Thank u 4 the add, have many questions

[babytaker2]

Good-day 2 everyone here at BYC,Thank-you 4 adding me. Let me introduce myself,my name is Sari,I have been married 4 17 years 2 an active duty soldier,& have 5 great kids, ages r 21,14,14,14 &13. I recently decided after we bought our 1st house last year,that I wanted the kids 2 experience "farming". We started out with 3 Pekin ducklings, & 3 silkie chicks, which r now big enough 2 free range during the day. Then about a month ago I bought my dream birds, 2 male peacocks,along with 2 guineas,& another silkie. Then on the 7th of July I ordered & got 16 more female chicks, 5 Ameraucana's,5 Cuckoo Marans, 5 Road Island Reds,& a suprise chick. Well today was the 16 chicks 1st day outside in the total fenced in pen. However, Iam still having 2 work with the peacocks & guineas when it comes 2 free ranging them. I let them pgs (peacocks&guineas) out in the morning 4 about 2 hours totally supervised & in the evening 4 2 hours again totally supervised. However 2day with all the new chaos, the pgs didn't want 2 go free range. They wanted 2 stay & see who was in their pen. The 1 peacock I call Cadence was pecking at a few of the chicks & when the Peking ducks, & older silkies come in from free ranging all day, Popeye my female duck & Rowdy seem to pick on everyone. Not too bad. But I was hoping things would go alot smoother. We give fresh fruit & veggies at night 4 coming in. Fresh water twice a day. Yet I feel like Iam missing something. I hate them picking on each other. How long will this last, will I need 2 get rid of the peacocks? Are the different kinds of chickens I got compatible with each other? Can you raise chickens,peacocks,guineas& ducks together. & the likelihood that I can free range everyone? Thank-you in advance 4 any fedback, I just want everyone 2 be happy & healthy.

 

[Yorkshire Coop]

Hi Sari

Glad you could join us here! I'm sorry to hear your having trouble with your mixed flock. I'm afraid I don't keep one, only chickens in mine. I shall move your thread to the managing your flock where hopefully other members can can offer you more advice on managing your different birds.
Good luck for the future

 

[bobbi-j]

How much space are all these birds sharing? How big - feet x feet is the outside run? If there is any blood shed, I would strongly suggest you separate your birds. I don't keep a mixed flock, so I can't really offer any other advice than to make sure there is plenty of space, hiding places (lean plywood up against the the run fence, a piece of plywood on cement blocks, that kind of thing) and multiple feeding and watering stations.

Thanks to your husband for his service, and to you for supporting him.

 

[bobbi-j]

In your ovation you mentioned that "the coop they all share can hold up to 16 chickens". How have you determined this? Is it a premade coop, or are you going by the "x number of square feet per bird theory"? Those premade coops are usually advertised to hold way more birds than they actually should. Here is an excellent article about space for your birds. It only mentions chickens, but I think you can apply it to your mixed flock. Also, I don't know where you live, but if it gets cold in the winters, you may want to consider building them something larger so if they're inside a lot during the winter when they don't want to go outside.

 

[Ridgerunner]

That’s quite a zoo you have there. I don’t have any experience with peacocks and limited experience with guineas and ducks but they do have different requirements. I don’t know what your facilities look like, how many coops or how big they are, your run set-up, or if your free range area has restrictions. If you have enough free range area they should all be able to free range at the same time, but they probably will not stay together as one flock. I’d be shocked if they did. It’s quite possible you will have to provide separate facilities for them too, they may have problems sharing one coop.

The age of your birds can have a big effect on how they behave. There is often a big difference in behavior of immature birds and true adults.

I suggest you go to the “Other Backyard Poultry” section of the forum and post in the guinea fowl, peafowl, and ducks sections and see what the experts there say about your situation. Include ages and what your facilities look like. I think you are likely to get some pretty good advice there.

Welcome to the forum. Glad you joined.