- Nov 24, 2019
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I have chickens and a few ducks. I worried there was going to be only one duck hatching so at one week I put a chicken egg with them. I ended up with one drake, one duck and one chicken. I thought only the chicken had identity problems (it took up quacking at one point), but...
On closing the coop today (chickens and ducks live together) I found that my female duck was perching (??!) with the chickens a couple feet off the ground of coop (they usually sleep in the nesting boxes below). This duck has trouble climbing a 10cm slab, so I have no idea how it made it up there. A perching duck. I don't know much about ducks but I haven't seen anywhere that they perch. :S
But - more concerning is in the last two days my drake has started chasing my leghorn hen around. She is too fast for him and usually jumps up onto a table and the other hens peck the drake in the head. I know this is dangerous to leave though. Plan is to keep the chickens and ducks in separate pastures until I can raise more ducks (so, months...) to hope that solves the situation. The other solution would be to make crispy duck but then I think the lone duck would get... lonely. And if I got rid of both ducks, the 'duck'-chicken would have lost its flock (the other two 'flocks' grudgingly accept her but there is no love there.
So uh... I guess this thread is detailing the interesting things that can happen if you have chickens and ducks in the same area.
On closing the coop today (chickens and ducks live together) I found that my female duck was perching (??!) with the chickens a couple feet off the ground of coop (they usually sleep in the nesting boxes below). This duck has trouble climbing a 10cm slab, so I have no idea how it made it up there. A perching duck. I don't know much about ducks but I haven't seen anywhere that they perch. :S
But - more concerning is in the last two days my drake has started chasing my leghorn hen around. She is too fast for him and usually jumps up onto a table and the other hens peck the drake in the head. I know this is dangerous to leave though. Plan is to keep the chickens and ducks in separate pastures until I can raise more ducks (so, months...) to hope that solves the situation. The other solution would be to make crispy duck but then I think the lone duck would get... lonely. And if I got rid of both ducks, the 'duck'-chicken would have lost its flock (the other two 'flocks' grudgingly accept her but there is no love there.
So uh... I guess this thread is detailing the interesting things that can happen if you have chickens and ducks in the same area.
