Would you tell me if my plans were crazy?

[DonofPaw]

Hello I was thinking about quail orginaly as I only have a 40 by 30 foot backyard... now I think I would prefer chickens and muscovy. I'm not an absolute newbie but I've only done cornish X in the past tell me if this sounds crazy.

1. I do a run along one side of the yard it has a small house made out of plywood and 2X4s measuring 4x8 feet. On either side I setup a 4X4 "yard" and rotate so the birds don't ruin the ground... hopefully. This setup would contain maybe 3 Delawares hens. enough for the wife and I in terms of eggs. Then maybe start a rotation of 3 new next year to have a two year roation going.

2. I setup another 4X8 coop with two 4X8 runs that I rotate. In this I raise maybe 8 muscovy and keep the best breeding trio to raise next years ducks.

3. Wild Card, do a 4x4 moveable pen for 2 runs of cornish x across the rest of the yard.

A. Does this sound nuts? I would really like to do 1 and 2 and would love to do 3 but I could be easily convinced to use the yard to rotate my buns in pens on the ground, my rabbit stock comes from Joel Salatin's grazing rabbits.

B I live in a city which does not allow chickens but the animal control guy doesn't care unless someone complains.

C. I'm new to my neighborhood but my neighbors on all three sides seem nice enough.

D. Can the muscovy breed like this if they are all together, or will they kill chicks/disrupt nests?

E. I have a 3 foot chainlink fence around the whole property, but I'm thinking I would use chicken wire on the runs for predators (cats and coons) would I need to lock them in the coop at night or would the chicken wire be secure enough to let them walk in the run when they want?

Thanks for any feedback I need it!

 

[Kittymomma]

I think the chook set-up sounds pretty good, but I don't know enough about ducks to advise you there. Since you'll be an outlaw you might want to take it in stages so if you get "caught" you haven't invested so much.

ETA: Chicken wire won't stop dogs or coons. You are far better off spending the extra and putting hardware cloth on everything--It's cheaper then replacing your flock and not nearly as heartbreaking.

 

[patandchickens]

The main thing I'd comment is that your space allowances are *really* tiny, and apt to run you into problems. There is zero point in rotating runs/pens, as there is so little space that the birds WILL 'ruin' them even so -- thus, much much better to simply allow them ffree use of the WHOLE space all the time. And even then it will be tightish, esp. for the ducks.

Good luck, have fun,

Pat

 

[cybercat]

OK truth yes it is crasy. I do not think you will be able to do it due to neibors. Chickens are loud and ducks are messy. You really do not have space for what you wish to do. You will not have lawn at all with what you plan. Muscovy only breed a short time and not that much. Chickens will lay more but as I said you must deal with their noise which ranges from egg song to warning which is loud on both. I have a neibor that is half a mile away on my street I hear their chickens just fine after a egg is layed. No joke sometimes I think chicken is one of mine it it so clear. We live in the country too. On top of all this you are looking at high expense since you will have to build of that plus feed every day. It would be way cheaper to find someone in your county that sells farm fresh eggs. Getting chickens just for the 2 of you is just not worth it money wise.

 

[fiberart57]

Wasn't there a thread not too long ago about muscovy ducks being now illegal in the U.S.? Will you still be able to get them?

I'm not sure what the reasoning for banning them was, other than they're not native. Anyway, this may throw a wrench in your plans.

I kind of agree that you are wanting too many animals for too small a space.

Mary