Keeping Chickens and Goats Together

Is is possible to keep chickens and goats together in the same pen or pasture? I think a lot of homesteaders may have this question. Maybe you do not have enough space to keep them separated, but want to keep both on your homestead or farm. Keeping chickens and goats together can work out as along as you are careful about a few things.

The main thing about keeping chickens and goats together in the same area is that you MUST keep the chicken food away from the goats. Chicken food is not good for goats and they will eat it all and the chickens will not have any food. If you are feeding hay to your goats the chickens might make a mess on the hay and then the goats will not eat it, wasting a bunch of hay. So, it is important to keep feeding areas in different spots and keep the one out of the other ones' food. AND that is way easier said then done. We have had some goats get into the chicken coop before and eat the chicken food. Thankfully they did not eat enough to get sick.

Our chickens are out on pasture year round. Our goats are on pasture during the growing season. Once things stop growing we bring the goats to the barn and feed them hay and the chickens stay out in the pasture so we don't have the problem of the chickens making a mess on the goat's hay during the winter months. But when they are both in the pasture we must be careful that the goats do not get into the chicken house. We rotational graze our goats and our chickens have a movable house where we feed, water, keep their nesting boxes and they roost at night. We do lock the chickens in their house at night for their protection. The chicken door on their house is very small just big enough to let the chickens fit in comfortably. For the adult goats there is no way they could fit inside but they still will try and some can fit their head in so we have to make sure their feeders are farther away from the door. It is when we have small baby goats in the pasture with the chickens that we have issues. We do have enough pasture space and we have learned that when we have baby goats in the pasture we must put the chicken house in a pasture section where the goat are not.

Do goats and chickens get along? They are both social animals and like being with a herd or flock. But a goat can kill a chicken. Most times a chicken is quick enough to get out of the way but we have had a goat kill a chicken. We think is was just an accident. There has not been fights that we have seen between the chickens and goats.

Coccidiosis. It is something that can affect both goats and chickens. However, it is animal specific. Meaning that goats cannot give it to chickens and chickens cannot give it to goats.

Do you keep your chickens and goats together? Let us know in the comments how you keep their food separated and if they get along!