Pasture rotation, follow sheep with chickens......

[happyharvester]

I'd like to use my existing pasture to house our laying hens, using electro net to separate the species~having the chickens follow the sheep after they have grazed.
Is there a magic number for how many days the chickens should be off one area before the sheep can go back on to it?
I've had a couple people tell me that the sheep could contract diseases from the chickens...(coccidia, salmonella, listeria)....then another says that-the cocci. at least- is species specific and shouldn't be worried about.
I've also heard from people that run their chickens in the pasture with the sheep, without separating them.....now I'm confused!

 

[Southern by choice]

You can run them together. Cocci for chickens is not the same for sheep. Do you have a cooci problem?

Chickens eat grass and bugs, they do not "clean up" other animals poop.

 

[woodsie]

A couple of our chickens have taken to permanently running in my goat/sheep pens, others fly in and fly out. The goats and sheep completely ignore the chickens. I think they will eat bugs/larva that lay their eggs in the poop and sometimes some poop gets scratched and spread but not usually an issue with sheep poop anyhow. I find they are mostly interested in scratching through the waste hay and bedding and if you grain them at all they definitely find any grain that has fallen into the grass so nothing goes to waste.

As long as the chickens aren't too cramped and therefore the concentration of poop is small, I think you could rotate your sheep back through as early as you want...I would be more concerned about the length of the grass in deteremining if your sheep can come back through. I think it is definitely more of an issue with meat birds as they poop a LOT and don't walk far so they get high concentrations of poop around the waterer and feeders, with layers you should be fine.

I am curious to know how that electro netting works for keeping the breeds seperately....two types of chickens are always intermingling...flying over fences, digging under, etc. They go to their seperate coops but are always intermingling, I can't seem to keep them seperate but as long as they don't fight it doesn't bother me too much.

Let us know how it works out for you!

 

[secuono]

Cocci and other things are always in the ground. If your animals are healthy with strong immune systems and things are kept clean, you have nothing to worry about.