different breeds of poultry

[lavandulagirl]

How many different kind of fowl do you keep together? Do you let your turkeys, guineas, ducks and chickens together? I am having thoughts about getting a turkey or two, some ducks and maybe guineas, but they would have to be able to range with the hens. And what about housing? Do your guineas ever enter a coop? I'd be thrilled to keep the tick population down this summer, but I don't want to feed the neighborhood foxes well for a week, and then have no guineas.

[ozarklady]

I have had no luck at all with guineas. When I get guineas, they won't stay home, and neighbors ate them, human neighbors. Then another neighbor got guineas, and I was nice enough to call them to come get their guineas, and they did, over and over, finally they just sold them. For this area, they are good at keeping bugs down for everyone but the owner!

The other fowl seem to do fine. If you go for the smaller breeds that can fly, they can evade alot of predators. Also a good dog helps alot.
Provide some shelter that they can run under when aerial predators are about, this includes by day, when hawks are flying. We have alot of large eagles here, so we have to really be sure of the shelters.
My muscovey ducks are tree dwellers, and they even prefer to nest on rooftops, barn loft, anywhere up high, but my son had muscoveys nest on the ground. So, they go wherever.
It is common to see baby muscoveys raining off the top of buildings, doesn't seem to hurt them, they hit the ground running!
Geese are pretty much vegetarians, they mostly eat grass. So they won't help much in bug getting, but they are good at running off some predators, and folks, and they are good at alerting you to problems.
Ducks tend to eat larger bugs than fleas and ticks, but they do get along well with chickens.
You could get quackers and muscoveys, and just make sure they are light weight and can fly. The muscovey drakes tend to get too heavy to fly.
Duck eggs taste like chicken eggs, just larger and a bit tougher.

[bluelacedredhead]

Ozark, your muscovies roost in trees? I raised in the area of 1,000 muscovies and I don't think I've ever seen one roost in a tree? Mind you, we had a hole in the foundation of one of the poultry barns and they all hid under there to nest or to sleep, so perhaps that was a factor on our farm? They seldom flew anywhere, although they certainly were capable.

Lav, I never kept the turkeys and chickens separate, except for sleeping quarters and during turkey breeding in spring. I had an overly aggressive tom that killed a rooster during breeding season one year. Otherwise, they coexisted with few problems.

There is a school of thought that believes that Marek's Disease in chicks can be prevented by raising turkeys and chickens together.

I had tears in my eyes tonight when I drove past a sign at a local feedstore sign advertising to Order Chicks and Ready-to-Lay Pullets now...I miss my fowl but life goes on...

[ozarklady]

Here is what Wikki says under Muscovey ecology:
Feral Muscovy Ducks can breed near urban and suburban lakes and on farms, nesting in tree cavities or on the ground, under shrubs in yards, on condominium balconies, or under roof overhangs.

And from www.domestic-waterfowl.co.uk/mozzie.htm They say this:
The ideal back yard meat breed lays / breeds well / tastes good/ lives well with dogs and other animals / will roost in trees if allowed ( no locking away at night) This site also talks about the personalities of these ugly critters. My desk is in front of a window, next to a roof to an outbuilding, and they fly up to peck on the glass, begging for food, or to say hi.

My muscoveys are big pets, but they still prefer the rooftops to sleep or nest. The drakes are too heavy to fly up there, but the hens do. They flew up on the gazebo tonight, looked disgusted at the snow and flew back off, apparently they aren't crazy about snow on their rooftop. I wish they wouldn't roost on a roof in the open, since owls are also common here. Maybe I should simply make them a nest box there with a roof over it, for their protection.

My son's muscovy's are also pets, but they prefer to find a cubby hole to hide in to nest or sleep. They just have personality and preferences.

I do also have runner ducks and black swedes and they also are intelligent animals, but not flyers. They can fly, they just choose not to.

[lavandulagirl]

BLRH - The issue I heard re:turkeys and chickens together was blackhead? That it was a problem for the turkeys, I guess, but not so much for chickens. What about the presence of wild turkeys? We have a flock of 1 male and 4 hens that are often roaming around our house. Would they pose a problem to domesticated ones? OL - I think Runners are probably the breed I'd get. I do not want active flyers, really. A friend of mine has Muscovys, and they're lovely, but she does sometimes find them on her neighbor's roof, and she has 5 acres. I have one acre, and at least one set of awful neighbors. I have a good sized shed as a coop, so best case scenario would be my five hens are joined by a turkey or two, and a couple ducks. I am thinking of making a seperate enclosure for the ducks, only because of the mess I've heard they make with water and food, etc. Plus, then I could give them their own little swimming area.

Thanks, ladies!

[mjc]

Mar 21, 2010 12:30:59 GMT -5 lavandulagirl said:

What about the presence of wild turkeys? We have a flock of 1 male and 4 hens that are often roaming around our house. Would they pose a problem to domesticated ones?

Only during the breeding season...the wild tom may try to add the domestic hens to his harem. Or fight the domestic tom for the 'territory'.

A neighbor lost a couple of hens a few years back to a wild tom (not sure what bread they were), but now we have some rather large wild turkeys running around here...that like veggie gardens, but fortunately they like buckwheat better.

[ozarklady]

My caution would be this: A neighbor often bred chicks and sold them at the livestock auction. She had many incubators and was really into it. It was one of her major income sources. She also had parrots inside her house, and raised hens to sell eggs.
I personally bought alot of hens, and ducks from her.
Then, somewhere she got a turkey.
Apparently not from a good source. The turkey got sick, and nothing was helping it. When it died, she got a sample and sent it off to see what she had there.
It came back as bad news, and the government came and destroyed every bird and egg on the premises. She was compensated about 10 cents on the dollar for her birds.
I have to inject here, Tyson has alot of chicken houses, and if you are within so many miles, as the crow flies, and disease is found in your birds, you lose them all, including the parrot in the house.
It probably was not the turkey's fault, or the breed. But just be really careful where you buy poultry, it can cost you every bird and egg that you have! I do not know what the disease was, and the government did not try to track birds that she had sold, but they now test all birds sold at local livestock auctions.

[mnjrutherford]

We sill be getting guineas a little later on. They will have a sort of "coral" that will have some tree branch poles for roosting and a sheet of roofing over one side. The idea is that they will be allowed to range during the day and then be kept in the coral at night. They will also be on the garden side of the property and the chickens are on the creek side of the property. We'll have to see how this all plays out when reality sets in...

The chicks are looking pretty good so far... teenagers you know...

[bluelacedredhead]

Lav, I never had issue with Blackhead. If I may quote from an eggcellent book by G.T. Klein, Poultry Husbandryman for the U of MA, 1946. reprinted by GardenWay publishing 1972.

"the small roundworm of chickens is a host that carries the Blackhead organism and makes possible the completion of it's lifecycle. It is for this reason that Authorities have cautionedagainst the raising of turkeys and chickens on the same premises. It does not mean that turkeys and chickens cannot be raised at the same time, but it does mean that precautions are necessary.
... It is only when these organisms become increase tremendously in numbers that the infection becomes great enough to cause the symptoms of the disease. To prevent this, turkey growers are using sunporches with wire or slatted bottoms. The organisms that are in the droppings, fall through this open floor and the danger of reinfecting other birds is elminated...."

Klein goes on the suggest that the turkeys range on a different area than chickens do.
Also, Deworming is very important. Whether you choose to use synthetic dewormers or natural source dewormers, matters not IMO. Just that it is practiced to prevent crosscontamination.

Plans for a turkey sunporch are found in Klein's book as well as another Gardenway book, Raising Your Own Turkeys by Leonard S. Mercia.

We used a turkey sunporch 3 seasons of the year from 1995 until 2008. We modified the original plans by using a heavy gauge wire instead of chickenwire after coons had several birds for dinner.

[bluelacedredhead]

Ozark, Do you know what the Disease was the brought the Authorities to destroy your neighbours flock? The only disease that I've been aware of in recent years to cause eradication of a flock is Avian Influenza; pretty powerful stuff.

[ozarklady]

I honestly don't know what the illness was, it was some kind of long name, not something simple like Avian Flu. But, then again, you know how doctors and scientists use the long name and not our simple forms, to make sure there is no misunderstanding.
I do recall the turkey was sick for quite awhile, and yet, nothing else showed the illness, and Rita was pretty upset saying, only weakened animals could have gotten it. So, she disagreed with the action taken, but couldn't fight it. What I find interesting, Rita sold poultry during all the time that she had the turkey, and yet, they did not check the auction records and contact the purchasers of her poultry. I had bought animals at the auction, as well as, at her house during this time, so I expected to hear from them... nothing, and no sickness. And I did sell some poultry after this, because they test there, and I wanted to know if my flock had it, they were all clear. So it is odd. But, be picky where you buy poultry.

[Alan]

I have in the past kept Chickens, Turkeys, and Guineas together. I never had an issue at all with blackhead or anything like that. One small outbreak of Fowl Pox which was no big deal is all.

That being said, I liquidated my chicken flock simply because of the threat of black head to my (in my mind) much more important turkey flocks.

My guineas and turkeys share two coops together, ironically it is the turkeys who don't want to go into the coop at night and not so much the guineas.

If you raise guineas from keets and move them to their house and force them to stay in it for a couple of weeks they won't range as much, that said however, guineas barely really qualify as a "domestic" bird and I would only advise them for someone with a lot of space for them to explore. Our guineas range over about 20 acres of our 40 acre farm if that says anything. The turkeys range over about five acres or so, if that.

The nice thing about turkeys and guineas is my feed cost is extremely low because they are such efficient foragers for their size, they also are quite able of taking care of themselves for the most part other than "trotting" the turkeys into their coop at night.

I would never advise anyone to buy any broadbreasted turkeys for any reason. They are terribly unhealthy.

For small numbers of birds it would be ok to keep them together as long as the advice blue gave is adheared to is followed, keep them well wormed and keep the coop clean, eliminate any and all sick birds and be very careful of who you buy from.

[Alan]

Also, advice on my behalf regarding guineas.

If you have a lot of space raise a ton of guineas during the "fat months" of the year when the weather is nice. My guineas tend to stay outside all summer long, roosting in trees and nesting and hatching eggs in out of the way places, their numbers increase dramatically as long as you can cathc the keets and put them somewhere they will stay warm and dry. The trick is to produce enough guineas that you don't have to worry too much about them in the summer as they will take care of themselves and not eat much grain at all, this all equates to money made and money saved as guinea keets locally sell from 3-5 dollars each and adult guineas 8-10 dollars each, plus in the fall you can harvest a ton of freezer meat which cost virtually nothing to produce.

[seedywen]

The driveway into our little farmstead, bisects our property into three acres and seven acres. On the three acres, I board a small flock of sheep and muscovies plus a couple of older heritage hens and the parental Appleyard ducks. On the other side, live the dairy goats in an area by themselves and silver appleyard ducks that mingle with the new heritage chicken flock. Generally this makes for a peace in the animaldom:)

Am trying to generally keep the new generations of bird separate from their elders as a gesture towards disease prevention along with diet, exercise, cleanliness, worming etc. The chickens drink from the the kiddie's wading pools that serve for both drinking and bath water for both groups of ducks. I didn't really like the chickens having to drink from muddied water but over the years it hasn't really proven to be a problem.

A trickle of water flows into both pools continually so it starts out in the morning quite clear but by the evening, I often lift the pools and dump them to clear the sludge from the bottom. One side of the duckdom free ranges in the three acres all day and the other side only gets outside a large pen for two hours in the morning and two hours in the evening.

We've got bears, cougars, raccoons, eagles etc. as potential predators 24/7 which tends to put all the animals more at risk than disease, which has been fairly minimal over the years.

[flowerpower]

Lav, I haven't had any problems with the ducks and hens together. But I do not give the ducks any water bowls at night. They make a huge mess since every water bowl is a pond to them. The chicken waterer is on a platform above the ducks' sight line. They could easily jump up there, but maybe "out of sight, out of mind".

My Muscovey hen doesn't fly that much. She is still young though, less than a yr. I'd say she's b/t 6-8 lbs. I doubt she'll try to sleep in a tree. That bird is the first one in the coop at dusk. She knows where the corn is. lol There are so many wild Muscovey in North Carolina that they round them up and adopt them out.

I would never send a sick bird for a necropsy. That's just asking for trouble. I live way too close to a federally protected wetland. Part of it is considered a waterfowl breeding area. I believe it was CFF that mentioned the SSS system. That stands for "Shoot , Shovel & Shut Up". Our local livestock auction has not carried birds for a few yrs now. Since the avian flu outbreak.