Separate duck and chicken coops w/ shared run

[Kyguylal]

Hi again,

We have seven chickens and I was planning on building a large shared coop, a large run and adding ducks.

I was then wondering if I could just build the large run, stick my existing chicken coop in it and build another coop for the ducks in the same run?

Essentially, my existing coop is set up for chickens. Would everything work if I just stuck another coop in there for the ducks to use and had it set up for just the ducks?

Not sure if it would be better to keep them together or not. The run should have enough room for them to do their own things.

We have a big predator issue with bears, coyotes, and foxes so I was going to use a fully covered dog kennel with welded wire and hardware cloth on the bottom section with a trenched skirt and then an electric fence surround.

 

[nuthatched]

As long as you have no drakes or roosters, I think you can. The drakes can attempt to breed the chicken hens and hurt them, ditto with the roosters. They'd probably end up mixed up in the coops though.

 

[Kyguylal]

As long as you have no drakes or roosters, I think you can. The drakes can attempt to breed the chicken hens and hurt them, ditto with the roosters. They'd probably end up mixed up in the coops though.

Oh right. Thanks for the reminder. Lol I forgot about the weird duck parts. I took comparative anatomy in college and we were all shown that.

I only have hens and was only planning on female ducks.

 

[ackie]

the ducks will need water, right? I'm not a duck person, but I assume that's a thing. which would make it harder to keep the area clean for the chickens, I'd assume.

 

[EverythingDucks]

Be sure there is plenty of ventilation. With all the moisture from ducks it can harm the chickens respiratory system. I recommend a kiddy pool for the duck but they'll make a muddy mess.

As long as you have a large tub though it shouldn't be an issue, just be prepared for the mess that ducks make.

 

[Quatie]

The other thing to think about is ramps. If you have an elevated chicken coop, ducks are really not big fans of that. They prefer a coop on the ground. If you get muscovy, they wouldn't care and roost like chickens.

 

[Kyguylal]

Thank you. I was hoping that they would stay in thier own coops with the shared run. I could easily remedy it by just removing my chickens coop ramp since they mainly fly in anyways.

The ducks could have their own coop in the ground to nest in.

Regarding water, we were planning on giving them a small pool and sticking a block in there so the chickens could get out if they fell in.

I was planning on a 50 gallon garden tub and just dumping it every day into a dry well. We're on a fully sand lot, so water just blasts straight down into the ground.

 

[ackie]

The other thing to think about is ramps. If you have an elevated chicken coop, ducks are really not big fans of that. They prefer a coop on the ground. If you get muscovy, they wouldn't care and roost like chickens.

oh that's actually a brilliant way to keep the ducks out of the chicken coop

 

[Quatie]

oh that's actually a brilliant way to keep the ducks out of the chicken coop

I feel like there are ducks out there that would take that as a challenge to find a way to jump up in the chicken coop and make a mess. While they don't like ramps, they can be taught to use them, and there are always exceptions.

 

[EverythingDucks]

@HappyDuckie