Mammal in the barn

[SandraMort]

If I wanted to raise a mammal for meat (cow, pig, lamb, or something else), is it possible to have it share the "chicken run" with my poultry so I didn't have to fence in a separate area? Obviously it would need to be larger but would there be any other problems with it?

 

[M@M@2four]

Well, I have a big 'ole pot bellied pig and we had a seperate pen for her, but she loves just nestling in at night with the chickens. She loves them and free ranges all day with them and does just fine. Never had any problems with them living together! Hope this helps!

 

[Pumpkinpup]

Hmmmm, I suppose if it had a large enough area to house them all comfortably it could be ok. I have had chickens inhabit paddocks with my horses in the past and it seemed fine but of course the chickens were free to move about the paddock and barn as they pleased. I only had about 3 chickens at the time and they seemed to serve as company to the horses.

 

[Chirpy]

The only mammal I can address in this issue are goats: I have my Nigerian Dwarf goats in the chicken run. They also free range during the day with my chickens. They have a separate sleeping shed. Many people love goat meat.... I've never tried it but may someday.

You do have to keep the goats out of the chicken feed.

 

[patandchickens]

You'll have a lot more mud in the run that way, especially if it is a non-goat non-lamb mammal; also you will need to rig up an arrangement so they can't be eatin' much of each others' foods. Other than that there's no constitutive reason you couldn't do it, as long as the size of the space and the nature of the fencing is appropriate to the other mammal.

Good luck, have fun,

Pat

 

[SandraMort]

We don't have a backyard lamb coming anytime soon, do we? Any suggestions for the right place to go?

 

[cjeanean]

Pigs are very messy and can be violent (not potbellies, but meat pigs) and some cows have been known to eat chickens. I think goats have been okay, but I've never had a goat.

 

[Leah-yes I know I'm crazy]

Keep in mind that the fencing requirements will be entirely different. The same fencing that keeps my birds in would not hold my pigs for ten minutes or vice-versa. I am of a different opinion about the cleanliness of pigs than some others. Mine are raised for meat but they are not aggressive or dirty. They do keep a mud hole going through the summer but that is for cooling down and protecting skin from sunburn and they have the good sense place their waste in one corner of their area unlike my birds who crap in their own water dish and continue to drink out of it.

 

[miron28]

i read some where that you should put pigs with chickens because a disease any one else heard that

 

[ozark hen]

we put our pigs at the far end of the chicken run with horse panels surrounding them. A couple chickens managed to fly in there with them, after the pig's feed and were eaten by the pigs. The ground was churned up a lot in the pig's part. When the pigs went "to market"...

...we opened the pig's part back up into the run for the chickens.
here it is now.

no way would I put the chickens and pigs together.