Muscovy ducks living with Chickens - can it work?

[zatsdeb]

I know that my ducks sleep outside sometimes and it will snow and they will be covered with snow, or sleeping in it with their heads tucked in their wings, they have access to more than 1 house to go in, 4 to be exact last year, but they still stayed out in the snow.
the chickens stay inside mostly but have access to the outdoors in the snow. they like to pick at the snow.
the ducks just seem to really like it outside, and have for several years now.
I have watched tv shows on discovery with wild ducks, or maybe snow geese, they were white, sleeping in the snow with their heads tucked under their wings, reminded me of mine in the winter!

 

[cwc362]

I used to have muscovies years ago. They can be really messy but at the time our place was large and most of the time we could turn everything out during the day so it didn't matter a lot. I always liked the muscoveys but the drakes can be pretty rough sometimes. They never killed any of my chickens but a few times when we did pen the animals up, the Muscovy drakes would sometimes attack the chickens. if you have a young drakes that get grown and the older males keep them chased away from the female muscovies, they will sometimes harass and even "rape" the chicken hens. This would cause the chicken hens to become really flighty and nervous and stop laying . Also The muscovies anatamy is different from the chickens and I think they can really hurt the hens if they get them down. Other than that I always loved the muscovies and never had trouble from the females. They definitely have a personality!--Wayne

 

[Rare Feathers Farm]

sometimes, it works but most times it doesn't. My male muscovy was with chickens for three years & was fine. Then one day, I came home to two dead roosters. Now, him & his girls are in their separate enclosures. Also, they were way too filthy to be in with the chickens...

 

[Heather J]

I have muscovies that joined my flock of geese, ducks and chickens nearly a year after I got my other water birds. They were never well accepted by my geese (who get on fine with the ducks they were raised with from babies), so I pen the muscovies into the chicken run at night instead of with the other ducks. I brought in a desk/counter thing and slid the open side up against the coop so they have somewhere to get out of the weather if they ever decide to use it, but I imagine that will only happen in the worst weather. I have one hen and two drakes--who never bothered mating the female duck, never mind the chicken hens. None of her eggs were fertile, and I know they came from a flock of pure muscovies.

I let them out of the run in the morning to free range with the other water birds (they have almost 1/2 an acres, so that solves many problems), then let the chickens into their run. At night I lock the chickens up, then lure the muscovies into the run with feed. That way they are safe from cougars, etc, have access to shelter if they want, but rarely share the coop with the hens. If they happen to be settled in there for the night when I go to lock them all up after letting the chickens out to free range, I've sometimes locked them in together, but everyone's happier with their own spaces.

 

[nsullivan]

I have seven muscovies and seven hens. The ducks NEVER go in the hen house, which is on stilts. They can go under it, (I've put bags of leaves on several sides to make it warmer), but they rarely do that even in really cold weather, (in the teens), preferring to sleep on the more or less open ground or under the boughs of a spruce tree.

For a while two young drakes decided they preferred street action, so they hung out in front of the house to the pleasure or annoyance of neighbors. They had not interest in being with the others, but did lure a couple of the females out with them sometimes.

The pecking order between and among the chickens and ducks is confusing. The ducks for the most part are larger, but definitely at the bottom, even the big drake. The original mother duck will take a nip at a chicken, but not in a very meaningful way.

Obviously, since they aren't in the hen house the extra poop isn't a problem. I also stockpile bagged leaves, (which I collect from the side of the street in the fall). Every week or so I dump another bag or two into the poultry yard, where it gets scrabbled up in the search for bugs. It ends up on the compost, already enriched. Ducks drink a lot of water, much more than the chickens, and it goes through them. For the muscovies, at least, they have to have water when they eat or they will choke.

 

[pattee]

I'm getting 2 Indian runners next week and I have 7 3 week old chicks... I'm hoping since they are will be young they will be good together.
What do you feed ducks? The same as chickens?

I don't know but those muscovies sound a bit aggressive~

 

[Bleenie]

I keep all 16(recently reduced!) of my Muscovies in with my 5 Bantam Cochins. They do just fine together and i've never had a problem with any of the ducks being mean. the girls sometimes steal eachothers nests but thats about it.

The ducks have a big water tub outside in the run so they don't track their mess back into the house. Some Muscovies don't like the water as much as other mallard-derived breeds. mine usually get in once a day and clean, other than that they just drink from it. they love getting out and going to the creek all day though

 

[DUCKGIRL89]

keep ducks and chickens away from each other as much as possible chickens can spread a disease to the ducks that the ducks will die from and try to stay away from co-op ducklings.

 

[jailbirdjulie]

I have 3 muscovy ducks. Two are about 5 1/2 weeks old and the other one is about 7 weeks old. They chase my chickens around the yard now. I think it's just a game for them right now. The hens are all bigger than the ducks but they run from the ducks every time.

 

[Gray Farms]

keep ducks and chickens away from each other as much as possible chickens can spread a disease to the ducks that the ducks will die from and try to stay away from co-op ducklings.

Complete myth! I've raised muscovys right with my chickens for nearly 20 years and have almost never lost a duckling, little lone an adult. Everybody I know that raises ducks and chickens together have never had a mass extinction of ducks from being with chickens either. Absolutely false. Turkeys on the other hand can get sick from chickens.