Should I get ducks?

[ChickForLife]

Ok, thank you for this good info. I will keep it in mind!

 

[BFen]

Waiting is a good call. I got chicks and thought how messy could two ducks be? I posted a question and everyone told me very messy. Stupid me, I decided to learn the hard way. I went ahead and bought two "supposedly" female ducks (welsh harlequin, which I thought was safe, since they can be sexed by bill color in the first few days). Fast forward 5 weeks and I'm pretty sure I have a male, luckily he is not the dominant one. He follows the female around like a puppy dog, and they are beyond bonded so theres no getting rid of him. And who knows, maybe he'll still be a she. Anyways, back to the mess, WATER everywhere. Soaking, soggy broader all the time, and I clean it ALL the time. I've tried different Jimmy rigs to keep the water less messy which really helped. I love my two ducks, but I'm in constant fear when I permanently move them out to the coop with my chicks they will make it disgusting. I took for granted how not messy the chickens are. However, the ducks have already proved their worth. When I got them, they were in a broader with my youngest chicks. They bonded with those 6 young chicks. Two weeks ago, I moved those chicks to the coop, which housed my eleven other chicks who were a few weeks older than them. The young chicks had trouble integrating, nothing awful, but the older chicks were a little mean to them, so the chicks acted very skittish. When I put the ducks in the coop for the day to run around, they protect the 6 week chicks from the 8 week chicks. They guard them and help mingle everyone together, cause the ducks are the same size as the 8 week chicks. It's truly beautiful and I love having them. But do not doubt the mess.

 

[FarmerSeth]

For what it’s worth, I ended up building a separate pen for the ducks. I had read they’d do fine together, but after a while I realized the chickens weren’t coming out of the coop. The ducks were just being nasty to them, and it didn’t seem to improve. They’re much happier now as neighbors than they were as roommates! and the chickens have a dry, clean(er) coop.

All that to say, I had read that they’d do fine together, but maybe put together a backup plan if they don’t get along...