# Chickens with goats?



## kelebek (Oct 5, 2007)

Last night I was given 6 laying hens and 2 roosters (yes, of course, hubby doesn't know yet!!! LOL!)

I am supposed to pick them up tonight. She said that with a heat light they lay about 3-4 eggs a day and they are extremely tame and social. They were her babies. I was one of many people that responded to her add and she chose us. She is giving me everything - cage to transport, feed, books, mite powder, everything that she has for them.

This was the add that she placed

These chickens don't want to be in your pot. They are show chickens(silkies, puffed polish...) They're very friendly and come when you call them. They love to sit on the back porch and walk to the nieghbor's house. They've never known what its like to live in a cage. I have about 6 females, who do lay eggs and 2 roosters, one of which is named David Bowie because of his crazy hairstyle. They want to go to a caring person who won't cook them and will put a heat lamp and cedar chips out for the winter and trim their nails. If you can't tell, they're very spoiled but I'm moving out of country and can't take them with me. I'd like to send them together because arranging several pickups for 1 or 2 chickens can get hectic. 

When she called to talk to me - she was so nice! Anyway - I am going to put a shelf up when I get home tonight to put their food and nesting area up where the goaties can't get the food - but is there anything else I need to watch for?


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## Amos (Oct 2, 2008)

We always have chickens in our goat barn, except in the winter, because they get out in the chicken house.

I, personally, hate having chickens in the goat barn, as much as I love chickens. They roost on the gates, hay bunk, milk stand, and anywhere else. Chickens like to have a desinated spot to roost each night, so a pile of poop will accumulate. They often poop in the hay, lay eggs in it, which the goats crack. Our milk stand get covered in poop, so we have to always bring a little rug to put on the stool, so we didn't sit in it. All of the poop doesn't affect the milk as long as the goats don't have poop on their udders of course, but a couple times the goat have had their head or backs pooped on. I'm sure you could teach the chickens to roost in a certain spot, but we just have too many. 

I hope you enjoy them! They really are great animals to have around, just my personal preferance to have them away from the goats.

remember to post pictures!


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## toth boer goats (Jul 20, 2008)

I agree with...Amos...
chickens drive me nuts when they are roosting..... in the barn...poopin on everything....laying eggs....everywhere............you find them ....they find another spot....months later you finally find the nest spot of many eggs.... they continue to hide the eggs again and again.......they get into the goats grain... eating it all.....the goats step on their toes breaking them sometimes... :hair: ..I got so tired of the chickens being loose, that I told DH ....they better get penned up or they have to go......well DH built a chicken coop....... .........We let them out once in a while after feeding the goats their grain..and they have laid their eggs...that I can find now......then they go back into their coop by themselves at night ........
I have never used a heat lamp for my chickens.....and had eggs popping out everywhere......... :shrug:


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## SDK (Jun 26, 2008)

i've got mine in a coop i built, i don't let chickens run loose with any livestock

the one year the highschool had chickens running loose our steer all got cocci, the pigs got worms bad

thankfully i had high enough fences they couldnt get in with the goats


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## Epona142 (May 26, 2008)

I do run my chickens and goats in the same large pen, but the chickens have their own little house only they can get into, where they roost and lay their eggs in nest boxes. I love chickens, but yeah they do poop just about everywhere!


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## whatknott (Feb 22, 2008)

well, your first problem is that silkies are a ground bird and do not roost - so they will never find the shelf for the food. You will need to find a place to put your chickens so the goats don't eat the chicken food. I love my silkies as they do not fly out pens and I can use them in our petting zoo because they are friendly, sociable and won't try to find the nearest tree to escape to.


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## Amos (Oct 2, 2008)

Silkies can fly and will roost, just not 'high' high. If they can, they will hop from spot to spot until they are high enough to their liking. One of our silkies roosts on the top of a full scale dog kennel. As for the Polish, they will also roost wherever they can to their liking. Some of our Polish like to roost in a tree above our goat shed, a good 15 feet from the ground.

EDIT:
Also, not sure about the cocci thing that SDK mention, but other than that the goats and chickens shuld be relatively safe. Our goats hate it when some of the chickens are in their pen, they will chase after them and butt them around, so that may be a problem, and stepping on the chickens, I'm not sure how big your goats are, but like Pam mentioned, broken toes. One of our German Spitzbaun hens broke her leg cause one of the Nubians trampled her, but shes fine now.
I would definitly keep their mite powder away from the goats. Wouldn't want a goat snacking on that. We haven't used mite powder for our chickens in years, a pan of dirt for dusting works great to get rid of mites.


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## whatknott (Feb 22, 2008)

hm-m-m my silkies don't roost - they sit on the floor at night. I've had some poor quality silkies that will fly out of their petting zoo pens, but as long as I've got purebred silkies, they do not try to roost. Only ever had one polish and she plain stupid! but hung out with the silkies.


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## Amos (Oct 2, 2008)

Oh, I didn't mean flying, I said hopping, they will hop from place to place. The kennel that our rooster roosts on is surrounded with plum, apricot, and cherry trees, he will find a low branch, and hop from branch to branch until he finds 'the one', in this case, the kennel. Our meat and heavy breeds that get out of their pen do the same thing.

Ok, I did mean flying, but they don't fly high, like say, a polish.


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## Sybil (Dec 21, 2007)

WOW...my silkie roosts with the rest of them......on top of my feeder!


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## RunAround (Feb 17, 2008)

I have the chickens and goats out in the same pen during the day. But at night the chickens have their own coop. They can be such a pain! The poo everywhere! They lay eggs in the hay feeders and then the goats step on them and the egg goes everywhere!

If I could I wouldn't have the chickens and the goats together. Chicken feed is what almost killed Maxinne. She got into the chicken coop and ate tons of chicken food. So I guess I'm just nervous about that now. 

But I do love the fresh eggs! I just wish I had a coop and pen separate to make things easier and less stressful.


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## StaceyRosado (Oct 5, 2007)

depending on the number of chickens you may want to give them a separate area. 

I had one chicken with my goats and I enjoyed her being there but more then 2 would have drove me NUTS as she pooped so much and it was ALWAYS on the hay --beings that I stack it and they have to up high on things. 

If they cant get to your storage of hay then thats good. 

Chickens are great to have with the goats in the spring and summer -- they eat flies and bugs and maggots and keep the hay aired. But watch those water buckets --- at least they arent as bad as ducks though :hair: 

Good luck -- chickens can be a lot of fun


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## Amos (Oct 2, 2008)

Your so right Stacey, we keep a couple Muscovy ducks aroud for fly control, they leave the water muddy unless we use tall buckets


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## Cinder (Mar 3, 2008)

I was a chicken lover and haver before I was able to have goats. I always advocate that chickens are locked up at night in a secure coop to keep them safe from predators. That also keeps most of their poop under their roosts - chickens poop more at night than during the day. Having it all in one spot makes it really easy to clean up.

Silkies can roost higher than the floor, they just usually like to be on the floor. That's another good reason to make sure they are locked up at night securely. Even a skunk can grab them when they are on the floor. Having said that my Silkies actually like to roost up higher than the floor so I made a ramp up to the roost area for them. They then jump from roost to roost to get higher. I had one Silkie Roo that would roost up on the 7 ft. roost every night - he had to fly four feet from another roost to get there. My Silkies are not show birds so it's possible that this really does make a difference.

Polish and Silkies can have a very hard time seeing because of the feathers over their eyes. Thus, they are more prone to be taken by hawks or other predators. So, keeping them safe can be more of a challenge if they don't have other chickens to alert from. This is a good reason to have a Rooster of another breed (if you can have or want a roo) as they are usually great at watching for danger.

I keep my hay covered so that the chickens cannot poop on it when they are in the barn. That's when you tend to get health issues with other animals... chicken poop in their feed.

It is critical that your goats do not get into the chicken feed. Just a little shouldn't hurt them, but they can get very sick or worse if they get into chicken feed. I found it a real challenge to figure out how to keep my ND's out of the chicken feed. It became a husband vs. goat challenge... my husband finally won! I do keep my ND's in my chicken run so they are together all the time (except at night when the chickens are locked inside the coop) and then they also get to free range all afternoon when the chickens are let out.

I keep my chickens locked in their coop/run at night and in the morning. Then, around lunch time I let them out to free range the rest of the day. They always go back to their coop to roost at night. That also helps because most of my girls lay their eggs in the nest boxes by then and the rest of them know to come back to the nest boxes to lay their eggs in the afternoon. Only occasionally does one lay in the barn, I think they get so busy they are like a little kid who waits too long to go potty and thus wets his/her pants. The hen realizes she has to lay NOW and is too far from the nest boxes so she finds a quicky place in the barn and pops out that egg. I do have one hen that was raised with Guineas and learned she can fly out of the six foot run and goes into the barn to lay her egg every day! Thankfully, she uses the same nest in there so I just check there for her egg every day. Silly girl. I'm thinking of clipping her wings.

Chickens are great... I love to go out at night and watch chicken and goat TV!


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## Julie (Oct 6, 2007)

> the one year the highschool had chickens running loose our steer all got cocci


this was not due to your chickens ... cocci is "species specific" ... I mean for instance - chickens can't pass cocci to cows, and cows can't pass cocci to goats, and so forth. It only works out to where chickens can pass cocci to other chickens, and cows to other cows - only within that specific species. I never knew this before - but my vet assured me that this is how cocci works when I was having problems with cocci in my goats and had to have my vet out for a farm visit.

I have a chicken in with my goats and cats, pony etc. I do have a chicken coop where MOST of my chickens stay - but one day when we left them all loose to roam the yard for a few hours, we went to put them all back in the coop and THOUGHT they were all there. Next morning I found out that I had a hen in my barn that we missed, I just left her in there ever since. I don't mind her. She DOES poo all over everything though ! :hair: The goat pen gates have poo on, my feed table has poo in one spot (she seems to like to poo right on my big book of records, etc.) my rabbit hutch has poo on. But it's not unbearable ... YET ! If it gets to the point I can't bare it ... I'll just stick her back in the coop with the others.

Also - if they're just loose in your goat barn, don't forget about those eggs ... they'll be laying them all over the barn (unless you train them in nesting boxes). And if they're around the goats ... more than likely the goats will smoosh most of them unless the chickens will have a place to nest/lay away from the goats. Also - Cats will eat the eggs sometimes.

I'm no expert on chickens ... that's for sure. This is just what I have experienced, etc. I would'nt have more than one chicken in my barn ... I don't even know if I can bare the one I do have in there. The chicken coop is where I like my chickens to stay. But that's all a matter of preference. If ya don't mind all the POO ... then it wouldn't be a big deal. Also - I can testify to the whole water bucket thing ... if you have big water buckets, it's a possiblity you chickens will end up inside of them and drown themselves. I have big water buckets, but I also have a big wide container (not so deep) and the chicken in my barn drinks from that and luckily doens't bother the other big (deep) buckets. I have had a chicken die in my pony's big bucket/trough. And my cousin lost like 7 chickens due to them drowning in water buckets ! So watch for that if you do keep them in with your goats.

My chickens love my goats, and my goats don't seem to mind my chickens. My chickens like to roost ON my goats sometimes ... lol. Anyway, good luck !


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## capriola-nd (Jul 6, 2008)

We have two pet hens living with our three pygmy goats. Never had any problems with parasites or anything. I would actually think that chickens would prevent worm problems because they eat all kinds of bugs. :shrug: I have no idea, but we haven't had worm problems with them living with our goats. 

I don't like them living with our goats but I wouldn't mind it if they had a chicken pen to sleep and lay eggs in (they rarely lay anymore because they're 4+ years old). But what really irritates me is when they lay eggs in the hay bag! :hair: That's annoying. 

So, I would see if you can make at least a small chicken pen that they can eat, lay eggs, and roost (if that's what this breed does).

My grandpa made really nice chicken pens that are move-able. I'll try to draw it up real quick. . . .


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## FunnyRiverFarm (Sep 13, 2008)

I agree with a lot of what's been said--there's no reason you can't keep the chickens and goats together (unless your goats try to trample them or something)...it's more a matter of personal preference. That said, personally...I can't stand having the chickens in the goat shed for the same reason most people said--they poop on everything! 

My goats don't pay any attention to the chickens, for the most part...but they are terrible about trying to get into the chicken food, so watch out for that. I have to go through the goat shed to get into the chicken coop so the goats always try to follow me in there. I try to only put enough chicken food in there for a day or so...just incase the goats figure out how to open the door.


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## kelebek (Oct 5, 2007)

Just to let you all know - we decided not to get the chickens. DH was really worried about scrambled eggs because we tore down the coups - and wouldn't have time to make any for a couple weeks. He was also worried about our old horse chasing them and squishing them. (she likes to chase little things and stomp them when she gets in a mood).

So oh well - once the coup is built in spring then I can get some!


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## toth boer goats (Jul 20, 2008)

It is better that you wait ........when you are ready for them..  ..good luck when your are ready... :thumbup:


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