Poll: Trying to decide on a second type of fowl to get

What second type of fowl to get?

  • Guineas

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Ducks

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Turkeys

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Geese

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Divorce the DH & get peafowl?

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Total voters
    0

gritsar

Cows, Chooks & Impys - OH MY!
14 Years
Nov 9, 2007
28,913
447
681
SW Arkansas
I really want to get a second type of fowl in the spring, but I can't make up my mind!

Choices:

guineas - not a good choice? I've read that they can bully chickens and are noisy. Plus, they like to wander and I can't have them wandering down the hill to check out my neighbor's commercial chicken operation.

ducks - I've always wanted some runner ducks. I know that I'll have to brood them seperately to start, but that shouldn't be a problem since the new chicks will be started in a coop. The ducks can be set up in the old brooder on the screened porch. I would want them to eventually go to live in the coop though.

turkeys - only one thing holding me back, blackhead. How big of a problem would that be for my current and future flocks of chickens?

geese - same problem as the ducks, plus I'd want to be sure and get a more docile breed.

a few peacocks - only if I want my day sleeper DH to divorce me?
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Idk from my experience, i got 3 ducks and they stunk!!!!!!! It was cause i am in the city and they had a small pen but i thought i would warn you in case you werent aware. I would go for turkeys or peafowl cause they are pretty and fun.
 
OK, Peafowl are LOUD, guineas are crazy AND loud, ducks stink AND are loud. TURKEYS are THE way to go. I have about 30 adults and they are all the sweetest souls EVER. I always say that my turkeys are my favorite and I would get rid of everything else, BUT everything else makes the money to pay for the turkeys LOL. Mine free range from the day they can touch dirt and they don't wander off or dig in the flower beds or any of those annoying things that chickens do. I will have sweetgrass and blue slate eggs in the Spring and you can see for yourself how the goofy looking little things will steal your heart.
 
Stick with chickens.
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If I am ever able to add chickens again, I'm going to buy some Barnevelder eggs and hatch them. I had a guinea once - loved that bird. It drowned in the toilet in my mudroom - my son left the top up. That was the cutest bird I ever had - my x husband named him 'New' - pumpkin orange feet and would sit on my shoulder and peck my earrings. If you stray from chickens, you should try a couple of white guineas.
 
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A bit of personal experience and advice on this one. We once wanted ducks and after a lot of research in books and internet forums, I decided on runner ducks because they supposedly did not need as much water as other ducks...only enough to clean their bills.

To make a long story short, that bill-cleaning amounted to a lot of water being dabbled out of the chicken waterer and on to the floor of the coop. That meant wet bedding and a big mess that needed to be shoveled and cleaned out at least weekly. Ducks love water and love to play in it. The little pool in the run was great and they were a lot of fun to watch while they dove and rolled in it. Inside the coop, not so much fun. 8 weeks after we got the ducks, they were re-homed to a lovely lady with a big pond and nice coop that they could get as wet as they wanted because all of the inhabitants were waterfowl.

To drive the point home, I didn't have to do a full change of coop bedding for a whole month after they left, and it smelled 10x better to boot!

If you do decide on ducks, plan to get them their own living space from the start. They don't care if the floor is wet, but it can be detrimental to chickens, especially if your winters get cold. You will end up thanking yourself for it later.
 
I voted for geese. You'll fall in love with goslings, I guarantee. Just get a couple of females and you won't need to deal with a psycho male at breeding time.
 
Started with chickens....added ducks, first a couple runners...got rid of those and hatched out a couple muscovies....got rid of those, while they were not loud they were messy. Then we decided to hatch some guineas, which we still have, and they are soon to leave as well. They are loud, eat alot of my chicken food and are just plain dumb, lol. We hatched out 8 guineas and I bet that our feed bill has almost doubled for a month and when I feed treats they steal it all and don't share. I think we will be trying some turkeys in the future.

Good Luck with your decision
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Okay, but what about blackhead? I don't know beans about it, only that turkeys can transmit it to chickens (I think). I have a large pond for ducks, but I don't want to deal with all the water mess up around the chickens and the house.
I'm leaning towards turkeys now and considering a nice big ham for thanksgiving. Never was too crazy about turkey (meat).
Also, they'll do fine brooded with chicks right?
 

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