[Jacob-list] Chickens & Sheep

[Susan Nielsen]

On Wed, 28 Jan 2004 ACAMDA at aol.com wrote:

> Do any of you keep chickens with or near your sheep?

We frequently assign our young pullets to one of the lambing jugs once
they get past the box in the basement stage. We have fitted one of
the jugs with poultry wire inside the rails, to keep them in. They
do just fine there, making use of the heat lamp already installed
overhead. Inevitably, they grow wing feathers (they seem to do this
every year!) and start launching themselves out of the jug. From that
time, we continue to feed them in the closed jug so the sheep are
excluded from the feeding, but the young hens fraternize freely with
the sheep. Occasionally an individual sheep and a particular hen will
develop something like a friendship. A couple of years ago, one of
the ewes had a special grooming hen who would hop on and spend the
afternoon happily picking through the ewe's fleece for grain bits or
whatever.

Now, this works for us because we don't have pullets at the same time
we have lambs. And eventually we do move the hens out to their own
yard. Since they are free to range during the day, a few hens will
continue to visit the sheep. There are no problems of temperament.
As usual, animals adapt to whatever becomes familiar. You might have
to arrange for feed management, and a place to have the hens if you
need your lambing jugs.

Susan
--
Susan Layne Nielsen, Shambles Workshops      	|"...Gently down the
Beavercreek, OR, USA -- snielsen at orednet.org  	|stream..." -- Anon.
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Purveyors of fine honey, Jacob Sheep, Ashford spinning products
			and Interweave books