Thinking of ducks

[couttleberry]

I am thinking of hatching some khaki campbells.

So far I only have chickens and am just coming up to hatch day for my first lot of eggs.

I have a few questions.

1) Will ducks need a separate house?

2) Are they hard to incubate? I have an Octagon 10 which isn't great for regulating humidity.

3) Am I right in thinking that Khakis are one of the best for keeping alongside chickens and if you have no pond?

Thank,
Claire

[littlefeathers]

Hi Claire, the only advice i can give you is go for it, i hatched 3 ducks in a little 6 egg covatutto thing, my first ever hatch. Duckmad will be the one to offer you some advice, they make great pets
mandy

[madcat]

hi clair ,well we keep ducks and chucks togeather and as long as theres enough room for perches and the ducks to sleep away from the perches on the floore they tend to get on well as long as you put water outside the pen not in it as ducks are messy little critters lol u may need to clean your waters out more offten with ducks than chooks , but as little feathers sais there great pets so ide say give it ago . lots off people have ducks that dont have ponds and carkys should be fine with no pond and there great first time ducks to so good choice ide say . duckmad will be online in a bit and she will fill u in on what u need to know , madcat

[duckmad]

hi clare
khakis are great for first time duck keepers and great layers as well, they could live with the chickens if the house is large enough but they are quite messy and poop alot so if you want to keep the chicken house clean put the ducks somewhere else, but there is nothing to stop you having live together during the day as they will get on fine, ours all do.
dont worry about the incubator as long as you can keep the temp steady till the last 3 days and then just flood the incubator and get the humidity as high as you can, they should hatch.
it is a myth that ducks need a pond, they like water yes but will live quite happily without a pond, even a washing up bowl is enough as long as they can get there heads under the water so splash there backs that is enough water, you might want to put some stone or something with good drainage around the water though as they will splash and puddle it very quickly
if you have any other questions please ask.
duckmad