Setting up for more Chickens

[marie_martin]

Ok, I have a few general questions. I have seen the coop ideas section and have some ideas of my own but here go my questions. I have goats and they are in large pens which are attached on each end of the barn so that I can go between them. I would like for the chickens to be in the pens with the goats but not fly out and get lost or eaten by stray dogs or whatever. Is that something that can be done. How would I encourage the chickens to stay in the pens? I don't want to have to pen them up all day in a small coop. I want them to be out in the goat pens eating fleas, ticks, fly larvae etc. I have two new banties that I have put into a coop but they are so tiny and it is really a tractor that I can move around. I want some araucanas or maybe some others that will lay but will also help keep down the insect population here in the south. How would I get them to stay and not fly off? I know they will need a coop of somekind for at night, to roost. I could build something like that, and just put them up at night. Maybe under the side of the barn so they have shelter but plenty of fresh air. If any of you can tell me more about your set up, not just your coop, your whole set up. Where they go during the day and then at night. What you do to keep them where you want them, etc. Thanks.

Marie

 

[Llysse]

I'll be interested to hear suggestions about this, too. I'd like to keep my goats and chicken together, too, but I haven't been able to figure out a way to keep the chickens out of the goat food--I don't want them to perch and soil it, either. That would be bad for the goaties.

 

[marie_martin]

Well, I feed my goat in the evening in seperate pans in the barn hall. So I don't worry that much about the feed, I do worry about the water buckets and hay. That along with just how to keep the chickens inside the pens.

Marie

 

[ssledoux]

Maybe I can be of a little help, but I'm not sure if this will be the info yall wanted.

I have dairy goats and chickens. Our barn opens to a big pasture where our goats are. Our chickens have a coop within the pasture where they sleep locked up, but I let them out each morning to free-range all day, so they are out with the goats.

If you want to keep them contained with the area (and they aren't able to fit through your fencing), you can clip their wings. I would only do this if I were going to have a way to protect them at night (like locking them up somewhere), otherwise they are easy prey.

As far as the feeding situation, with my goats, they get fed in the mornings and evenings and I have a setup where they get clipped to a trailer tie right beside their bowl in their stall so they are clipped, they eat, I let them loose. (Of course the milker is fed on the milk stand). The food is never left so the chickens are only picking at what gets dropped on the ground. If they do happen to get in the goats' bowls or anything, I just wipe them out with a wipe (I keep wipes in the barn for milking to clean the goat's teats). It really hasn't been a problem.

For anyone with goats let me just say that the hooking them up to feed is the BEST advice I ever received. It makes letting the milkers in and out a breeze when you don't have other goats charging the milkroom door! It also lets you see immediately if a goat goes off feed, and it helps me to evenly distribute my herbal wormer to each doe. I highly recommend this practice!! I start training my babies to be tied when they are just a few weeks old. It's so cute to watch them walk to their bowls and wait when they are still so little!!

I you want some good goat info, Fiasco Farm is a wonderful site to read. She also does the tying to feed so you can see what I am talking about.

Hope this helps some!

**Note that I in NO way encourage tying of goats for any other purpose, or when unsupervised**

 

[marie_martin]

I tie mine to eat also. I am more concerned about the water buckets, how do you keep the chickens from sitting on the water bucket or trough and pooing in it? I would definitely have a coop set up for them to go into at night. But during the day, if a predator comes they still need to be able to fly right? If I keep them in the coop for a few days or a week, will that show them that they live there and hopefully encourage them to return there to roost? Thanks.

Marie

 

[ssledoux]

If you have a coop for them, keep them locked in it for a few days. Also, feed them ONLY in the coop. They will associate it with good things and be happy to be in it. Mine head up the ramp at dusk, but they are all waiting at the door at 6 a.m. to get out!

I have had no trouble with mine pooping in the goat water. Of course, I keep a chicken waterer in their coop as well so they may just go in and out of there for water, or drink from other sources (dog bowl, etc.) since they are free-ranging.

 

[TheBigWRanch]

I think getting them to stay inside the goat pens would be hard to do. If you clip their wings predators are more likely to eat them. I have a large barn yard, and my chickens still insist on going out of the fence where my neighbors dogs can easily get them. Bantams can fly very well, so unless you put a top on your goat pens, they will probably get out.

 

[Llysse]

Yeah... I think BigW is right. You'd definitely want to have a sedate breed if you're worried about keeping them in the goat pens. A friend of mine keeps Brahmas and Orpingtons as well as nubian goats. The animals each have a different section of the barn and he lets them out into his paddock and closes the door after them, although I think they often mingle together in the field. There's a run-in shelter for the goats, and the chickens can always get through their pop hole into the coop area if they need to. I'm not sure how he keeps the water in the field clean from chicken poo for the goats. He may just clean often, or it may be that he just hangs the bucket up high enough that it doesn't seem like fun for big birds like Brahmas and Orps to perch on.

But the goats browse the field during the day, having had their grain in the morning, and they have access to nice, good hay in the field, too. The chickens scratch along with them.

It's a really nice set up. My barn, though, is just not set up to work that way. I'd have to spend so much money revamping it, I may as well build a different building. Hence, my goat paddock and my chicken paddock are two separate areas, at least until I can figure out a way to make my existing barn work. Or until I hit the lottery.

S'pose it would help to buy a ticket...

 

[TheBigWRanch]

My chickens have never pooped in the goat's water.

 

[Llysse]

Maybe it's just not an issue, for some reason...? Seems like they would want to perch there and muck it up, but as I said, my friend doesn't seem to have trouble with dirty water, either.

One of my bucks used to muck his own water awfully. I don't seem to have that problem with any of the others, though.