About Keeping Chickens and Ducks Together

I have kept chickens, and have kept call ducks, but we did not keep them together, each was in its own pen.  The chickens were also free range - loose, but the ducks had duckings and we knew the cats would find that too tempting, so the ducks were kept in a large pen where the cats could not get in.

I often am asked if you can keep ducks and chickens together.  Many people want to do this year round, but more often it is a consideration for the winter as it is easier to have all outdoor animals together rather than going from pen to pen through deep snow.

One of the main considerations in regards to keeping ducks and chickens together is food. Ducks cannot have medicated chick starter.  The medication is toxic to ducks, so if you are feeding medicated chick starter or any medicated chicken feed, you cannot have ducks in the same enclosure.

Another concern is that ducks need water in order to eat their food.  They will often take a mouthful of food and dunk it in the water to soak it.  They do this because they do not have saliva.  This can make the water very messy for chickens to drink from.

Of course the other concern is that while ducks love to swim chickens cannot swim at all and will drown.  Even in a shallow pool chicken feathers can become waterlogged and will pull the chicken down if it cannot get out.  Ducks do not really "need" water for swimming, and in the winter when it is freezing cold they should not have water for swimming anyhow.

Aggressive roosters can be a concern too, sometimes aggressive drakes can be mean.  Always watch animals when putting them together.  Make sure you provide enough space so animals can get away from each other if they are being picked on.

Personally I would not recommend keeping ducks and chickens together in the same pen, as they are better off separate.

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The Auction that Wasn't

Every spring and fall in our area there are auctions for birds and sheep. We need a ram for the fall and want to get rid of some of the chickens and ducks as we do not have proper places to over winter those animals. I called the local auction market a month ago to find out when the sale was. I was informed it would be September 18. I need to know this because as we live in a tourist area we often work weekends and need to book time off to go to the auction.

The farm truck had not been started in over a year, that was another issue, We needed the truck to pull the trailer so we could bring home a ram. I really should not have waited until three days before the auction to try it out, but sure enough it was dead. After a lot of tinkering (and a jump start from a neighbor) we got it running, but when we turned it off it died. The price of a new battery would be more than a ram so we thought we would just go to the auction and see if anyone there could drive our new ram home.

The morning of the auction was cold, it had rained the night before and dropped below freezing for the first time this month. We got out at 8:30 in the morning to catch the birds and box them up, our hands were numb! But we got them all boxed up and the boxes just fit into our small car and off we went to the auction market.

One interesting thing did happen as we were boxing up the birds. The polish rooster screamed when he was caught and one of our cats came running, she started hissing like crazy. I don't know if she thought she was protecting us or him.



pic taken at an earlier auction



Something seemed a bit odd as we drove up, and as we got closer to the auction market it was clear. The auction had been postponed. There was a sign on the gate saying it would be next week, instead of this week. Apparently a fund raising (Terry Fox) marathon was taking place so they had to change dates. I am sure they published this in the newspaper, but we never saw anything ourselves.

I felt foolish driving home with all our birds.  The car stunk!

So... we will give it another go this Sunday, and will head to the Thorsby Auction market once again to sell our birds and buy a ram.