# Chickens and horses, practical advice needed.



## AlabamaHorseMom

At my barn in FL we had RI Red chickens...Cant say they ever even TRIED to drink out of the water trough. Chickens are kind of lazy, they dont fly unless its necessary, they'd go for the lower water before trying to fly up to the water trough.


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## Crimsonhorse01

Mine have their own miniature trough, but if they do get up there they are smart enough not to go in.


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## Pidge

my friend has two horses an about 30 chickens and there hasnt been a fatality yet...she just throws the chicken feed out for the chickens to peck at and the water is the troth so no problems as far as i can see with chickens an horses.


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## RhondaLynn

I love to have chickens around the barn because they turn my manure into dirt faster. I hate "piles" of manure around. I have a lake near the barn but I have seen the chickens using the horse trough to drink from. They do just fine!

Rhonda


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## Plains Drifter

I would assume you can't have farm cats and chickens at the same time? (Unless the chickens are housed safely away from the cats?)


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## Speed Racer

Sure you can, Plains.

It's just not advisable to have bantams, because they're little.

The heavier breeds like Araucanas, Orpingtons, Rhode Island Reds, etc. get big enough that regular barn cats won't bother them.

You do have to watch them around the chicks and pullets, though.


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## Rowzy

I have horses, chickens and a barn cat and they all coexist (for the most part). My chickens love my horses because they attract tons of bugs and worms, my horses dont notice them, except for when my rooster decideds to attack the horses... which we haven't been able to figure out why he does this. The cat thinks they are all scary animals from outerspace, and yes I have both bantams and heavier breeds, the cat doesnt go after either of them.
As for the water, the hens stand on the rim of the water bucket and drink out of it if its full to the top.


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## Delfina

When we had chickens and a swimming pool, they never went in the pool. The would stand at the edge and make an ungodly racket if they saw a bug in the pool they couldn't reach and wanted me to come fish it out for them though. 

Chickens are quite smart.... don't raise them inside when they are fuzzy, cute chicks because they won't ever want to live outside after that. Our would stand with their heads poking in the dog door and cry to be let in the house.


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## LadyDreamer

If you are worried about birds drowning(chickens or otherwise, or squirrels even) in your troughs and tanks, put a heavy stick in from the bottom and coming out, so that a creature that fell in can climb out.


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## Vidaloco

Plains Drifter said:


> I would assume you can't have farm cats and chickens at the same time? (Unless the chickens are housed safely away from the cats?)


My barn cats share a water fount with the chickens during the winter. I only keep a heater on the chicken and horse tanks. 
I've only had a couple of cats over the years that weren't chicken compatable. Those cats got culled from the rest pretty fast. 
The chickens have a coop and run seperate from the horses. I do occasionally let the chickens out to scratch around the manure pile. The horses mostly ignore them. 
My dogs are chicken killers so thats who I have to keep very seperate from each other. :evil:


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## AlmostThere

LadyDreamer said:


> If you are worried about birds drowning(chickens or otherwise, or squirrels even) in your troughs and tanks, put a heavy stick in from the bottom and coming out, so that a creature that fell in can climb out.


I don't know about full grown hens, but the problem with deep water and younger chickens is when a baby falls in, due to the way the body is weighted, they flip over and end up stuck head down in the water. I had a friend who kept ducks and chickens (and a few geese) and when she released a new batch of babies (maybe three or four weeks old, it was a long time ago, so I'm not sure, maybe they were a little older), she found several drowned in the kiddie pool she used for the ducks. That's why I was worried about horse troughs and chickens.


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## Rowzy

AlmostThere said:


> I don't know about full grown hens, but the problem with deep water and younger chickens is when a baby falls in, due to the way the body is weighted, they flip over and end up stuck head down in the water. I had a friend who kept ducks and chickens (and a few geese) and when she released a new batch of babies (maybe three or four weeks old, it was a long time ago, so I'm not sure, maybe they were a little older), she found several drowned in the kiddie pool she used for the ducks. That's why I was worried about horse troughs and chickens.


Could this have been because there were both ducklings and chicks together and the chicks didn't understand? But yes, I too would be worried about chicks and horse water but most horse water bucks are atleast a few feet tall so i doubt that the chicks could get into them.


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