Keeping ducks with my chickens at night?

[DorothyH]

I've kept ducks and chickens together for years with minimal problems. The biggest problem I've noticed is that ducks are way messier than chickens, and their poop is often wetter and runnier to make things worse. Now that I've moved to a new location, I'm finally building the ducks their own coop which will be right next to the creek. This should help keep the chickens area cleaner at least.

Also, I've had a rooster who tried to chase down and mate ducks, but never had any problem the other way around.

The one consistent downside I keep hearing about ducks is the messiness factor. The rest all seem to be upsides. I guess after they arrive if they demand new digs at that point we'd be attached enough to do it like you did. I mean with the chickens I first got a tiny coop with 3 chickens and they proved themselves so wonderful that we made them a chicken mansion. As long as there is a way to use what we already have at first without doing anyone any harm (except me having to clean more) then we can at least get started and see how it goes.

I'm glad that your drakes have been nice to your chicken hens. That's good I wouldn't want to get a drake and have it go nuts on my chicken hens.

 

[DorothyH]

Ok Malndobe - thanks. Now I can visualize it better. I thought you meant a table above the water.

I get your idea that depending on what kind of setup I end up having I have to make sure that my chickens aren't going to lean in to drink and have someone give them a bump behind and drown in the water. I'm guessing that what the setup and size is will have to determine what I can do to prevent that. A larger pond or my large trough will call for something different than a small container - that STILL might be dangerous for chickens.

It's a little bit of an engineering problem to mull over. If you make your table I'd love to see pictures.

 

[eggsellentfarms]

Quote:
That was actually my first attempt at hatching eggs and I didn't know enough to know it might not work. But I had great success, almost every egg hatched and survived, and that was in an old Styrofoam still air incubator.

 

[DorothyH]

That was actually my first attempt at hatching eggs and I didn't know enough to know it might not work. But I had great success, almost every egg hatched and survived, and that was in an old Styrofoam still air incubator.

You give me hope!