# ducks anf chickens?



## mtocih (Jun 16, 2013)

I have the opportunity to get some ducks from a local breeder friend.  He raises all his poultry free-range.  I rend to keesoonne in a pen..but I am toying with the idea of letting them free range and hour or so before dark.  

I have one 20x20 pen that can be made larger.. but at this point we are hoping not to. It has netting over it Or will have aoon. We just configured it this week and have to build bracing for the nets..so at this point we lock up at dark.   In it I have 9hens and one rooster.  I was thinking of taking one corner..and putting in a small pond for ducks and raising them together.  I need input.  Will this work? What all do I need to consider when raising ducks?  And how do you keep your ducks from flying?  Can they house in same.barn/house at night?

I am also looking at guineas from the same breeder..and ifni could talk hubby into it a Turkey.  . 

The yard can be extended..but I was trying not to mostly to keep down on hubbys work load.  I take care of the animals..he builds fence and barns and yards for me. 

Thanks for any thoughts


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## secuono (Jun 17, 2013)

What breed of duck are they? Pekin and Khaki don't fly. Some other ducks also don't/cant fly.
They can live together, but ducks are gluttons and will steal food from the chickens, you might have to feed the ducks separately. 
Ducks are very messy, tons of wet poop, their pools get nasty in just days. All that dumping and refilling will eventually turn the pen into a flooded pigsty. 
I had mine freerange, they did great.


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## Southern by choice (Jun 17, 2013)

We have a poultry business. 300 free range chickens... ducks, geese, and turkeys.
Our turkeys are on one side of the property. *Turkeys are highly susceptible to poultry diseases*. Especially blackhead. *Turkeys are also extremely territorial*. Diseases that chickens are hardy against, turkeys are not. Our turkeys all know the chickens they see as in their flock, so to speak, if a chicken that they are unfamiliar with comes to their side of the property them will attack them. 
Ducks- depends on the breed of duck about the flying. Ducks and geese do best in a free range environment. They are grass and weed eaters and do best on this diet. Ducks really are gluttons and will constantly get into the chicken feed, which is not the greatest for them. I never recommend penning ducks to my customers. Ducks and geese are very easy keepers though- in a free ranged environment. Penned- Secouno is right- MESSY!  regardless they absolutely must have a pool, they need this to clean out their bills and eyes. Ours also never seek shelter... they sleep where they want, usually the woods.

I would not recommend confining ducks and chickens together in that small of an area. The 20x20 pen is just big enough for your chickens. Not ducks. 

Chickens/ducks do not really co-mingle, ours are all fine with each other but they are free ranged...penned...yes there will be problems.

There really isn't any "workload" with ducks... if you let them out to range, ours only need some supplemental feed in the winter. The other 3 seasons they need nothing. A kiddie pool will need drained every 1-2 days... depending on the number of ducks.


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## Southern by choice (Jun 17, 2013)

also wanted to add, if you use medicated feed, ducks cannot have this. They will overdose and die.


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## mtocih (Jun 17, 2013)

These answers gave me.more questions.  Lol.  First off I will say i honestly have no idea what kind of ducks he has.  And will have to find out. 

. we have a creek at the back of our property and we have a drain ditch that runs thru.  Usually both are full of water. If they have water there and are free range will they "float" off?  How do I protect them from predator?  and what about my garden?  Will they eat my plants?  I have 2 weeks to decide what I want to do.  So looking at all angles before I do anything.. and researching and reading books.


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## Southern by choice (Jun 17, 2013)

Geese are better weeders.
They could continue downstream or get "caught" and drown.
Yep, predators are an issue. We have 4 LGD's and 2 other non- lgd's along with geese.... not any predator issues anymore for us.

Alot of it depends on the layout of your land. Everyone I have sold ducks or geese to allows them to free range... at first they are kept more confined, esp as babies, as they learn their territory they are fine.

We have a small field from when we first started out... has 7 ft deer netting around it.. that was because the chickens were everywhere. We usually keep the ducks and geese in that area because the geese are guard geese and do not like the customers... they will bite them. They tend to surround the vehicle and not let them out.... now our turkeys do that.


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## woodsie (Jun 17, 2013)

I can appreciate the fencing workload...my hubby was very gracious and spent a ton of time and money this spring making new large pens, so I have cashed in my chips and now anything new I am pretty much on my own, for the moment. 

My solution when I wanted to get ducks....a free, old trampoline that I zip tied chicken wire around and left the one end unattached and overlapped by 2 feet to close it up. I put a broken dog kennel in it so they had some hay in it when they were small for shelter and a rubber feed tub for a "pond" and a bowl for some extra food once a day. When the ducks started making too much of a mess we just dragged it to fresh grass/weeds....it as been working really well. I was worried about predators so I put them inside my large goat pen and now I leave the trampoline enclosure open so the ducks can free range but I can lock them up if I need to, plus they have a familiar place to hide should they need to. I just feed them some extra scratch, thrown on the ground for some extra protein fat....they grew SOOOO fast....we were all shocked at how quickly they grew. We might look at raising a few for meat because they grew as fast as cornishX chickens, it was incredible!

We love our ducks, but they do try to nibble your toes if you wear flip flops to the fields!


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## mtocih (Jun 17, 2013)

> We love our ducks, but they do try to nibble your toes if you wear flip flops to the fields! ep


I had to laugh cause the chickens we had in the past used to do the same.    THese new ones don't care.   

Thanks for all the input.  Now just to decide if I go for it or not..I have a few ideas of what to do with them if I do.


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