Moving all poultry before the space is really done....

[mommyofthreewithchicks]

We are having lots of flooding in my area- and my house is surrounded by water. Since both the duck and the chicken area look really wet I am moving them today into the barn space I had planned on giving to the chickens for winter. Anyone have any tips on putting the ducks with the chickens? Any problems I will encounter. Since they are already wet I am guessing that the ducks can't make it too much worse for the chickens. They are eating the same food right now so I think that will be fine.

Ducks I just trooped over since they were in a spot in the barn to begin with (but it looks like some rain leaked in and they had the entire area really wet) But the chickens have been housed in a different shed all together.

 

[D'Angelo N Va.]

Generally Ducks and Chickens will get along very well together. I wish you luck with the flooding and I hope it doesn't get any worse for you..My prayers are with you.

 

[mommyofthreewithchicks]

Just spent 2 hours moving chickens. Boy do they get heavy in a hurry. Turkey Lurkey- head rooster has already chased the ducks all around the space. Good thing it is night time and they can all wake up together. Need to move all of the supplies for food and water in the morning I put most of the little chickens on the roost and the big ones had already found a spot on the window still.

More rain in the forecast but I am considering myself in the lucky as quite a few have more than my small amount of water in the basement and water issues outside. In fact I am pretty sure that my parents will be stuck at home in the morning as all the bridges around them are under water or very close to it. They live about 40 miles from me. Pretty much the southern part of Minnesota is under water at this point!

 

[mommyofthreewithchicks]

I just checked on the poultry and ducks are on one side with the water and the chickens are on the other with the food. Someone is going to have to give a little... Hopefully this is a good idea while I was in there one of the roosters chased the ducks around.

Rain has stopped for now and we are not getting as much water in the basement like we were yesterday- hopefully we dry out soon.

 

[mommyofthreewithchicks]

Ok I need to figure out the a different way to water the birds- The ducks are splashing the water out of the dish at a remarkable rate. Any ideas? Also the ducks are hovering around the water, the chickens are hovering around the food. I think they need to learn to share

 

[askjcm2005]

I unfortunately cant say anything about the roosters being mean to the ducks as I dont have a rooster old enough to be an issue yet but I did have 3 male pekin ducks a while back and 1 of them picked on the smaller chickens. I currently have 2 ducks in with my 15 chickens and never have any issues, in fact, my 2 silkies are best friends with the pekin ducks and never leave each others sides... I always put the food and the water together though so not sure if that will make any difference, the only reason I do that is because I was told that ducks should be able to eat and drink at the same time to wash the food out of there nostril thingys lol

 

[askjcm2005]

Quote:
what kind of water bowls are you using for them? I havent yet found a better way with the water, my pen is constantly muddy and soaked around the water bowls which is why i keep all the water bowls in the same area instead of randomly throughout the pen.

 

[askjcm2005]

I had no clue you were talking about 31 ducks and 45 chickens!!! crazy!!! That is alot harder then I imagined it a little while ago (when I imagined myself having to house 2 ducks and 15 chickens in a barn)

 

[mommyofthreewithchicks]

My watering is the 3 gal chicken waterer and I have 3 one gal. The ducks have had 2 7 gal poultry waterer. They made a mess in their first space but I also had them over a drain so didn't worry too much about it but where I have had to put them for the flood does not have a drain plus they get to be with the chickens.

I think I saw a picture of hardware cloth over a larger bucket to catch some of the spill, I need to try and figure out how to do this. I think that if I can figure out how to do it- it may solve the problem.

And yes I am crazy with my poultry

Carrying 40 chickens in the pouring rain was a bit interesting and I got really nice and wet. Ducks only had to go across the barn so I just herded them to the dry spot. (this year is my learning year for the poultry- who knew you shouldn't order so many?)