- Sep 11, 2009
- 38
- 0
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Hi all,
I was just reading through posts about muscovy ducks and chickens all living together with no problems. The reason I'm posting is that we lost one of our hens last night, a little bantam-sized silver-laced Wyandotte. She seemed a little woozy this morning and passed away shortly after. Since she was only four years old, I was worried that maybe our male muscovy, Pongo, could have injured her, but the lack of marks on her plus the fact that he has never done anything to the hens before made me skeptical, and now I'm reading that a lot of you keep ducks and chickens together.
Let me tell you a little bit about Pongo--he and his sisters were hatched and raised by hens. His previous owner rehomed him with us because she keeps mostly silkies in the pen where he was living and he's a big boy and got aggressive with his mamas. He does really love my hens. I mean, REALLY loves them in that I have to break up his attempts at getting romantic with my RIRs, but he flocks with them, he beds down in the coop and he seems happiest when among chickens. He seemed extra gentle with Dot, the hen that we just lost, maybe because she was small like the mama hens that raised him.
My big concern is that his two sisters are coming to live with us, too, and the only place I have that can accommodate all of them is the hen house. Has anyone ever had any issues with ducks and chickens? We have a huge mutt flock of geese, hens, different types of ducks, etc., and we've never had an issue other than Pongo teaching the rooster a lesson one day (no one was hurt but I was laughing so hard I cried as our rooster is a major bully and got his tail kicked) and Harold the goose and Pongo pulling feathers once in awhile.
I was just reading through posts about muscovy ducks and chickens all living together with no problems. The reason I'm posting is that we lost one of our hens last night, a little bantam-sized silver-laced Wyandotte. She seemed a little woozy this morning and passed away shortly after. Since she was only four years old, I was worried that maybe our male muscovy, Pongo, could have injured her, but the lack of marks on her plus the fact that he has never done anything to the hens before made me skeptical, and now I'm reading that a lot of you keep ducks and chickens together.
Let me tell you a little bit about Pongo--he and his sisters were hatched and raised by hens. His previous owner rehomed him with us because she keeps mostly silkies in the pen where he was living and he's a big boy and got aggressive with his mamas. He does really love my hens. I mean, REALLY loves them in that I have to break up his attempts at getting romantic with my RIRs, but he flocks with them, he beds down in the coop and he seems happiest when among chickens. He seemed extra gentle with Dot, the hen that we just lost, maybe because she was small like the mama hens that raised him.
My big concern is that his two sisters are coming to live with us, too, and the only place I have that can accommodate all of them is the hen house. Has anyone ever had any issues with ducks and chickens? We have a huge mutt flock of geese, hens, different types of ducks, etc., and we've never had an issue other than Pongo teaching the rooster a lesson one day (no one was hurt but I was laughing so hard I cried as our rooster is a major bully and got his tail kicked) and Harold the goose and Pongo pulling feathers once in awhile.
