# Chickens and goats together



## tiggers (Jan 25, 2016)

We are creating a small yard at the back of our property about 220m2 (720 feet sq) to keep a couple of goats and some chooks (Australian for chickens ) in. We have the goats in a separate temporary yard and have not got the chooks yet. The problem is that we want to put some "stuff" in the yard for the chickens to scratch around in as we know from past experience that chickens tend to turn anything into a dustbowl in weeks if they don't have some straw and other vegetation to scratch around in. I have started making a pile of weeds, garden scraps and old hay/straw in the middle of where the new yard will be. Our concern is the health of the goats. We know that we have to be more careful what we feed the goats compared to the chickens and that they can have problems especially if things go mouldy, but we want the chickens to have something other than bare dirt. We will keep the food separate (in the chook house for the chickens so the goats can't get it) and we have a hopper to keep the hay clean for the goats. What about the ground though? What is safe to keep around on the ground for both chickens and goats? Thanks everyone!  Mark


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## deerbunnyfarm (Dec 14, 2015)

I want to follow...


We just have grass. Lol. It got really muddy this winter so we laid down a thick layer of straw over about a quarter acre of it to reseed and keep them out of the mud if they felt like exploring. Other than that, our chickens just scratched around in the grass. The one dusty area they made was for their own health; dust baths keep chickens clean and cool, and help with mites/lice and such.


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## windswept (Oct 26, 2015)

My goats and chickens co mingle during the day. The chickens have their own pen and coop but a small hole in the fence between lets the chickens have run of both pens/paddocks. I find it works better than always letting the chickens out to free range since we have predators of all sorts. The goats are like guardians and nothing messes with the herd queen. At dusk the hens go in by themselves or I call them back to the coop and give them a treat once inside. This works pretty well for us. I only have 7 goats and 8 hens.


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## GodsGarden (Feb 6, 2015)

hhuummm. I had roosters in with my goats for a while. One of my goats would go rooster bowling, lol, was the funniest thing. But they were mean so didn't mind. 

My goats won't eat anything off the ground. Well like if I pluck a weed, that they would eat normally, and toss it in the goat pen they will only eat the pieces that don't touch the ground. Kitchen scraps they only ever eat out of a bucket. They are clean freaks. Dirt touches anything they won't eat it. Maybe your goats are the same and won't touch what you put out for the chickens?


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## ShireRidgeFarm (Sep 24, 2015)

Anything I put on the ground for the chickens my goats will eat. Usually it's old hay to make a path over the snow in the winter, so it's the kind of stuff they eat anyway. Different clippings from around the yard might be a problem if you happen to throw in something that would be poisonous for goats, like trimmings from an ornamental plant or something like that. Just as long as you don't give them anything strange, I expect the goats will eat some and the chickens will eat some, and then kick the rest of it around.


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## Laney3535 (Jun 25, 2012)

We turned one of our stalls into a chicken coop with fully enclosed walls. And the door opened into the Community pen. Then we cute a small hole in the wall to go outside into a chicken run, a place where the chickens could go, but goats couldn't. And we fed them in there so the goats couldn't get in there hahaha. But they love very well with the goats. I have a polish who sits on my goats and picks stuff off of them hash.


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## tiggers (Jan 25, 2016)

*Thanks everyone!*

Thanks everyone for your kind thoughts and replies, so very helpful. We'll be finishing the enclosure this week, so we'll put the goats in first and see what they do. I'll post some pictures up if there is somewhere to do that?
Best all!
Mark


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## Clarebear12345 (Dec 2, 2015)

My chickens live with (and love!) my goats, my goat Bibi used to be with chickens all the time at her old home and there is this one chicken that always hangs out with her. They live together, drink water together and eat the same food.


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