Goats and chickens are two animals that are easy to maintain and which give good yields. So, have you ever thought of bringing them together on a farm? Will the goats protect your chickens, or do they harm them? The answer to these queries is indeed multifaceted. If you are planning to bring them together, you can be relieved that they will not harm each other. But the protection part can become a bit ambiguous. Goats do not have a protective instinct per se towards chickens, but they do ward off small predators and can act as little protection. Read on to find out whether goats protect chickens and grasp the ideas and tricks you might need to thrive in the animal husbandry sector.
Can Goats Be the Protectors of Your Chickens?
To give a straightforward answer to this is a difficult task. It is because experiences differ between people and from farmers to farmers, and it is a matter of belief that keeps this notion in place. There certainly are benefits of keeping goats with chickens, but it does not mean they are kept solely for the purpose of protecting the chickens.
There are people who believe that goats protect chickens and vice versa. Goats inherently do not possess a protective sense towards these flightless birds, but their size can, at times, benefit the chickens. Goats being prey to predators themselves could elaborate the situation of these creatures. But this does not mean that goats will always stay away when predators are attacking the chickens, they do at times ward off the stray dogs and other small predators. But at the same time, counting on them as the guardians of your coop of chickens will not be the best idea for your farm.
Goats can also protect your chickens from predators like hawks and falcons too. They also scare off snakes and wild cats, which are small. So, you will not have to be worried about these kinds of predators and be rest assured of your chickens’ protection with goats around.
Can Goats and Chickens be Kept in the Same Place?
The minimal security that goats provide for chickens takes us to the conclusion that they could exist together without doing much harm to each other. But while keeping them together, you must also ensure that they have their spaces. While chickens enjoy a lot of free space to roam around without being afraid of predators, goats require some space free of chickens for them to have their feed. Chickens too, are messy, especially with their droppings. If it falls into the goat feed, is toxic to the goats. Keeping the spaces they live and feed as much as possible could help you have control over this situation.
How Can Goats and Chickens Be Beneficial to Each Other?
While protection is not really the best place goats can excel in being beneficial to chickens, there sure are other ways in which these two animals can form an alliance and exist in a mutually beneficial way. If you have owned goats before, you must know how messy they could become. Being messy means it attracts more flies, and more flies would mean more food for the chickens, and it is a win-win situation! This, at the same time, will also reduce your work since you will not have to do the extra work of shooing off the flies and keeping your goats away from diseases.
Chickens also keep away mice that come to feed on the remains of food left by the goats on the ground. Another advantage of keeping them together is that you could feed the surplus goat milk to your chickens, and it is highly nutritious. You might find yourselves in situations where the lactating goats produce more milk than what you could utilize, and at those moments, you could ferment the milk overnight with some leaves and seeds from the feed to create a nutrient-rich feed for your chickens. This could help you save some extra on your chicken feed. But while doing this, you have to be cautious so as not to make your chickens obese with more feed.
Disadvantages of Keeping Goats and Chickens Together
With the advantages come disadvantages too. While goats protect chickens to some extent, young goats tend to misbehave and sometimes attack your chickens. Chasing the chickens as if they are playing will result in turning the free space stressful for the chickens. Also, there could be one or two goats in your herd who are aggressive from the beginning. These goats, if they are annoyed or irritated, might head-butt the chickens, which can be fatal to the chickens.
Goats could also break the eggs, and to prevent that, you will have to ensure that the goats cannot enter the chicken coop. Chickens, who are also messy, might defecate over the hay feed of goats, which then could not be used for consumption by the goats. Chickens could also contaminate their water supply as well. The softer texture of the hay feed also attracts the hens to lay their eggs on them, which if they get crushed by the goats, will create an even greater mess. The egg sticking onto the feed will make you throw away all portions of hay that get soiled.
Keeping Guardian Animals for Your Chickens
Having a sturdy and stable coop is a necessity when it comes to keeping your chickens safe from predators, especially at night. But it is also important to keep them safe while they are roaming around during the day too. Keeping guardian animals such as dogs, geese, llamas, and donkeys can give you great results in terms of protection. While picking dogs, make sure you choose the ones that are friendly towards the chickens and efficient in protecting them. They can be trained to be the guardians, and they are the most popular among guardian animals for chickens.
Donkeys can be trained to become guardian animals too. They can protect your goats as well if you plan on raising them together. Other poultry like geese, roosters, and turkeys can also become the guardians of the herd. Roosters are seen protecting the hens with their lives during times of attacks from predators. A flock of geese is also effective in wading off predators since these birds are known to be intimidating and scare away small predators. They can also give prior warnings to the chickens to take cover as they could easily spot birds of prey, as well as make loud squeaking voices to call upon others for help.
Conclusion
Goats and chickens can co-exist, but relying on goats to protect chickens might not always end up giving the best results. You can keep these two species together and get good results in terms of yield but will have to be careful about some aspects, as mentioned in the above paragraphs.
