From experience, I know that you cannot mix chickens and ducks. Ducks need lots of water to remain healthy and happy. Chickens need to stay dry to be healthy. Chickens take soft dirt baths; ducks like to play in water. They need to be able to dunk their beaks in water regularly. They would choke on their food if they didn't have water to wash it down. When I give them fresh grass by the handful, they take it to their pool to dunk the grass before they eat it. When I collect my hens' eggs, they are usually dry and clean-looking off the nest. My ducks' eggs are so wet and muddy that it is gross to collect them. It is nearly impossible to get the duck eggs to look clean and appetizing. All poultry are poop machines. However, ducks are in a pooping class of their own. No sooner do we change their plastic tub of water then they jump in, play happily, and poop their hearts out! We had no idea when we got ducks some 7 months ago, that they would be this messy! That being said, these ducks are my husband's favorite animal to deal with. We have 2 alpacas, 4 goats, 4 types of chickens, and 7 ducks. More time is spent to keep our ducks as clean and happy as possible, than the time we spend on all the other animals combined. Originally, my husband said he wanted nothing to do with taking care of my growing menagerie. However, when he saw my original problems occurring in my efforts to house the ducks, he couldn't help offering advice; which soon led to building them shelter, etc. Now he has purchased a pressure washer to clean off the harder surface for their super secure night time pen, as well as cleaning both plastic bathing pools: one in their 12' x 12' x 6' daytime pen and one in their 6' x 6' x 4' pen. So far, we have been pretty happy with our current plastic pools made from my large plastic boot containers found at
Walmart and Bed, Bath, & Beyond. They are big enough for the gang to play in, but not too big for us to handle. Believe me, we are forever trying to figure out better and better ways to short cut our workload with these guys, but they seem to be worth it. I am absolutely amazed how my husband has taken to these birds. As the weather gets hotter, we have to redouble our efforts in changing the water more often. We have had 2 bouts of "limber neck" with 2 of our ducks. Regis survived very well because we learned from caring for our first sick duck, Clovis ( She never fully recovered from the illness. She died a couple of months later, even though she had regained some of her strength...but never completely.). So, to avoid bio hazards, we constantly work to keep these precious water birds clean. So, I hope this answers your question about keeping ducks and chickens together. Chickens: think dry environment. Ducks: think water, water, and more water. While our chickens are happy to be snug in the barn in winter, our ducks are outside jumping in their clean pool in their day pen that has iced over during the night. We just remove the 1/4" sheet of ice from their basin, and they jump in!
