Goats and chickens

[maggies.family]

Our goat pen and chicken yard are pretty close together. My husband and I are thinking about opening up both ends of each yard and making it one big pen. I happily saw a post with some adorable pictures of chickens riding goats. I was pleased to see it. I guess my question is, is it pretty common for goats and chickens to get along and would they be ok in the same yard? I guess I am worried because our goats were housed with a lamb but were kind of mean to her. I am getting a 2 yr old and a 1 yr old Alpine/Nubian goats tomorrow. Don't know if the breed matters much for the question.

Thank you!

 

[helmstead]

We don't keep our chickens and goats together for reasons of parasite control...but they would get along just fine if you chose to.

 

[elevan]

My goats and chickens are fine together. One of the goats and a chicken have a special love for each other

 

[journeysend]

My goats, chickens and ducks get along fine. The only issue I ever had is trying to keep the goats away from the chicken food... so at dinner time and pretty much for the entire day my goats are separated from the birds. The all sleep together at night though, the chickens love to curl up next to a nice warm goat lol. I also have a turkey that keeps them all in line.

 

[LadyIsabelle2011]

...I am thinking goats and chickens would get along just fine. I know it is not quite the same but I keep my goats and ducks together without any problems aside from having to constantly clean the water buckets(ducks love making any clean water duck water )

 

[Ariel301]

My chickens roam around the goat pen every now and then. Usually it's no problem, but I've had some accidental injuries and deaths from goats wanting to play with chickens and headbutting them or stepping on them really hard. I also had a horned doe for a while that would go out of her way to chase and hit chickens. I've had a few baby chicks run into the goats' feeding area and get smashed under goat feet. For a while I had some nest boxes for some hens in a goat pen, and the goats learned to steal and eat the eggs. And then the chickens would get into the goat feeders to nest and poop all over their food and ruin it. So I've decided to keep the chickens away from the goat pens as much as possible.

 

[terrilhb]

I have 2 hens that live with my goats. They all get along fantastic. I have to clean up a little more not wanting the goats walking in the chicken poop and vice versa. Try to keep everything as clean as possible. I love seeing them together. Good luck.

 

[freemotion]

The hen on the goat pic may have been one of mine. Some of my goats tolerate it and some don't. The chickens quickly learn which goats to get onto and which ones to stay away from. The goats that like them seem to like the back scratch. I've seen hens looking for bugs (ticks?) on the goats, too, when the goats are snoozing or cud chewing.

I had to re-arrange things a few times to keep the chickens from getting into the hay and laying eggs and pooping in it and to keep the goats out of the coop. The biggest concern is goats in the chicken feed, and poop in the goat's feed.

I keep the chickens out of the areas (stalls and pasture) where the baby goats live.

 

[maggies.family]

Thank you everyone for your replies! I really appreciate any info I can get!

The hen on the goat pic may have been one of mine. Some of my goats tolerate it and some don't. The chickens quickly learn which goats to get onto and which ones to stay away from. The goats that like them seem to like the back scratch. I've seen hens looking for bugs (ticks?) on the goats, too, when the goats are snoozing or cud chewing.

I had to re-arrange things a few times to keep the chickens from getting into the hay and laying eggs and pooping in it and to keep the goats out of the coop. The biggest concern is goats in the chicken feed, and poop in the goat's feed.

I keep the chickens out of the areas (stalls and pasture) where the baby goats live.

freemotion-I think it was your pictures I saw. I had planned out how I was going to keep the goats from the chicken feed/coop but hadn't thought of the chickens in the hay/goat feed. My chickens aren't yet laying (I think I have one that will lay within the next week or so!) but even so, I don't want them pooping. Our chicken coop is at one end of the yard and the goat pen is at the other. Unfortunately we don't have pasture. So I will need to figure out how to keep the goat "stuff" away from the nosey chickies!

 

[herdnerd]

My chickens and baby goats were put together because I do not have a separate pen for the goats, yet. I will have one next week but I am sure there are going to be some issues. We made a small wooden shelter box for the goats to sleep in, but found them in the coop the second night. My little 10 week old Nigerian has decided that the best place to sleep is in a nest box. She is always in there when I go out in the morning.

The chickens and goats generally do well together. But I have a huge area. I have decided to make the goat area next to the chickens as I think they will be sad to be away from them.