Keeping Poultry with Other Farmyard (and Backyard) Animals
SEVERAL YEARS AGO, we got our first pigs, two seven-week-old purebred Tamworth gilts. The Tamworth, I had read, is considered to be the rooting and grazing champion of the pig world. They apparently like nothing better than to dig up every blade of vegetation in sight, chewing up the plants, roots and all, with great enthusiasm and appetite. Having also read that the root word (no pun intended) of “pig” is the same as that of “plow,” I was intrigued.
Hmmm, I thought, eying a large flat meadow full of six-foot-tall canary reed grass, I wonder what would happen if we turned the pigs out on this stuff and let them graze it down and plow it up? Then we could plant some clover or timothy or something and turn this into a really nice pasture.
Well, to make a long story short, the Tamworths did justice to their reputation. As they got bigger, they were plowing things up so rapidly and efficiently that we had to rotate them onto new pasture every few days. What we didn’t realize at the time was that our poultry would also play an important role in this pasture improvement project.
We noticed that, as we moved the pigs from one grassy area to the next, the chickens and ducks immediately moved in to investigate the freshly upturned soil. We subsequently learned that not only do the birds break up and spread around the manure piles, encouraging speedy composting, in the process they also eat parasite eggs and weed seeds that pass through the pigs’ systems. This helps break up the life cycles of various kinds of worms and other parasites that tend to affect pastured birds and other animals. We were amazed.
In a truly sustainable system, all types of poultry can peacefully — and quite usefully — co-exist with other animals, whether that is the family dog or a herd of milking cattle. If you already have one or more animals or pets and are considering starting to raise poultry, you might want to look over the Poultry from Scratch worksheet (Appendix A). Answering the questions will help you decide if poultry might work well for you and your other animals. In the meantime, here are some of our thoughts about poultry and peaceful co-habitation.
Dogs and Wildlife
You may have heard that domestic dogs kill more chickens than any other predator. We know a few people who have dogs and chickens, and just about all of them swear that their chickens grew up with their dog, the dog loves them, and the chickens aren’t the least bit afraid of the dog. I think that’s great, and I hope it continues to work out for them. I am not a dog person myself — I don’t dislike them so much as I’m just not used to being around them — but I suspect that when problems do occur between dogs and chickens, it is when two or more dogs get together and the dynamic changes. Most people I know who live on farms or have poultry have one or more dogs in residence. In fact, people often wonder why we don’t have dogs ourselves, especially considering all the birds we have free-ranging here during the day.
There are two main reasons why we don’t have dogs. First, neither one of us wants to have a dog. Second, we live in a place that is surrounded by many, many acres of woods. This area is rich in native wildlife, and our view is that we are living in their backyard — not the other way around — and it’s up to us to figure out how to make it work for us and our birds. We believe that a dog would scare away the wild animals that live here. I know that sounds paradoxical, since most people who have dogs for protection have them just for that reason: to scare off the wildlife. I can only say that I think the wild animals were here before we were, and they have every right to not be driven from their territory just because we want to let our poultry out on pasture during the day. Yes, we’ve lost some birds to predators, sometimes as a result of ignorance on our part, and more often because we can’t be everywhere all the time watching for hungry wild animals. We also feel that we ought to do all we can to preserve the environment of our property, which happens to be wildlife habitat. If we ever get to the point where we feel that predation losses are so high that the birds are stressed out all the time, then we may just decide that it doesn’t work to have poultry up here.
This seems like a good place to say again that, in my view, time spent in preparation before bringing home chickens or turkeys or ducks is fairly essential. This includes learning what predator issues you face in your area, and whether your situation might require you to keep your birds confined in order to keep them safe. It is the responsible thing to do.
Cats
We have one cat at the farm: Sir Winsome de Cosmos, or Cosmo for short. He is fortunately quite happy to be an indoor cat, most of the time. Occasionally if a door isn’t latched, Cosmo will hook a paw around the edge of the door, pull it open and head outside. More recently, though, he only seems to do this after dark. I suspect this is because the last time I remember him sneaking outside during the day, the turkeys spotted him from across the yard and immediately all raced toward Cosmo, chirruping loudly with their ground-predator alert call. Poor Cosmo took one look at the rapidly approaching turkeys and sprinted right back into the house. I tried not to roll on the floor laughing in front of him; I swear I tried. Ever since this incident, he has not seemed the least bit tempted to go outside during the day, even when the door is wide open.
We’ve had Cosmo for two years now. The first year, when he was going outside in the daytime more often, he never showed the least inclination to go after our birds, not even the tiny Nankins. He tended to hang around behind the woodshed, a place where our birds don’t go very often; apparently he was only interested in stalking small wild birds. I’m not sure if he ever actually caught one, but he seemed to enjoy the process anyway. And as long as he didn’t pose any threat to our poultry, the only concern I had with him being outside was that he would be grabbed by a predator himself. So I’m happy to have him be an indoor cat. Even when he does slip outside at night, he usually stays near the door and is content to come back in after a few minutes, especially if it happens to be raining or snowing.
On the other hand, Cosmo is a terrific mouser. We are in and out of the house frequently, and there are plenty of opportunities for small rodents to find their way inside. This is especially a problem during cold weather. Cosmo has made it his personal mission to keep the house rodent-free, which is obviously a blessing.
Other Livestock
Besides the birds, pigs are the only other livestock we’ve raised ourselves, so I can’t speak from experience about how cows or horses or sheep or goats interact with poultry. However, I do believe that, when you have animals in a backyard or small farm setting, diversity is nearly always a good thing. I’ve heard more than once of people successfully grazing chickens along with cows. I’ve also heard stories about intruder-chasing guinea hens and geese that graze on garden weeds while supposedly ignoring your vegetable plants. Do your own reading. Participate in online forums. Talk to your friends and neighbors and the guy at your local feed store. I’ve found farm people consistently generous with their time and expertise when it comes to lessons learned and practical advice.
One More Thing ...
Another important issue to consider when you have other animals and want to raise poultry (or vice versa) is time. It’s easy to overlook this factor, but believe me, it makes a difference. You might think it won’t take much time each day to care for a few chickens or ducks. Probably, most of the time, you’ll be right. But who is going to clean out the coops? If you have dairy animals, will the milking schedule conflict with poultry chores? If you have a job away from home, how are the eggs going to be collected regularly? This doesn’t need to be a big deal. However, I would encourage you to spend a little time and effort figuring these out first, discussing the issues with your family, and I’m confident that both you and your animals will benefit in the long run.