Chickens and horses, practical advice needed.

[Vidaloco]

Originally Posted by Plains Drifter    

I would assume you can't have farm cats and chickens at the same time? (Unless the chickens are housed safely away from the cats?)

My barn cats share a water fount with the chickens during the winter. I only keep a heater on the chicken and horse tanks.
I've only had a couple of cats over the years that weren't chicken compatable. Those cats got culled from the rest pretty fast.
The chickens have a coop and run seperate from the horses. I do occasionally let the chickens out to scratch around the manure pile. The horses mostly ignore them.
My dogs are chicken killers so that's who I have to keep very seperate from each other.

[AlmostThere]

Originally Posted by LadyDreamer    

If you are worried about birds drowning(chickens or otherwise, or squirrels even) in your troughs and tanks, put a heavy stick in from the bottom and coming out, so that a creature that fell in can climb out.

I don't know about full grown hens, but the problem with deep water and younger chickens is when a baby falls in, due to the way the body is weighted, they flip over and end up stuck head down in the water. I had a friend who kept ducks and chickens (and a few geese) and when she released a new batch of babies (maybe three or four weeks old, it was a long time ago, so I'm not sure, maybe they were a little older), she found several drowned in the kiddie pool she used for the ducks. That's why I was worried about horse troughs and chickens.

[Rowzy]

Originally Posted by AlmostThere    

I don't know about full grown hens, but the problem with deep water and younger chickens is when a baby falls in, due to the way the body is weighted, they flip over and end up stuck head down in the water. I had a friend who kept ducks and chickens (and a few geese) and when she released a new batch of babies (maybe three or four weeks old, it was a long time ago, so I'm not sure, maybe they were a little older), she found several drowned in the kiddie pool she used for the ducks. That's why I was worried about horse troughs and chickens.

Could this have been because there were both ducklings and chicks together and the chicks didn't understand? But yes, I too would be worried about chicks and horse water but most horse water bucks are atleast a few feet tall so I doubt that the chicks could get into them.