[Ferris]

Just discovered I have been bought a pair of 3 week old call ducks for a belated birthday present. We currently have 4 chickens about 14 weeks old with all of the stuff to go with keeping those but have never expanded into anything other poultry.

Have read quite a lot about call ducks on t'interweb but wondered if anyone has any practical experience of keeping them? In particular if they will socialise with the chickens? Also any advice on housing/feeding?

Many thanks

[Aunt Sally]

Keep the duck's and chook's accommodation separate.  Ducks make a lot of wet mess  :!:

[Ferris]

Thanks for that... will they go in the same run during the day though? We are thinking of building one large pen with some 5' posts and chicken wire for both the chooks and ducks during the day then putting them into respective houses at night. Does that sound about right? Finally if we put some kind of bath into the pen for the ducks would it pose a health hazard for the chooks?

Sorry to go on but is a complete new thing for me and dont want to mess it up

[MontyTom]

My uncle used to run ducks and chickens together without any problems.  They were all raised together though.

[james419]

Last year we ran them together but as has already been pointed out the ducks make alot of mess - so this year the chooks are in one section and the ducks and geese in the other - our chicks have not developeed webbed feet despite last years swimming lessons from the ducks!!

[diamond_lil]

Our ducks and chickens are quite happy together although we also keep them apart at night. We have raised two broods of ducklings with a broody hen. It went fine until they started throwing water about. The poor hen was scandalised - not the way her usual offspring performed
The other problem was that, of couse, a hen doesn't have a preen gland like a mother duck, so she didn't preen them, so they weren't water proof until they were fully feathered. Luckily we had read about that one or we might have had a brood of sinking ducklings!!