Yet another chicken+duck question plus a few others you've probably answered a gazillion times befor

[AKnewbie]

Hello everyone.
Our family are newbies at this whole bird raising deal.
Currently we have nine 8wk old Australorps and 2 Khaki Campbells (male and female, we think). The chickens are on medicated feed (Purina Start and Grow) and the ducks are on unmedicated feed (Purina Flockraiser).

I have some questions:

(1) Is it advisable to raise them together in the same coop/run?
Currenty, they are inside the coop in construction. The coop itself will be around 32sqft and the run (this is the outside of the coop where they will roam around in, right?) is around 150sqft. Since last week, we have been letting the chickens out during the day inside a separate fenced area (outside of their run) and the ducks are out in the run with the little kiddie pool. We bring all the birds in at night.

The reason we are keeping them separated right now is because the chickens are still on medicated feed and the ducks aren't. The lady at the feed store said that the medicated feed for the chickens kills the ducks and I am afraid that some of the medication may shed in the chicken poop and the ducks might accidentally ingest it if they are sharing the same run right now. Am I using faulty logic here? I also have a few questions regarding that.

(2) If the answer to the 1st question is, yes they can all be together, at which point can you let them start sharing housing?

(3) Going back to the medicated/unmedicated feed topic... which is the best route to take and for how long?

• Medicated feed for chickens ONLY up until X weeks.
• Medicated feed for both chickens AND ducks. If so, is it safe to switch the ducks to medicated feed now when they started on unmedicated feed? Up to how long?
• Unmedicated feed for both chickens and ducks.

I think that is it for now. Thank you for your time.

 

[CluckyJay]

You can keep ducks and chickens together but the ducks are very messy. You'd need a large pen to keep them from messing up your chickens.

Do keep your ducks away from medicated chicken starter. I keep my ducks/chickens in different brood pens until they are done with the medicated stuff.

My chickens have unaltered wings but I clipped my ducks wings. The chickens can fly into their chicken coop but the ducks cannot get in there. This way they do not get into the medicated feed. They also can't muck up the chicken coop.

I keep the ducks water/feed in an area that drains quickly so it doesn't cause a mess.

I don't usually feed medicated feed but a friend gave me 150 pounds of it so i am using it until it is gone, then on to nonmedicted feed for me. Don't feed vaccinated chicks medicated feed.

 

[AKnewbie]

Thanks for the response. How large of a pen do you think is suitable? Right now, it's about 150sqft. But we can move the fence.
The nesting area would be 32 sqft.

During the winter, do they confine themselves inside the nesting area?

 

[AKnewbie]

Also, we just noticed today that the ducks tend to go after our dog when he gets too close. Is that a bad omen for keeping the chickens and ducks together?