Thoughts on breed to head into a horse stable with cats

[blacktailsmom]

Just looking for any thoughts on having free range chickens at a horse stable with several cats. They are thinking Buff Orps as there are youngsters taking lessons and buff orps are known as less aggressive. Anyone care to weigh in?

 

[Mrs. Fluffy Puffy]

I have Buff Orpingtons!

They aren't agressive at all even my roosters aren't mean. I don't quite know what your asking though?

 

[Brickman House]

I work at a lesson barn that also has chickens. Any of the heavy breed hens would probably be a good choice-- they tend to be gentle and not flighty. I wouldn't recommend leghorns-- in my experience, they live up to their reputation as flighty little freaks! My Buff Orp hens, Barred Rock Hens, and White Rock hens are lovely to have around, though.

Unless they're dead set on having a rooster, I'd probably recommend not having one. In my experience, whether a rooster is aggressive or not is a TOTAL crapshoot-- you can get an agressive one in even the breeds known to be most gentle, and a gentle one in the breeds known to be agressive. For example, my Buff Orp roo has come after me occasionally, while my RIR rooster is the sweetest, cuddliest thing known to man.

All a rooster needs to do is go after a little lesson kid to cause a whole host of problems, and a lot of those kids are LITTLE. One really could get hurt.

It's great to have the hens around the barn, though. Really gives the place a "farm" feel, when so many of the lesson barns have become so much more sterile and business-like.

 

[andalusn]

I am not a stable but some days it feels like it

I am on 5 acres and have horses and chickens. The chickens are let out each morning to free range. They meander the barn and check out the stalls if empty and love to scratch in the hay that is on the ground. I have Dominiques, Cochin, Welsummer, Wyandottes & Maran. All are quiet but the Cochin seems to be the most laid back of the group. The only place the chickens have not gone is the front pasture where the horses spend the day. It seems to be just a tad too far from the coop for them to feel safe.

 

[highcountrychickens]

A good hen will fix a cat's wagon if the cat gets any ideas... I would let the chooks get fairly big before making the introductions to give them an edge. Otherwise, I agree with the advice here to go with a heavy breed - I have Jersey Giants that I just love - our big tom cat just looks at them... he has been educated

Good luck and have fun!

 

[bufforp89]

I just sold 3 chicks to the stable where I work. They do lessons and there are lots of kids around so I gave them BO chicks. So far it is working great. They are in a brooder in the tack room/lounge so they get lost of human one on one attention everyday. One of the chicks is a roo so I am hoping that with lots of handling he will be gentle. It also helps that his dad is the nicest roo that I have ever owned.

They also have a barn cat that is very much into catching birds. I cant even count the times that I have gone to muck stalls and found little dead things in the barn. We are hoping to keep the chicks in an empty stall when they have out grown their brooder until they are big enough that the cat will not mess with them. Good Luck!

 

[gabbyscritters]

We used to have a 50 stall commercial stable that included a lesson program. We had chickens also, 4 bantam cochins, 1 was a roo. They were always friendly and were great at keeping the flies down. They were always rooting around in the stalls and manure pile for fly eggs. Heck, they were even good mousers! The chickens roosted under the large steel grain bin and had their food and water there also. The hens even had several clutches of chicks that we sold or gave away to our boarders. We did have one boarder that did not like the chickens and insisted that they were could spread some disease to the horses. It's been so many years I do not recall the disease but we had two vets that came into the barn that told her the chickens had no negative effect on her horse and they were good fly controllers! The only occasional problem was boarders that would bring their dogs out to the stable, we always had a rule of no outside dogs allowed and when we got chickens we had to strobgly ennforce it. The barn cats never were a problem, they seem to know that the chicks or chickens were part of the farm. Chickens learn quick around horses and do like to root around in the hay while the horses eat.

 

[Noble Rooster]

There's a belief among certain horse folks that having chickens living in the same area as the horses increases the risk of respiratory problems in the horses because of the dander, dust, etc. the chickens generate. Perhaps that might be true if your barn isn't well ventilated, but lack of proper ventilation will affect the horses with or without chickens. It sounds like if it's a nice airy barn and the chickens are in and out during the day, that it's probably fine! Plus in addition to the insect/rodent control and general cuteness benefits, having the chickens around is a good, low-stress way to teach the horses to be slightly less freaked out by things that flap suddenly or make random high-pitched noises.

At the barn where my horse is boarded, his stall is right across from the chicken coop (his stall faces outside). It's fun to watch him watching the chickens do their thing.

 

[lovinlife]

I have 9 horses and 8 barn cats. My chickens get along fine with the horses and cats. No problems at all.

I LOVE the pest control the chickens provide.