Turkeys, chickens and ducks together?

shinysatins

In the Brooder
9 Years
Jul 9, 2010
24
0
39
I have young chickens and 4 midget white turkey poults, getting close to full grown now . . . they've all been together for several months with no ill effects. I just read that you're not supposed to keep turkeys and chickens together because of the risk of blackhead.

If they've already been together this long and are fine, do I need to worry about it at this point? I do have some older chickens and some younger bantams that they haven't been in contact with yet.

If they were free-ranging together, would it make much difference to have them in separate coops since they'd be sharing the same yard anyway?

Will feeding food-grade diatomaceous earth and probiotics help prevent blackhead?

I'm hoping to also get some muscovy ducks this spring. Can they go in with the other birds, or do they need their own separate coop and run too?

Thanks,

Shiny
 
I keep my turkeys and chickens together. I know that there is no history of black head in my area so I felt better about it. You can look that info up or ask a local farmer. Mine were raised from chicks and poults together. They are now 9 months and my turkeys are needing my to build them a coop all to themselves because they no longer like roosting with chickens. Other than that they range together, eat together and are just fine. Ducks I know cant stay with either bird. Chickens and turkey need a dry environment so they do not get respiratory problems and duck like wet conditions. Ducks need a pool of water in order to wash their food down so they tend to make a mess with water. Hope this helps
 
My neighbours own a huge hobby farm and they keep their chickens and turkeys together. They only roost seperately. Since you have been keeping the two together without ill-effects, I think keeping them together is a good idea. As for ducks I would recomend maybe not putting they together because they have different needs.
 
I have chickens, ducks, turkeys and geese. The turkeys are the newest addition, but they were raised with chicks so they're happy to live together. The ducks sleep outside though, and by choice. Everybody gets their feed from inside the coop.

The waterfowl have their kiddie pools. I have several waterers in the yard because the ducks do foul them, but these are closer to the coop than the location of the kiddie pools.

They all range freely; my ducks tend to keep to themselves in bunches, one goose hangs with them and the gander hangs out with the chickens. The turkeys hang with the chickens.

Hope this helps.
 
I don't know about turkeys as I've never raised them, but I couldn't keep my chickens and ducks together. My ducks were always acting aggressive to the chickens and hurt one of my hens. I keep them separated and they just "talk" through an adjoining fence. Also, I agree with the other posts... ducks are VERY messy with their water.
 
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I have ducks and chickens together. I'm blessed with a very large run---16x48--so there's enough space for the ducks to have kiddy pools and the chickens to still stay dry.

I will say my ducks were probably 2 years old when we quit free ranging and confined everyone. I think the fact that they were older may have helped. I've heard of drakes harming hens when the hormones hit. I don't know if breed matters at all, my ducks are Rouens, but I think the age has something to do with it.
 
Do chickens and ducks free range well together? :)

Even though I don't keep my ducks and chickens in the same pen, due to the ducks going after the chickens since they were just a few weeks old, I AM going to try free-ranging them together this Spring. They will be a little older and will have a lot of space, but I still plan on putting them into their separate, adjoining pens when not free-ranging. We'll see how it goes!
 

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