, as well?

 

[nuthatched]

Non laying birds such as young pullets, resting hens and makes should not eat layer feed. I'd recommend you feed an all flock feed with oyster shell on the side for your girls and nutritional yeast for your ducks. You'll want to keep the ducks and chickens separate as duck get everywhere muddy and drakes can badly hurt or kill chickens if he tries to mate them.

 

[OzarkEgghead]

Non laying birds such as young pullets, resting hens and makes should not eat layer feed. I'd recommend you feed an all flock feed with oyster shell on the side for your girls and nutritional yeast for your ducks. You'll want to keep the ducks and chickens separate as duck get everywhere muddy and drakes can badly hurt or kill chickens if he tries to mate them.

I'm confused...if I have to keep my birds segregated, why would I have to feed All-flock to the chickens with oystershell on the side when they have been doing VERY well on what was pictured in my original post? Why not just keep them on the Rgg Mash they're on & put the ducks on a complete commercial duck crumble? As for the segregation, I'm confused about that, as well, since I see people talking about mixed duck/chicken flocks here & on other sites.

 

[nuthatched]

I'm confused...if I have to keep my birds segregated, why would I have to feed All-flock to the chickens with oystershell on the side when they have been doing VERY well on what was pictured in my original post? Why not just keep them on the Rgg Mash they're on & put the ducks on a complete commercial duck crumble? As for the segregation, I'm confused about that, as well, since I see people talking about mixed duck/chicken flocks here & on other sites.

Because now, you have a male and they should not eat layer.
Any bird that is not currently or will not ever lay eggs should not eat layer formulation. Such as chicks, non laying pullets, molting hens and males.
Most Layer formulations has too low protein for growing, molting or laying birds (though yours is better than most) and too much calcium for anything that's not laying, they don't need the calcium and it will harm their kidneys and cause gout.
Male ducks have wieners, male chickens do not. A female chicken is not designed to be compatible with a weiner, she will be internally impaled. Male ducks can also force hens onto the water and drown them.
People who have mixed flocks of ducks and chickens, don't typically keep drakes.
You asked if that feed will work for all the birds and if they can be housed together and in a round about way, I said No.
Ducks also need niacin, most layer feeds, especially feed mill feeds are low on it.
If you're following the strategy you mentioned in your first post, the post I was addressing, by having one big flock, you need to feed an all flock and have oyster shell available and possible even add nutritional yeast to the feed for the ducks. And keep the drake separate during the randiest time of the year
If you keep them seperate, which you seem to be open to now, you can feed the chickens layer except when they're molting and the ducks, duck food. No need to seperate the drake.
Hope that clarifies it a little.

 

[Jenbirdee]

I have 12 female ducks in with 2 female chickens and I feed them Nutrena All Flock pellets I add nutritional yeast for the ducks and I always have oyster shells and the flocks own shells fed back to them available.
IF I had a drake I would keep my chickens separate.
I also feed mazuri waterfowl maintenance floating feed to the ducks into their water buckets twice a day . I have a problem though with my chickens eating from that too so I try to avoid that by distracting the chickens with a few mealworms or something while the ducks are chowing down on the mazuri.