Can ducks and turkeys be kept with chickens?

http://www.examiner.com/article/can-ducks-and-turkeys-be-kept-with-chickens



Kim Willis




In the typical old picture of the barnyard a variety of animals peacefully share the space. And if ducks, chickens and turkeys have a lot of space and plenty of food, uneventful mingling will usually occur. But there are some drawbacks in allowing ducks, chickens and turkeys to mingle and things to know before you try it.

Ducks are very messy creatures and need to be able to “play” in their water. In a brooder ( warm place to confine baby poultry), baby ducklings will tend to huddle around the water container. They eat and immediately drink, getting food into the water and getting water all over the bedding. If baby chicks are in the brooder with them, they often are exposed to wet litter and more humid conditions than they need for healthy growth.

Baby ducklings should not have water dishes that they can get into or swimming water until they have feathers. In the wild the oil from moms feathers keeps them dry and floating, even when they are downy little balls. Without mom they get cold and wet when they play in water. Baby chicks should not get wet and if they are with ducklings who can get inside water dishes they will too and may drown.

Baby chicks are often more aggressive than ducklings and may pick on ducklings, pecking them until they are bloody. Even if the floor doesn’t get too wet and the mixed residents are getting along baby ducklings need a higher protein food than chicks that will be layers or pets. Ducklings need a game bird or meat bird starter feed, generally 22-24 % protein while most chicks require about 16- 18 % protein. Meat chickens and ducklings could share the high protein feed. Ducklings should not get medicated chick feed either, they will get diarrhea and be harmed instead of helped from it.

Once grown, ducks and chickens do get along in a free range situation. Occasionally male ducks will be sexually aggressive toward chickens. And nesting ducks may chase chickens away from the nest area but usually little harm is done by that. Ducks will keep any drinking water muddy, even if a pond or other source of water is available.

If confined however, there are additional problems keeping ducks and chickens together. Once again ducks tend to keep the pen or floor of shelters wet and messy. The drinking water will be dirtied. Ducks really need a place to bathe in above freezing weather and the “tub” area will get very wet. In close quarters there are more likely to be problems with fighting between ducks and chickens. In some cases ducks will be the aggressors, in others roosters or even some hens will pick on the ducks. And ducks need higher protein feed than chickens.

Turkeys and ducks have much the same problems and concerns, although they do need the same type of feed. Turkeys seem to suffer even more than chickens from wet conditions. It’s really not a good idea to raise them together in a brooder or keep ducks and turkeys in close confinement together. Once again in a barnyard, free range situation there should be little problem keeping ducks and turkeys together and these two species rarely fight.

Mixing turkeys and chickens creates other problems. Turkey poults, ( babies) and baby chicks need the same kind of brooder conditions. However turkey poults need a high protein feed to grow properly and avoid crippling leg problems. Meat chickens could share that feed but chickens that will be layers or pets should not.

Unfortunately chickens can carry a disease called Blackhead that does not affect them too much, but is deadly to turkeys. That is one reason experts don’t recommend mixing the birds, even though Blackhead is not a common disease anymore. If you are just raising some meat chickens and turkeys to butchering size keeping them together probably won’t be a problem if there is plenty of space.

Breeding turkeys can get aggressive with chickens and adult turkeys are known to eat the eggs of chicken hens. The hens will copy their behavior and soon you will not be getting eggs. The presence of large turkeys in close confinement with chickens seems to stress some hens, even though little fighting is seen. In a free range situation turkeys and chickens will get along well, although you still have to worry about Blackhead disease.

Turkeys and chickens will kill each others chicks if you are allowing natural breeding and hatching to occur in mixed flocks. Of course chicken hens will eat other hen’s chicks too. In confined housing turkeys tend to dominate roosts, nest boxes and feeding stations. This can be worked around if there are sufficient roosts, nest boxes and feeders but care must be taken so that no birds are being left out or becoming too stressed.

The bottom line is that in a pet situation where the birds roam freely in a large area mixing chickens, ducks and turkeys generally works out ok. You’ll want to make sure all the birds are getting enough feed and that any really aggressive birds are removed from the flock.

In confinement, in pens and shelters, it would be best to separate species, especially if you want to breed or show your birds. In brooders ducklings should be separated from chickens and turkeys and it would be best to raise only meat type chicks with turkey poults.

If you are raising rare and expensive turkeys you need to go the extra step and separate them entirely from chickens. In fact they should not be in pens or areas where chickens have been kept in the last year. This is to prevent Blackhead disease.

One more thing to mention. Chickens and turkeys do not mate freely and produce offspring. (Artificial mating and a few rare natural mating birds have produced odd, sterile offspring). The chickens with naked necks called Turkens are just a breed of chickens selected from a mutation that left a chicken without neck feathers. And while ducks may breed chicken hens from time to time, no offspring will occur.

Turkens Chicken Breed Page

http://www.backyardchickens.com/a/turkens-chicken-breed-page

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Posted 1/12/12 • Last updated 1/12/12 • 24,961 views • 0 comments







Turkens








Turkens or Transylvanian Naked Necks are a love or hate breed. There seems no middle ground for these strange chickens, people either love them or despise them. There are two types of Turkens, one recognized by the Standard of Perfection as a single comb chicken that lays brown colored eggs. There is also a breed with naked necks in Australia locally known as "Turkens". Those birds have pea combs and lay blue or green eggs.



It's mostly likely turkens originated in Hungary or Transylvania. Turkens were given their names because of their featherless necks. Their looks are so odd people believed that they were some kind of turkey/chicken mix. This isn't true as it's not possible for a turkey and chicken to have viable offspring.



The gene for the necked neck is dominant and will cause any first generation chickens with a different breed to have a naked neck. Two chickens that have Turken blood in them with full neck feathers will produce naked neck chicks. The Standard of Perfection recognizes Buff, Red, and White for the large Turkens in the Miscellaneous or Continental Class. But like most breeds different colors and patterns exist like black or barred feather patterns.



Turkens are a dual-purpose bird. Turkens lay between 120 and 180 medium/large brown-shelled eggs a year with very good food conversion. They don't generally weigh more than 8 pounds but some places use them as a meat bird. Turkens can get broody and tend to make good mothers.



Turkens are with both single combs and rose combs although the Standard of Perfection only recognizes the single combs. Combs get to a medium size while wattles and earlobes tend to be small. Their earlobe color seems to vary from a little white to red. I believe they are supposed to be red in color. They are cleaned legged, without beards or crests and have four toes. There are standard and bantam types of Turkens.

Turkens are active, hardy, mild-mannered birds. They are great foragers that would make very good free-range chickens and they deal with confinement well. They are resistant to disease. Turkens do well in hot and (surprisingly) cold weathers due to the lightness of their feathers.

If you can get over their looks I'd say they would make good pets.