Of course, they are more than capable of eating the poultry, but they don’t. The common worry seems to be that the pigs will eat the birds. Unless the mom is a superstar, the cats will get that unattended and chirping baby before the mom can get back to it. No worries when she goes in the pen, but sometimes the babies do not notice when she leaves and one or two of the ducklings or chicks will get left behind in the pig pen. The main caution regarding pigs and poultry is if you have hens (ducks or chickens) with babies, the mom will run into the pig area at feeding time, yes, she’s watching! This works well until you get into freezing weather, but a partial solution is better than none! Baby poultry should not be kept with pigs Generally, this is not a big deal for pigs but it will require you to dump out the water and refresh it fairly frequently, since ducks poop wherever and whenever, including in the pig’s water!Ī potential easy fix here is to keep the pigs on nipple waterers and give the ducks a pan of their own. If your pigs are getting water in a pan or trough and some of the poultry you are speaking of are ducks, you will have ducks in the pig’s water, plan on it. If you have chickens, they will scratch around and eat any bugs or maggots that are starting to grow in the pen, less flies for you and your pigs!Ĭan Pigs Be Raised With Birds? gives you the details on keeping your porkers with your poultry. Poultry do a great job of cleaning up spilled grain, especially if you are using a bulk feeder! Our birds run into the pig pens all of the time and the pigs don’t care a bit. I know there is some information available stating you need to keep birds out of the pig area, but in my experience that is not the case. Pigs and poultry can and should be raised together ![]() Right now, this group is just sheep, but as they get closer to the barn poultry, mainly chickens but some ducks and maybe a few geese, will start wandering in with them. Here is a typical fresh pasture move for our main flock. There would be little to no competition between them, since the sheep are mostly eating grass and the chickens are mostly eating bugs (and some of the more tender grass).īoth the sheep and the chickens would benefit from being together by the chickens eating bugs, especially flies, and the sheep making a predator like a hawk or fox, rethink the plan of swiping a chicken!Ĭommon ruminants would include all ages of sheep, cattle and goats.Ĭommon poultry would include chickens, ducks and geese. Living with a herd is great for chickens, they get it all! First time lamber and her baby.įor example if you were to put sheep and chickens together, they would both benefit. What does the chicken want? A nice pasture to peck around in, safety from predators and plenty to eat. Will the ruminant get what she wants if she lives with chickens, for example? You bet! Why? It’s easy when you think about it, look at what each animal will gain from being with the other.Īsk yourself, what does the ruminant want? A nice pasture to graze, no flies or parasites and plenty to eat. Nearly any ruminant (animal that chews a cud, think of a cow or sheep) will benefit from being raised with poultry. ![]() Think of the animal combinations you might see on a nature video.Ĭombinations that work best feature animals that benefit from being close to each other, but don’t directly compete with each other, especially for food. ![]() Animal combinations that work benefit each otherĪnimal combinations that work are ones in which both (or all, if you are combining more than two) species naturally work with the other. Of course, there are a few other combinations that work very well and some that are a disaster! We’ll get into the details below.Ĥ Low Maintenance Farm Animals is a selected list of the animals we have noticed that take the least daily care.Ĭonsidering raising your own meat this year? Read Cheapest Meat Animal To Raise for a cost comparison, based on pounds of freezer ready meat, between common meat animals. If you are looking to raise multi species together, the best combination to start with is ruminants and poultry. Other combinations seem like a good idea, then don’t work!įarm animals that can be successfully raised together are ruminants (cattle, sheep, goats) and poultry, pigs and poultry, mixed ruminants and mixed poultry. Multiple species of farm animals can be successfully raised together.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |