Chickens love my ducks eyes

[ZZbean]

Hello!

I have one of my ducks who seems to have taken on the role of being the problem child, She is one out of the two of my younger ducks (freshly one) and she seems to be quite the baby. Once she and her sister got older with my chickens (I got the chickens a month before Peanut and Pickle her sister), My older pair seemed to establish themselves. The trouble started when chickens figured out this spring that Peanut doesn't fight back, they will stand on her sides pecking at her head. This started around a month ago peanuts eye just had some foam that very quickly healed once I locked the chicken in the house and the ducks got the run, but last night here in Wisconsin we had some severe weather so I opened the doors. Luckily we have a coop cam so my brother noticed the chicken had her, we got everyone sorted out into separate areas. Today I checked out her eye and one of them is good no damage but the other is inflamed and foamy, I have a picture attached. I am looking mainly for advice on how to keep all my ducks and my chickens, but some tips for her eye are helpful. BTW the things are her bill are grass not cuts.

I don't think I will be doing much as I think it will cause her more stress then she has right now

 

[ZZbean]

Here is a picture of her eye last month. It seemed okay it was just foaming.

 

[Jenbirdee]

saline rinse, and use terramycin ointment is best.
I’m thinking about separating my chickens away from my ducks too because one of my ducks had a prolapse and the chickens shredded it up so she had to be put down. It was so bad.. Maybe it’s just the people who have them together since they were babies that it works better I don’t know, but I already had ducks many years before I got any chickens. just my opinion, I would try to divide and separate if there’s enough space hopefully

 

[ZZbean]

saline rinse, and use terramycin ointment is best.
I’m thinking about separating my chickens away from my ducks too because one of my ducks had a prolapse and the chickens shredded it up so she had to be put down. It was so bad.. Maybe it’s just the people who have them together since they were babies that it works better I don’t know, but I already had ducks many years before I got any chickens. just my opinion, I would try to divide and separate if there’s enough space hopefully

Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry about what happened to your duck that sounds so horrible. I did get my chickens only about three weeks before my ducklings peanut and pickle so I'm not sure why they suddenly have this issue. I plan on building a small but tall coop for my chickens to separate them from my ducks if they can't get along soon. I hope you can get all your flock along too! These darn chickens lol.

 

[Miss Lydia]

Chickens can and will peck the eyes out of ducks and most of the time ducks have no way of fighting back. Thankfully I have never had any of my chickens injure by any of my ducks but I don't keep mine penned they free range in fencing during the day and at night they all sleep in the same coop. I do have a Speckled Sussex who is a bully to the ducks but she just jumps at them and they take off. I would not keep ducks and chickens together if they were going after the ducks and causing injury.

 

[ZZbean]

Chickens can and will peck the eyes out of ducks and most of the time ducks have no way of fighting back. Thankfully I have never had any of my chickens injure by any of my ducks but I don't keep mine penned they free range in fencing during the day and at night they all sleep in the same coop. I do have a Speckled Sussex who is a bully to the ducks but she just jumps at them and they take off. I would not keep ducks and chickens together if they were going after the ducks and causing injury.

Hey! Thank you for your reply. I do have a few follow-up questions if you can answer them.

One is, do your chickens seem to enjoy messing with your ducks? and would this be something out of boredom?

Two I actually live in the suburbs and although it is a good-sized backyard I can exactly keep them separate when free-roaming it, I/my parents have now just been going out there and spraying the chickens with water when they're misbehaving, I suppose my question is do you think that spraying them will accomplish anything in the long run? I know birds can be very smart but I'm not sure what's possible for them to learn, can/will they learn that the reason they're being sprayed is for picking on the ducks? Maybe this could be a different post itself but I'm not sure.

 

[Miss Lydia]

Hey! Thank you for your reply. I do have a few follow-up questions if you can answer them.

One is, do your chickens seem to enjoy messing with your ducks? and would this be something out of boredom?

Two I actually live in the suburbs and although it is a good-sized backyard I can exactly keep them separate when free-roaming it, I/my parents have now just been going out there and spraying the chickens with water when they're misbehaving, I suppose my question is do you think that spraying them will accomplish anything in the long run? I know birds can be very smart but I'm not sure what's possible for them to learn, can/will they learn that the reason they're being sprayed is for picking on the ducks? Maybe this could be a different post itself but I'm not sure.

I think my Speckled Sussex enjoys being a bully since the legbar bullies her by making her get out of the feed bowl she is eating out of neither to the point of injury. If I catch my young Runner drake chasing down my only Muscovy who is out with all the flock I do spray him with the hose on the highest setting to make a point. It doesn't seem to make much difference in him going after her but it does get him off of her when I do it. So I just keep the bigger flock separated from my older Muscovy females. I am not sure in the long run if the chickens would stop going after the ducks if sprayed maybe just keep it up for a while to find out. Most chickens don't like to be sprayed down with the hose. When free roaming they should be enjoying foraging and not picking on each other. What are you chicken breeds?

 

[ZZbean]

My chickens are both easter eggers, here are the culprits.

 

[Miss Lydia]

I hve had EE they are the sweetest. It's a bad habit your going to have to work on to break. They look thoroughly spoiled