Horses and chickens mixing

[cindydj]

My chickens LOVE the horse barn a few even tend to roost in the rafters instead of their house. When I feed the horses their ellets those chickens are right under their feet. Those chickens learn to get out of their way pretty fast. One of our horses will play with the chickens and scoot them along with his nose....I used to have a really spooky horse and at first the chickens about scared him to death....then one day I went in the barn and there was one sitting on his back.....

 

[FarmLady]

Hi,

I've 20 horses, 20 some free range bantams, 2 ducks, 3 barn cats, and 2 German Shepherds and all seem to get along fine. (Not exactly true...Cats are afraid of the chickens. If the chicks go near their kibble they'll back away. Dogs are getting better with chicks, but I still have one that likes to "play" with them. The chicks don't know she just wants to play!)
The chicks come running when we feed the horses. They know exactly which ones drop the most sweet feed.
I had one quarter horse who came down with lime, and one hand raised bantam that were best buddies. Phoenix roosted on Big Boys back every night, no problem.
I think have a variety of different animals helps everyone to become more social.
Even the boarders don't seem to mind them.
As long as you keep all area's clean, you should be fine.

Good Luck


Patti

 

[seminolewind]

someone told me that chicken feces in the paddock will give the horses salmonella thru their feet. Anyone heard this?

 

[RockinCircleC]

Quote:
Um, I don't think that's quite right...maybe the salmonella (ingested through eating chicken-feces-tainted feed) contributes to laminitis (aka "founder") which affects horses feet, but I doubt that it is absorbed through the feet.

I would think that the resi of EPM would be higher than salmonella as bird feces is a main carrier for EPM. A friend recently got rid of (gave away) her chickens because she had a horse come down with EPM.

 

[allenacres]

We have 19+ chickens and 4 horses. Chickens are free range in daytime. horses are in run ins or pasture. They get along great and the chickens scratch the manure and get the fly larve. They also hang out in the run-ins when its hot or when running for cover.

All our food is locked up in the barn, safe from horses and chickens.

 

[seminolewind]

Well that eases my mind. My chickens are not in with the horses, but since the horses are on "beach sand",I was burying the chicken dropping shavings in the paddock . The sand is so deep that the shavings disappear within a week.

 

[equine chick]

We have 3 horses and over 30 chickens. The roo is the only one brave enough to go into the pasture. Actually he and my 22 month old colt are very taken with each other. He waits for any dropped feed at his feet in the run in, and they chase each other in the pasture .