Keeping Goats with Chickens & Nature

I'm about 90 days into having goats and they coexist with my hens very well.  One thing I learned is my run needed to be reinforced because the goats will push and climb on the welded wire fence or squeeze under or around a post.  Namely, mine are after the chicken feed.

Other than that they don't seem overly interested or aggressive towards each other.

I moved my trash bins out of my garage to the outdoor patio and quickly learned that was  mistake.  I came home to find a hole chewed in the plastic bin and the black oil sunflower seeds rummaged through.  Likely a squirrel.

The goats were hanging out on the patio so I also had to build a cedar fence to keep them out.



Predators in North Dallas haven't been an issue even with the addition of goats especially since my fence has no gaps or spaces to speak of.  I also suspect now with the goats they'd have a run for their money.

Molting

A few weeks ago I went outside and noticed my partidge wyandotte looked like it had been attacked and her feathers ripped out.  When I didn't see any signs of wounds or blood I started to worry she might have mites.

I checked the symptoms of mites online noticing the wyandotte had none of them.  Namely, her bare skin didn't look irritated.  So further digging led to molting and pictures of molting.  Another thing I realized but didn't connect the dots on was a drop in egg production which occurs during molting.  Lastly, I realized too I'd seen more stray chicken feathers around.  So several hens were molting I'd just never seen molting to this degree before.

Something to be aware of from my reading is you should ensure molting hens are getting extra protein.  If you have goats you may have sunflower seeds around which is a good option.

So many eggs!

Been a while since I posted because the posts were uneventful.  Since the last updates all the hens are alive and well.  Apparently not all of them were laying.  I was getting light brown eggs and then started getting some dark brown ones about 2 weeks ago tipping me off to that fact.  I'm regularly seeing clutches of 3-7 eggs/day.

Still leaving the coop door open and letting the hens come and go.  No issues yet with predators based on how secure my actual fence is.  If I start to see evidence to the contrary I'll return to my limited free-ranging schedule.

I did switch my feed recently from Layena to one from a local feed store.  I'm going through about a bag (50lb) per month and the new store is 5mi vs 25mi to the nearest Layena seller.  Hens seems to be digging the feed and I spot a squirrel every know and then trying to get some as well.

Same Old Same Old

Really not much to report since my last post.  My every few day routine is to check the water and feeder.  I leave the coop door open most of the time because I haven't found predators to be a problem.  It lets the hens free range and return to the coop at night rather than being "cooped up" all day in the run.

My Buff Orphington started to roost about 3 weeks ago and I've been breaking her of it; same with the Austalorp as of late.  I have been locking the coop door so they can't get back into it.

First Egg!

Supposed to be 6 days of rain here in Dallas so I was out putting a tarp over the top of the run secured with zip ties to keep everything dry.  While I was out there I found a single egg in the coop in the nesting box.

Checked again tonight but didn't see anymore but a hen was in the nesting box so hard to be sure.

New Pullets

Over the weekend I had a friend reach out online that they were going to revamp their coop and wanted someone to take their 3 pullets.  So Sunday I picked up a buff orphington, austalorp, and ameracuna.

It has been an interesting experience introducing 3 new pullets.  The barred rock which I seemed like the most submissive of the group has taken to trying to dominate the new pullets and has challenged the alpha Wyandotte a few times.  The ameracuna seems to be the alpha from the other group.

Three days in the two groups stay separate.  Occasionally my original 3 will run off the others from an area.  The only exception is in the run.  The new group has been sleeping on the roof of the coop and the other three in the run.  I'm thinking I may have to create a raised and separate coop for the new ones but I'll give it a little more time to if they get acclimated.

 

Day 17 - 19

Nothing new to report on the hens.  On Wednesday I took them off the Duramycin and didn't put AYC in the water.  If it looks like they need it then I'll put it back on.  They've been very active.

Running and flapping their wings at each other and in general our in the lawn.