How I Use Chickens and Ducks as Part of My Permaculture Design

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I’ve raised chickens off and on for years, but our first ducks came just a few years ago. That first year we had both together, I let them free-range side by side before I created a permaculture poultry system design. 

Part of the reason was practical — we’d had a horrible slug problem that wouldn’t quit, thanks to a summer of nonstop rain, and I figured the ducks would find the slugs faster than I would. 

And part of the reason was that I wanted to see what they’d do naturally without any boundaries.

As for the slug issue, it took me a while to figure out slugs were even the problem. I’d walk out into the garden during the day and find giant holes in my Swiss chard and lettuce, but no sign of anything actually living there. 

It wasn’t until I got home later than usual one evening — right at dusk — that I found out why. Slugs, everywhere, all over everything. That’s when I decided it was time to get ducks. And I’m so glad I did!

Let’s dive into how I use ducks and chickens together in my permaculture poultry system. (and grab your free chicken and duck garden rotation planner as well!)

Why I Don’t Treat Chickens and Ducks the Same on the Homestead

I ended up loving having ducks every bit as much as I love having chickens. But what I really learned that year wasn’t about which one I liked more… it was how genuinely different they are. The work each one does is different. How each one actually contributes to the homestead is different. I wouldn’t trade either one away for the other!

What I assumed before I actually watched them

I’d read a lot about keeping ducks with chickens (it’s totally okay to keep them in the same coop and run) and figured if they could live together that peacefully, they probably did similar things around the homestead too.

But that’s not exactly true.

As I mentioned, watching them was a huge eye opener to me on how they could each be best utilized on the homestead.

Looking at inputs and outputs

In permaculture, we look at the inputs and outputs of each element — in this case, chickens and ducks — and connect them to the inputs and outputs of everything else on the homestead.

What does this animal produce, and what need can it meet elsewhere? Eggs feed the family. Manure feeds the garden. And what does it need in return? Food, which the garden or pasture can often provide right back.

Once I started looking at chickens and ducks that way, as two elements with different inputs and outputs, the differences got a lot more obvious.

The biggest difference? How they treat the soil!

Chickens are far more disruptive to soil. Sometimes that’s exactly what I want — I use them to prep garden beds before planting. But sometimes it’s not what I want at all. If I don’t want a bed disturbed, ducks are the better choice. They’re still eating pests, just much more gently.

Let’s get into more detail on what each does.

The Jobs Each One Does in My System

As I mentioned, chickens and ducks do different jobs on the homestead. Here is what I’ve found to be true:

Where ducks fit into the permaculture poultry system

Ducks love slugs and snails, and they genuinely do better in wetter areas and love getting their feet wet while chickens really don’t. I’ve also noticed ducks seem to enjoy winter more than chickens do. On subzero days, if the sun’s out, they’ll tuck their feet into their feathers and just sit there sunning themselves, while the chickens huddle inside.

Ducks are much easier on garden beds since they don’t scratch the way chickens do.

In raised beds especially, they can do real pest control without much access to the actual vegetables — aside from the occasional stray Swiss chard leaf hanging over the edge.

And even when they do get into a bed, they won’t tear up plants the way chickens will.

Where chickens fit into the permaculture poultry system

Chickens, on the other hand, are great for garden bed prep. I’ve used them for many seasons to help start a new bed or lightly till and de-pest an old one.

They’re also useful for spreading compost, wood chips, or leaf mulch, and they’ll keep a space weed-free if you haven’t planted it yet.

Chickens go after grubs and bugs, while ducks prefer snails and slugs if they can find them. I don’t keep any large livestock like pigs or cows, but I’ve heard chickens will pick through manure for undigested grain if you do.

A little gross to think about, but a smart way to cut down on feed costs if it applies to your setup.

Learn more about chickens’ and ducks’ roles in garden pest control [link]

How I Sequence Them Through the Garden

Right now my chickens and ducks live together in the same coop and run, and here’s roughly how that plays out across a year.

Winter: Setting Up for Spring

Around November or December, depending on the weather and our first real snowfall, I move them to their wintertime spot. 

The coop and run sit in the backyard, far enough from the house to catch the sun, close enough that I’m not shoveling a huge path every morning. That spot also happens to sit right between my raised bed garden and my blueberry patch.

I use a movable electric fencing system, and I set it up so the raised bed garden is included in their fenced area over winter. 

(As a side note, electric fencing isn’t great in snow and requires some adaptation fro when you use it in warmer weather but that’s a topic for another day.)

That way, the moment spring hits, the chickens already have access to start prepping those beds — eating pests and weeds, doing some light tilling — without me having to move a thing.

Early Spring: Clearing What Pops Up First

Once the snow melts, the chickens go to work on whatever greens up first, which keeps the beds from getting overrun by fast-growing weeds before I’ve even planted. Ducks help too, though they usually don’t climb into the raised beds themselves — instead, they focus on keeping the paths clear.

This year, instead of the raised bed garden, I actually had them prepping a brand-new crop area. It’s a spot that used to have raised beds I’d torn down because they were falling apart. 

There wasn’t any sod to deal with, but there were plenty of weed seeds already sprouting, which the chickens made quick work of. Both the chickens and ducks stuck close by while I worked the soil open with a shovel and broadfork, snapping up bugs as I went.

April–May: Moving to the Blueberries (or a New Bed)

As it gets closer to planting time for cold-weather crops like carrots and beets, I move the fencing again. It’s usually to include the blueberry patch instead of the garden.

A few years back, that blueberry patch was completely overwhelmed by cleavers and other weeds. 

Cleavers are actually a great medicinal plant, but when they show up somewhere you don’t want them, they can do real damage. 

Mine were choking out the blueberries. 

I put the chickens and ducks in the patch for a season, and they cleared it out completely.

Chickens will scratch up whatever’s growing. Ducks won’t scratch, but they’ll eat the weeds directly and dig under mulch for bugs. Both of them love worms.

June: Protecting the Blueberries

If the birds are still in the blueberries by the time the bushes start to bloom, that’s my cue to move them somewhere else. Chickens will jump right up and eat the blossoms before the fruit has a chance to set, so I have to be vigilantl.

Through the Growing Season and Into Harvest

After that, they usually move out onto the grass, or into whatever spot I’m planning to turn into a garden bed the following year. 

Once harvest wraps up, I move them back to the garden or the blueberry patch, depending on what needs the most attention, and the whole cycle starts over again.

Ideas for Sequencing Chickens and Ducks through the Garden Separately

Though my chickens and ducks live together right now (and there are real benefits to that), I’ve been thinking about whether separating them could put their unique skills to work even more efficiently. Here are a few ideas I’m considering.

Rotating Chickens, Free-Ranging Ducks

One option would be to keep the chickens in a rotation like the one I described above — prepping beds in spring, closing beds down in fall — while letting the ducks free-range for ongoing pest control throughout the growing season. 

Come winter, they’d move back together into one winterized coop, mostly for ease of chores. 

Here in New Hampshire, we get plenty of snow, and a well-winterized coop matters. Water freezes fast, so having just one water source to manage through the cold months is a real help.

Of course, free-ranging always comes with some risk, so here’s another option I’ve considered.

Chickens in the Garden, Ducks Fenced Alongside

While chickens work a new garden space (or a paddock in a rotational system), ducks could live in a fenced area right next to whichever garden is currently growing vegetables. They’d still help with pest control and their water can be used to water the garden directly (duck manure is “cold,” so it can go straight onto beds without composting first.)

Ducks in the Orchard, Moving the Water Around

Another idea: keeping ducks in the orchard, with their pool moved to a different tree every few days. When it’s time to dump and clean the pool, that water goes straight to the tree and its companion plants instead of in a spot that doesn’t need any more water. Then I’d move the pool before that spot gets too muddy, and start the cycle again at the next tree.

This would only work if you could get fresh water to each location, of course, but it would be a great way to conserve water, fertilize, and make sure plants are watered in just one chore.

 Including Ducks and Chickens in a Rotational Grazing Loop

I don’t have personal experience running ducks and chickens through a rotation with larger livestock — cows, sheep, goats, pigs — since I’ve never kept animals like that myself. 

But I’ve talked to a lot of people who have, and here’s what I’ve taken away to think about for my own system, whenever (or if) I add larger animals down the road.

• Run poultry through after ruminants. Cows, sheep, and goats graze or browse forage down, which leaves behind shorter grass and a more open, accessible space for chickens or ducks to work.
• Follow pigs with chickens, not ducks. Pigs root and tear up the ground, and chickens are great at repairing that with their scratching. Duck feet don’t do as well on ground full of exposed roots, though, so it’s best to keep pigs and ducks separated in the rotation. One other thing is both ducks and pigs are already messy, mud-loving animals, and pairing them just compounds it.
• For clearing forest or brush before a new garden, layer the animals by job. Goats clear the brush, pigs uproot stumps and roots, and chickens finish it off — scratching and leveling whatever’s left behind.

I don’t have any of this in practice yet, but it’s exactly the kind of thing I love about permaculture design. You’re never just planning for the animals you have right now, you’re thinking several steps ahead, building a system flexible enough to grow into. 

If large livestock ever finds its way onto our land (and I hope they do!), chickens and ducks will already have a role waiting for them.

Where the Coop and Run Fit Into the Bigger Design

In my setup, chickens and ducks share one coop, and that coop moves through all the different parts of my garden system with them. A single shared coop works great for us, for the most part. 

Our A-frame chicken tractor sits in a winter location right in the middle of all our growing space, which makes it easy to shift the temporary electric fencing to enclose the coop plus whichever area they’re working — the raised bed garden, the blueberry patch, or the new crop garden. This makes it really easy to get water to the birds since they don’t go that far from the back door. 

I really love this setup, and I think it’s a great choice for beginners, since it works well even in small spaces and keeps fence-moving to a minimum. 

If you want to see exactly how I’ve built this out, I go much deeper on my full setup in my workshop, The Poultry Powered Garden.

Of course it’s not perfect though. 

I can’t separate the chickens and ducks to do different jobs, so I have to make sure wherever they are is safe for duck feet and their tendency to create mud, while also being dry enough for chicken feet and their tendency to scratch. This is one reason I’m considering how I might separate them, as I mentioned earlier.

Coop and Run Setup

If you’re ready to think about your poultry system setup, here are some things to consider:

• Do I want a stationary coop, or something I can move?
• Do I want to rely on electric netting so I can shift things easily, or would I rather build permanent rotational paddocks with fixed fencing?
• How will I keep the birds warm in winter (a well-built coop matters) and cool in summer (shade and plenty of water)?
• Would I prefer all the birds together for ease of feeding and watering? Or would I rather they be separate to use their unique skills better?

Whatever you choose, it’s smart to start with something you can move or change easily. Save permanent fencing and housing for after you’ve watched how you actually use the space, and how the animals interact with it.

 About three years will usually give you enough to go on before committing to anything permanent. One or two years could just be anomalies, but by year three, you can be pretty confident you know how you actually use the space. 

Predators and Safety in Permaculture Poultry Systems

As I’ve mentioned, free-ranging your birds does come with risk. Foxes, weasels, bears, hawks — whether you’re free-ranging or using fencing as part of a permaculture poultry system, there’s always more exposure than a fully enclosed coop and run would give you.

Some people accept that risk because they don’t want their birds cooped up in a small, stationary run. I tend to agree with that trade-off. But I also don’t want to lose my whole flock for no good reason, so here’s what we actually do to protect them out on pasture and while free-ranging.

• Roosters. They’re actually pretty great at sounding the alarm when something flies overhead, even if they don’t always distinguish a hawk or eagle from a songbird. Still, we’ve never had a successful aerial attack with a rooster on duty.
• Electric fencing. A fully enclosed run is more predator-proof, no question, but electric fencing does a lot of the work if you’re not ready to go that route. It won’t stop aerial predators, but it keeps skunks, raccoons, and other smaller animals out. It should also deter bears and foxes, as long as they make contact with the fence — though foxes are perfectly capable of jumping over it.
• Being home during the day helps too. We make a point of getting outside often throughout the day, at least during the warmer months.

I’m also considering a livestock guardian dog if we ever go back up to a larger flock (I consider large 20 to 30-plus birds). 

Part of it is just that I love the idea of caring for one more beautiful creature (no surprise there), but I’ve also heard they’re genuinely excellent at the job, and having one would let me keep poultry in more wooded, predator-heavy areas with a lot more confidence. 

Since I’m hoping we find our forever homestead soon, and I’d love for it to be wooded, that’s exactly the kind of setup a guardian dog would make possible.

From Keeping Animals to Designing a System

There’s a real mindset shift that happens once you start looking at homesteading through a regenerative permaculture lens. For me, it meant going from feeling a little overwhelmed by everything I had to care for, to genuinely excited about building systems that mostly run themselves. 

Figuring out systems that make life easier — and the homestead more productive — is honestly one of my favorite parts of this whole thing.

If you want to learn how to build your own permaculture poultry system, so your chickens and ducks can do real work in the garden, and you can grow more food with less effort, that’s exactly what I walk through in my workshop, The Poultry-Powered Garden: Designing with Chickens & Ducks in a Permaculture System.

Curious about how I use chickens and ducks on my homestead? Check out these posts:

• Chickens vs. Ducks for Pest Control in the Garden (Plus Best Breeds!)
• 5 Herbs for Chickens (and Ducks!) I Grow Every Year
• Why I Keep Chickens and Ducks Even Though I Don’t Sell or Eat the Eggs
• How to Introduce New Chickens (Without Too Much Trouble)
• How to Tell a Rooster From a Hen