keeping a mixed flock

[animalfarm]

I run all mine together. I have one turkey who thinks she is a duck and one who thinks she is a chicken. The others have decided to be turkeys. There are also geese in the mix, but they all free range during the day in their various flocks and are only in the barn at night and work out their own sleeping arrangements. The only problem I have is the duck turkey who is always standing in the pond waiting for the ducks to come out instead of looking for food as she should. I should mention that I maintain a closed flock so no outside nasties being brought in.

 

[donrae]

I've run chickens, ducks, geese and turkeys all together with no problems.

It would be a good idea to make sure the males of the more aggressive birds have females to mate, just to protect the less aggressive females. I've heard of drakes hurting hen chickens by trying to mate them, but I've always had hen ducks so haven't seen it personally.
Space is always the biggest consideration, IMO. If you try to crowd any birds together you'll have more problems, both health and behavior wise.

My pen currently has ducks and chickens. The ducks don't sleep in the coop, they sleep in the run. So, they don't get pooped on.


I giggled at the turkey mounting the pekin duck! Talk about the ultimate roasting bird, if they could pull it off~

 

[Denim Deb]

 

[the funny farm6]

ok well i feel better then. i am going to redo my coop next year (it was supposed to be done this year but...) . i think what i might do then is make 2 coops ajacent to each other. and put the turkeys in one and chickens, guineas, and ducks in the other.