Mixed Flock Information (What Can You Keep Together?)

[SugarGroveFarm]

Hello everyone! Just looking for some information on birds that you can keep together. I am interested in chickens, ducks, geese, swans, turkeys, and peafowl. Can you keep all of these birds together in one large flock? Thanks in advance for any information and advice!

 

[aart]

Also make sure your turkeys don't have blackhead disease also known as (histomoniasis).

Chickens can carry this disease, which doesn't bother the chickens but will kill the turkeys.

 

[aart]

Have you kept any of these birds before?
I suggest starting with chickens, then think about adding others.
How much land do you have?
Are you good at building stuff...like coops and runs and fencing?

 

[aart]

They all have different housing and feed/water needs.
There are sub-forums for each of these species.
Check em out:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/forums/#other-backyard-poultry.66

 

[Quacking Pigeon]

When the ducks are in breeding season they need to be separated, but when they’re not it would be fine. This is what I’ve read.

 

[Pigpie]

Female ducks with chickens is fine . do not put a Drake in with chickens as the chickens could potentially be killed from the Drake. I'm not familiar with the other animals being mixed in however ,my ducks are very messy so I do keep them in their own space except 1 hen actually preferr to be with the ducks so she does live in their area

 

[Roosters110]

It’s very rare to have a drake kill hens.If you have enough duck hens to keep the drake satisfied,all should be fine.I have kept at the most ten or more drakes with my hens (Never ten at once and they all had girls)and never have they ever had an issue with them breeding my hens or trying to kill.Most issues I see between them are my roosters and drakes not getting along.

At one point I had geese and one day I had an outcast gander flock together with my ducks and end up actually becoming apart of my flock.So yes,Geese,ducks,and chickens can be kept in the same housing,but remember ducks are much more nastier and messier then geese and chickens.However,you shouldn’t add all them at once.You need space and lots of feed and watering stations.And all these birds would need to be raised as a group,and peacocks require different things.I know turkeys and chickens can be kept together as well.
Geese and Swans I have heard are similar,Bad attitudes and overly territorial.Wouldnt put swans in period.And your not expecting all these animals to just get along are you?I have a small flock of 18 chickens and three ducks and not even they get along sometimes so I can only imagine what troubles you’ll have.

This requires lots of pens.I would keep Chickens turkeys and ducks as one and let the peafowl,swans,and geese have their own personal pens each.

 

[alexa009]

Keeping chickens with turkeys is probably fine but I don't recommend you do it if You are going to get a rooster. Roosters tend to fight with the male turkeys (tom) and can end up hurting or killing each other. Also make sure your turkeys don't have blackhead disease also known as (histomoniasis). It is a commercially important disease of poultry. Particularly found in turkeys and easily spread to chickens.

 

[SugarGroveFarm]

Have you kept any of these birds before?
I suggest starting with chickens, then think about adding others.
How much land do you have?
Are you good at building stuff...like coops and runs and fencing?

I've never personally owned any but my dad always kept chickens and turkeys so I'm familiar with them. They would be on at least 5 acres with the whole property fenced in so they could free range the whole thing if they truly wanted unless that too big of a space. not sure how much space they would all need to be comfortable. And yeah I'm a pretty capable builder the only thing I don't do is cut because I don't trust myself with a circular saw if I has a miter saw I would but until then my boyfriend can make any cuts a need and I know how to use a drill to put screws in and make measurements and all that we used to own a haunted house so we built a lot of stuff from buildings to mazes to stages plus I used to help my dad build when I lived at home

 

[SugarGroveFarm]

It’s very rare to have a drake kill hens.If you have enough duck hens to keep the drake satisfied,all should be fine.I have kept at the most ten or more drakes with my hens (Never ten at once and they all had girls)and never have they ever had an issue with them breeding my hens or trying to kill.Most issues I see between them are my roosters and drakes not getting along.

At one point I had geese and one day I had an outcast gander flock together with my ducks and end up actually becoming apart of my flock.So yes,Geese,ducks,and chickens can be kept in the same housing,but remember ducks are much more nastier and messier then geese and chickens.However,you shouldn’t add all them at once.You need space and lots of feed and watering stations.And all these birds would need to be raised as a group,and peacocks require different things.I know turkeys and chickens can be kept together as well.
Geese and Swans I have heard are similar,Bad attitudes and overly territorial.Wouldnt put swans in period.And your not expecting all these animals to just get along are you?I have a small flock of 18 chickens and three ducks and not even they get along sometimes so I can only imagine what troubles you’ll have.

This requires lots of pens.I would keep Chickens turkeys and ducks as one and let the peafowl,swans,and geese have their own personal pens each.

The idea was to have the whole property fenced in and to just let them all free range the whole property and just have a few different coops with a coop with a smaller opening for the chickens and ducks so that the geese and swans and bigger fowl couldn't in their coop. I would imagine the waterfowl would stay near the water and the other poultry would go wherever they wanted. Having that big of an area to free range and stay away from each other do you think they would be fine? Or would you still make separate free range pens for them each? I do worry about the swans was only thinking about having them because I know how beautiful they would look on a pond. Would having a big enough pond with plenty of space for everyone work?