Many horse owners are also chicken owners too—and that’s no coincidence. Chickens are fun to watch, easy to care for, and have their own unique personalities. There are also a number of benefits for not only owning chickens in general, but also owning chickens on a horse farm. Of course, there will also be some challenges when co-mingling animal species.
In this article we cover these challenges, how to overcome them, the many pros of chicken ownership on the horse farm, and tips for horse owners wanting to become newbie chicken owners too!
The Challenges of Co-Mingling Horses and Chickens
Horses and chickens can co-mingle successfully with a number of benefits. However, there are still a few challenges that you should be aware of when owning both types of animals in such close proximity. Chickens are natural scratchers and will spend their entire day foraging and pecking around your farm. So, if they have access to things like your horses’ hay, this could be problematic. If chickens get on top of, or inside, the stacked square or round bales, these could be torn up more than you would like. Everything from open horse grain bags left unattended to the mulch in your garden are subject to a free-range chickens scratching and foraging instincts. This can be prevented, however, in a few ways.
First, by placing the chicken coop a little further away from the barn, or near an area where you do want them to be scratching around instead. Keeping grain in a sealed container and hay stored where chickens don’t have access to it is also a way to prevent this if you do want them in the barn for the other beneficial reasons we’ll discuss later in this article. Just keep in mind that chickens can jump on top of things, and then make their way up into a hay stall that way, for example.
Feed contamination from chicken droppings is also a potential concern. Bacteria is naturally found in every animal's droppings, including chickens. But if the bird is healthy and getting high-quality feed, it reduces this issue. However, if the horse’s food and hay is safely stored away and inaccessible to the chickens, this almost completely removes the contamination concern. You can also create a run for your chickens instead of allowing them to be free range all the time, which contains them to a certain area.
If chickens are foraging around the barn, though, chickens eating a horses feed isn’t a big deal compared to the other way around. Chickens have a wider nutrient profile than horses and are a bit more forgiving when it comes to their gut health. So, if the chicken is pecking around and eating scraps of horse feed, this is less of a concern than say the horses eating the chicken feed or eating food contaminated by chicken droppings.
The Benefits of Co-mingling Horses and Chickens on the Farm
Fortunately, there are many more benefits than challenges to owning chickens and having them around your horse farm.
Chickens are great for bio-recycling, which means less waste and cleanup around the farm. As mentioned before, chickens do a great job of cleaning up the pieces of grain dropped in the aisleway after feeding time. This could also be dually beneficial to give rodents less of a reason to hang around the barn.
While a chicken’s main source of nutrition should come from a high-quality feed, they can also be fed scraps from the house, too. They can have things like scratch grains and other kitchen scraps—most things that humans can eat chickens can eat.
Every animal (and human) loves carbohydrates, especially chickens. So, just keep in mind that they’ll overeat those scraps and they'll under eat their chicken feed if given the chance. Limit those treats and kitchen scraps to about 10 to 15 percent of their total feed intake.
Chickens also act as natural bomb proofers for horses—and who doesn’t love a little extra bombproofing? Depending on the breed of chicken, whenever they are frightened or they feel like they need to take cover quickly, they will flush. That means they might jump, run, or flap their wings quickly. Especially when trail riding, you will likely come across an animal that will flush or move quickly in the woods. So, if the horses are used to chickens running around doing all sorts of “spooky” things, then they might just be less likely to spook on the trail or at other things when you take them off property.
Fly and bug control is probably one of the biggest benefits of horses and chicken co-mingling. Bugs, especially flies, are a constant problem in the summer for horse owners, despite their best efforts. This is where the chickens natural scratching and pecking behavior comes in handy. When a horse drops its manure, a fly will lay its eggs, and then the larvae will develop inside the manure. Chickens will scratch and peck around the manure of all animals, including horses. They'll spread the manure out, and then if any fly larvae do start to develop, chickens will eat the fly larvae. This helps with overall fly and bug population control.
If you also have a garden or flower bed on your farm, many people will churn the dirt over in the spring and they'll let their chickens loose in the garden to help with the bug and weed seed control in the dirt. As mentioned above, chickens are also great at spreading manure. If you are spreading your horse manure instead of having it picked up, chickens can really help with this process. Because they scratch around, they spread out the manure more evenly, and help knead and work that material down into the ground better than farm equipment can do. Since bugs like flies are attracted to the smell of the manure you just spread, the chickens will also go after those bugs immediately, continuing to help with bug control.
For those feeding hay or round bales in the pastures and paddocks, chickens are also great for weed seed reduction. Depending on the quality of hay you’re feeding, there will be a small to moderate number of weeds in that hay. This means the weeds that the horses might pick around will end up on the ground, causing more weeds in your pasture than you would like. Fortunately, chickens are great for scratching around, turning the soil over, and eating a lot of those weed seeds. Typically, this will then help reduce the number of weeds that come up next year and help with pasture maintenance overall.
Tips for Horse Owners Who Want to Become Chicken Owners Too
Once you’ve decided to hop on the chicken-ownership bandwagon, it’s important to note there are several breeds of chickens to choose from.
Typically, most people want chickens that are specifically reared for egg production, so you have the added benefit of fresh eggs too. You will also need a place where you can brood your chickens, like a coop. If you purchase babies, you'll also need to have a place where they have access to a heat source, so the coop should be within range of electricity. If you get adult birds, they usually acclimate well to all temperatures, meaning you don’t need as much equipment. They will just need a safe coop that they can get into at night. If you don't want them to be free range, then be sure to add a safe, predator-proof run, too. Unlike horses, chickens put themselves away at night! All you have to do is go shut the door and lock them in safely once they’ve gone into their coop. They usually lay their eggs in the morning, so depending on what time you want to let the free-range chickens out, you can usually go out mid-morning, collect the eggs, and then let them out.
Like horses, chickens have their own set of needs nutritionally based on breed and their life stage. Laying hens, for example, should have enough protein and calcium to give them the energy to keep producing eggs and keep their body scores at a healthy level while doing so.
If you’re a soon to be new chicken owner, Kalmbach feeds makes a variety of poultry feeds that are high quality, with the perfect balance of nutrients and proportions for every stage of life.
