Aviary birds with chickens

[tlck9]

I had a thought today as the hubby is building a new run for our chucks just over7m by 2.4 it will be covered. The mess is 25mm & is going to have a plastic wind stopper on the worst side (back)for incoming weather. Height 2.4 to 2m.

Anyway my question can aviary birds be kept with chickens. Would my chucks kill these birds, would there poop cause any problems to the chucks and food is there any issues.

[RichmondHens]

My feeling is that they are best kept apart. Poo would certainly get in drinkers etc and what happens when you want to let the chooks out? How would you keep the aviary birds in? And it is perfectly possible for a chicken to attack a smaller bird, although they would have to be very quick. Also I suspect the chooks would probably hoover up any spilt feed from the aviary birds and maybe not eat enough of their own.

[petal]

although I do remember reading a story about someone who kept parrots with her chickens in practical poultry.?

[pauco]

Not a good mix, but thats just an opinion.


paul.

[tlck9]

although I do remember reading a story about someone who kept parrots with her chickens in practical poultry.?

Yes I think I had seen this, I thought I would ask opinions as th hubby felt the chucks would kill them. I will stick to chucks & poss put my footers into a couple of ducks.

Cn u keep just 2 ducks or is it like chucks, min of 3

[DuncanM]

My dad has aviary birds with chickens, zebra finches, canaries, diamond doves and some Australian weavers. The chickens were hatched by him and have grown up in that environment (not sure if that helped). There used to be some Japanese quails in there too but a stoat or rat got all of them a few years ago. The quails were the only ones that got picked on, albeit not very often - if you make plenty of height restricted area only big enough for the quails they will always have a safe haven if needed.

The quails and the chickens Hoover up any spare aviary seed, which as a mixture of seeds I wouldn't have thought harmful to the chooks?

However the chickens have to be seen to be believed... They roam free in the garden for most of the daylight hours, and are incredibly domesticated. They will follow my dad around the garden, sit on his knee or shoulder when he's relaxing by the chimnea or sprint (think the hilarious advert from the happy egg co) whenever he calls them with a kind of clicking sound. Because of this the chooks actually call out each morning and hover around the aviary door to be let out each morning, which is very easy to open and let them out, any birds nearby are easy to send to the other side with a light tap on the mesh. That being said... Some vandals broke a piece off one time, and a few zebras escaped, my dad has tried many a time and tactic (but failed every time) in catching them, but it's nice to see them living in the wild and they usually come back to the aviary and garden most days for food and to see "family".

Also to note there are 2 dogs roaming round the garden, a jack Russell/terrier cross and a beagle cross all get along fine.