Raising a duck with chickens

[yomama]

Hey all,

I just posted this question on the duck forum, but thought I would put it here too, just in case. I was curious as to what people thought about raising a duck with chickens. I love ducks, but not so much the mess they create. I have had some in the past, and although they brought me alot of joy, I love listening to them "talk", they were soooo messy! I currently have 4 hens that are in a 10'x40' fully enclosed run. I let them free range in a fenced yard during the day, if I am home, which is most of the time. I am thinking of getting a few more hens or chicks this summer, so if I got chicks, I would get a baby duck at the same time and raise it with them. I am hoping that by only getting one duck the mess would be minimal. I realize that most ducks like to have somewhere to swim, and I could provide that. However, is it ok to lock the duck up with the hens in the run on the days that they can't free range?

Thanks!

 

[CountryMom]

I have only raised up ducks to a point in the coop. After that they get to free range and play in the stock tanks around us...we have 2. My biggest peeve about ducks in the coop is that they love to get into the drinking water and make one stinky big mess. Right now I have a duckling who hatched out early when his Mama hit a nest on us. I have her/him in with the chicks and they love sleeping on the poor duckling. Once old enough she will go to live with her Mama and the rest of the duck flock. Drakes can also be aggressive to your chicks....but not all of our drakes have been....just a few.

 

[paddock36]

I had two ducks (or should I say my son had two ducks) that we keep with our chickens. We just keep a small tub with water in there and changed it as it got dirty, which was every day. The duck and chickens were fine together. No problems except if you have little chicks be careful because they will drown in the water tubs.

 

[HennyJenny]

Last year on an impulse and because I had my six year old with me

I bought one adorable black indian runner duck - he was my lap duck - knitting budding and t.v. buddy. because being alone is not what ducks seem to be good at. I realized that I was doing him and me a diservice and put him in with the girls - where he very quickly became their "rooster" - he became pretty agressive and would chase us away from the chickens at every opportunity. Several of the girls became his exclusively. The story does not have a happy ending but I'm not sure that had anything to do with Beeper being a duck. I don't know that I would do it again. I liked Beeper - but I don't know that drakes were made to be in charge of chickens - if he was with ducks he may have escaped the "great August massacre" as they may have flown to safety - as it was I suspect he quacked his fool head off to alert the girls to danger but called attention to them at the same time - The girls did accept him as their "man" - and they all got along very nicely - but I think when it came to doing the protecting and warning the flock thing the chicken "man" needed to do - it didn't work very well and was just a massive failure in communication. In any event - prior to the "incident" - I didn't have any issues with the two co-existing and now I realize the many of the problems I had with him keeping me from the flock were due as much to my inexperience as to his need to be the "man of the coop" so to speak. Personally - the whole interspecies family/pecking order thing was a little confusing to me and I'm not sure I would do it again.

No real point to this story - other than - well - something to think about. You should certainly take into account that if anyone was going to develop a family freak show of animals - it was pretty much going to be me - you may be safe.

 

[rlan8]

I let my son talk me in to 2 ducks last spring when we got our chicks. They were raised together and did fine till about a month ago. The ducks are very aggressive toward the chickens. Pulling their feather out. I just put them into separate runs. I was worried they would eventually kill one of the chickens. Keeping them together did not work out well for us and it looks like I will be giving the ducks away.

 

[Nifty-Chicken]

We kept our two ducks, a female Blue Swedish, and a male crested runner duck with our chickens for a bit over a year and for the most part they got along. Actually the drake liked the hens too much (if you know what I mean) and he got quite a few pecks on his beak to prove it. We unfortunately lost him to some coons, but we've got 6 scovy eggs in the bator and we're hoping a few of them will get along with our hens as well as our duck did.

 

[yomama]

What about just getting one duck, and once it gets older, letting it out with the hens? Would it become too much of a target? I do feel that by itself, it probably would be lonely, since I'm sure my established hens aren't going to run over to it and give it hugs and kisses. What about introducing an older duck to the hens. Has anyone ever done that?
Thanks!