Muscovy ducks living with Chickens - can it work?

plbedard

Hatching
11 Years
May 30, 2008
4
1
7
Portage la Prairie, Manitoba
I have 7 bantams in a small house and my wife has brought home 2 muscovies. So far the ducks seem way to messy to live in the hen house. Does anyone have any suggestions?

Also we live in a cold climate, I'm wondering if I could just move the muscovies into an insulated dog house for the winter, will this work?

Thanks in advance.
 
Ducks are way too messy to live with the chickens...
They don't seem to mind the cold as much as other poultry.
A regular dog house would work great. Use pine shavings to keep it as dry as possible. Given a choice they would probably sleep outside!
My muscovy hen hatched out 7 babes in June and now they are as big as her.
They protest being put up at night so now I let them stay outside. This winter when snow is on the ground they probably will go in their duck house.... good luck
 
I keep my ducks in with my chickens, and yes they are muscovies. But I do agree they can be a bit messy.

Don't worry about the cold, even though Muscovies are from a tropical climate, they can take cold VERY well.

Best Of Luck
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we have ducks with chickens too, and we are going to build a bench up off the ground so the chickens can jump up there to their water, and we keep a heated water bucket out in the chicken yard because the ducks spend most of the time outside anyways. muskovies can fly though, and might be able to fly up to get the water in the house, I have pekin and kaki campbell. the chicken house gets really nasty in the winter with water so we are hoping to solve that problem.
I am wondering what others suggest?
 
My male muscoveys stay outside or under a shed roof unprotected from predators. They are the second line of defense. I have not had a pedator problem since I brought them home. My Muscovey hen and chicks stay inside with chicks or chickens. She nests in the nursery and lets young pullets snuggle; they love her. I found a dead snake at the corner of the pen w/ head smashed; I'm convinced it was the ducks. I believe their panting keeps predators away from the hen house.
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Zatsdeb, I like your idea! I think I may give it a try....
I wast trying to figure out a way to keep my 2 Runner ducklings (5wks) with my hens an rooster without the mess.

I am going to put the heate dog bowl outside so they can go out and drink all they want during the day and at night I they will not have access to the chicken water as I will put up higher. I think I will have to take the foo away too as I read somewhere that the ducks could choke if they try to eat and don't have acces to water...

Will the ducks go out in the snow an freezing cold to get their water and food I wonder??? Anyone have any experience with this?
I live in Canada and it gets really cold and snowy here:lol:

Thanks
 
My 5 ducks live with 6 guianes and a rooster and 2 hens.
Water and food up for the rest.
No water or feed at nite for the ducks. Let them out early and there water and food outside. Not to messy then.
Don't know about winter times tho. First time going thru this myself.
Good luck.

Dottie
 
All of my chickens and ducks are house together except for my Polish and silkies(for breeding purposes). I keep long feeders outside and watering pans. They get fed once around 5:00 in the evening...they get their food and water outside and when they are ready for bed, they come in the barn and are closed up at night. I do not keep food and water bowls inside for them as they are too messy!
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Mine free-range all day long, so it works out well.
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i used to keep my muscoveys with my chckens until the male would attck them . During his "breeding season" and he is breeding and has hens on nests he will just randomly attack the birds . And male muscoveys as most of us know are very big birds with beaks and extremly sharp claws . He did some damage to a few of my hens until i figured out what was goin on

Now they live with my geese but they still give my geese a run for thier money
 
My muscovies eventually got very mean towards my chickens--even when the ducks were not on nests. It was bad enough I was fearful for their lives. I am having much better luck with cayugus (and my neighbor has khakis with their chickens). They are not mean to the chickens and are even protective of them!!! They sound the alarm if anything comes near, they can see better in the dark and will chase things off that are a comparable size to them (like stray cats). Good luck with yours though--maybe mine were just naughty!!
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