Ordered Chicks, ducklings, and goslings.Can I raise them together?

[HENS-and-MARES]

I ordered 15 chicks, 2 ducklings, and we hopefully will get a gosling. Can I raise them all in one brooder together? They will all be around the same age (about 1-3 days) old.

 

[Bert96746]

Ducks and I would imagine geese are very "wet messy" whereas chickens are "dry messy". The chicks could become sickly if exposed to so much moisture and dampness. The ducks will also grow much quicker than the chicks which could also cause problems. Id separate them if possible.

 

[HENS-and-MARES]

So if the shavings stay dry?

 

[HENS-and-MARES]

Also we have a broody girl. Does this change anything?

 

[diamondsilkies]

I haven't raised anything besides chickens before but I believe ducklings (and maybe goslings) need a slightly different diet (maybe a niacin supplement?). As for the question of the broody hen, there have been plenty of cases of a broody hen raising ducklings before, so that should be okay. Hopefully someone with a little more experience will come by to verify, I'm just throwing out some things to look into/consider.

 

[Bert96746]

To keep the bedding dry, and I'm not kidding, you'll have to change it or spot clean it at least twice a day. Ducklings are super messy and smelly even from day 1. They also have different nutritional needs than chicks so that will be hard to control, too. Ducks need around 24% protein if I'm remembering correctly with a niacin supplement and chicks need 20% chick starter feed.

 

[Bert96746]

If your brooder bin is big enough, you could probably put a divider in it to try to minimize the "cross contamination"

 

[rc4u]

i've kept them all together many times and turkeys.. but have had only couple ducks.. i feed them all flock raiser.. my 10 girl chicks are 3 weeks old on tuesday i get 5 embdens. i do keep apart for one week as the geese are tough