Roosters mysteriously drowning in duck pond

[Drhennypenny]

Hi all,
I have a mixed flock with all female ducks (3 runners, 2 silver appleyard), two female Chinese brown geese, now 1 rooster (Brahma cross), and some hens (single Cochin, Americana cross, those island red, and 4 australorps)

My flock has been mingled now for at least 3 months. There are two large kennel run areas connected by tunnels and then a large indoor coop area with two sections. I have a duck pond in the furthest kennel from the coop. The ducks and geese were raised in this kennel and then it was attached to the rest of the set up. I have seen so aggression between any of them since the first day they were all together and that was just a single scuffle between two roosters (one new one old).

In the past week I have had two roosters drown in the duck pond. One of them was the newest addition (a frizzle) and he was raised in the kennel with the pond. About 5 days later (today) my Cochin rooster was found drowned.

I am at a loss. This pond has been present even before the whole set up was opened up. The chickens have shown no interest in it. I haven’t even seen them walking up the ramp to it. The sides of the pond are slick as it is an old converted soaker tub with no decking around it (yet) but I have never even seen them perch on the edge. Could one of my geese be drowning my roosters?! I’ve never seen them not get along and the frizzle who died was raised with the geese and ducks. I am devastated and so confused. Any advice would be helpful. I have drained the pond for now.

 

[coach723]

It's hard to say. While some chickens do swim, they aren't really built for it. Their feathers don't shed water like ducks do, if they get sodden they will sink. They also can't right themselves if they get upside down. It's possible that something caused them to panic so they ended up in the pond. Personally, I would either modify it so that it's shallow enough that they can stand in it, and thus won't drown, or I would separate the chickens from the ducks so that the chickens can't get to the pond. Other than that, the only other thought is a game camera to see what's going on out there, that might answer the 'why', but you might lose another bird getting the answer.

 

[Drhennypenny]

Tha

It's hard to say. While some chickens do swim, they aren't really built for it. Their feathers don't shed water like ducks do, if they get sodden they will sink. They also can't right themselves if they get upside down. It's possible that something caused them to panic so they ended up in the pond. Personally, I would either modify it so that it's shallow enough that they can stand in it, and thus won't drown, or I would separate the chickens from the ducks so that the chickens can't get to the pond. Other than that, the only other thought is a game camera to see what's going on out there, that might answer the 'why', but you might lose another bird getting the answer.

It’s just so strange to me that they died multiple days apart.
I’ve drained the pond for now. I’m absolutely going to have to make a more shallow pond. I don’t think it’s fair to the ducks to have no pond and it would be too difficult to separate them due to the set up and where they have gotten used to nesting so I’ll have to figure something out.