Is it okay to keep ducks in the same cage as chickens?
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A small fish-eating duck of wooded ponds, the Hooded Merganser nests in holes in trees. It is frequently seen on shallow waters where its only waterfowl companion is the Wood Duck.
www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/hooded_merganser/id
Question by Sarah: Is it okay to keep ducks in the same cage as chickens?
I have chickens… And I recently got ducks…. Is it okay for me to put them together?
Can you help? Leave your own answer in the comments!
6 Responses to Is it okay to keep ducks in the same cage as chickens?
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its ok, just watch them for the first little bit and they should be ok.
katie
March 20, 2013 at 4:45 pm
no, chickens are territorial and might try to poke the ducks eyes out with their beaks
T.J.
March 20, 2013 at 4:51 pm
i have chickens and ducks to i let them both out at the same time sometimes (they both live in different spots) and the chickens will peck and scratch at them and scare them they are very territorial espesially the roosters i would say seperate them
tim ^_^
March 20, 2013 at 5:31 pm
as long as they aren’t to small, but if one of the ducks gets stuck, get him free as soon as you can, cause i recently had a duck get stuck and then he was pecked to death, so if you do… watch for that
Kamie lia
March 20, 2013 at 6:02 pm
Please don’t. Waterfowl and chickens have different care requirements- there a many reasons why you shouldn’t be the most obvious one is in the use of water. Duck require to “wash’ their faces and also require water to feed properly- this behavior leads to a lot of spillage so that the areas around the water dishes are almost permanently damp. Damp conditions are not at all healthy for chickens- many nasty types of bacteria that are a real pain when it comes to chickens (including several prominent respiratory diseases) absolutely THRIVE in damp conditions. Ducks also dirty their water fast (which is why you need to replace the water daily at MINIMUM) which is not healthy for the chickens to drink.
I am aware that there are many people who mix the birds and will say “I’ve never had a problem”, but you will not find a single written source that will recommend it, which is why I will back myself up with this from Storey’s Guide to Raising Chickens: (in regards to mixing chickens with waterfowl) “Damp conditions are unhealthful for chickens and water bugs transmit disease and parasites”. Also in regards to bio security: “Don’t mix birds of different species: germs that are relatively harmless in one species may have a devastating effect on another”. Weigh up the risks and make your own decisions, but this is only one book in my library of hundreds of poultry books (it was the closest to hand- I write articles for poultry magazines so it’s important I have enough resources!) and all of them would say the same thing.
Enjoy your birds.
Araucana
March 20, 2013 at 6:23 pm
Ducks and Chickens don’t usually fight but…
It’s actually best if you brought the chickens and the ducks together at the same time but since you bought them at separate times then the only choice you got so far is that you observe what they do to each other for a while and see if any of them attack 😛
If one shows a sign of neglectance or pecking of such then I would just separate them for a while and then try again 😛
but if they get a long and don’t mind each other then you’re completely fine 🙂
make sure you put out enough space though
cutechubbyapple
March 20, 2013 at 6:53 pm