Meat chickens on a horse farm

by Jackie Wimbush
(Belleville, Ontario)

Hi There,

I noticed a horse in the field in one of your pics of your meat chicken coop. Have you had any trouble with sickness amongst your horses after the chickens have been in the field? I have read that chicken manure can cause abortion in pregnant mares.

I'm also wondering if I can come and visit your farm. I'm in the planning stage for raising meat chickens and would love to see an organic farm in operation.

Thanks,
Jackie

Answer
hi Jackie

good question, and congratulations on starting some meat chicken, we really need more small local growers producing real food.

re horses and chickens, we don't usually have the chickens and horses in the same field at the same time. We normally rotate the chickens, pigs, horse and the garden to different locations each season. In shots where they are together we were probably moving one or the other to a new pasture.

We have never experienced a problem with our set-up (7 foals have been born on the farm), but I think it would be sensible to separate the chickens and horses either in space i.e. completely different fields, or in time - i.e. by rotating them after a substantial period of time.

re farm visit, probably the best time is in the summer, when things are going on. Drop me a line using the contact info on the site and we'll set something up.

Scott K