A small amount of chicken feces on hay will not harm your horse. It is pretty harmless and many farms have chickens running around. Chicken feces becomes pretty harmless when it dries out. I dont think 3 chickens will be a problem in your barn

 

I'd be more concern about Lice

 

Mature horses should not have a problem with chicken poop. We are very careful about foals and young horses (under 2 years) ever since losing one to Salmonella. We used to get big flocks of Canadian Geese around here in the winter. We always planted winter wheat pasture for our horses and the darn geese would come in and graze it. We had a really nice weanling -- probably 9-10 months old and he grazed out there with the geese. He got Salmonella poisoning, ended up with bloody scours and about $500.00 in Vet bills later he died. Vet said it was the 3rd young horse he treated that winter. All three died, and the Vet told us that ours would. But, we had to try to save him, but it sure did not work.

Birds also carry Coccidiosis, but it is not as deadly. They can recover form that if they are doctored right away. Again, it only bothers young ones. Foals are the most susceptible. All poultry can carry both, but I think ducks and geese are more often infected with the bacteria.

 

feed you horses textured feed. You wont have any manure to pick up.

 

What is textured feed, and what are the differences/benefits between feeding regular feed and textured?

 

Beau and Epona have been sharing the farm we board them at with 22 chickens for a year now....

Sure, the chickens are a hassle, but they were here first .... we just keep the water tanks free of chicken poop and we keep our hay stored under a tarp in the hay room ......but out on dry lot, there is little we can do to keep the chickens out of the hay we throw out there.....

So far, so good. No problems with chicken poop diseases....

Epona's noisy neighbors from Hades!!

 

Having chickens around help lessen fly problems. They eat the larva before it turns into a fly. I've heard they also help keep ticks at bay.
Posted via Mobile Device

 

I've heard they also help keep ticks at bay.
Posted via Mobile Device

Hey, you may have heard right!!!! I was wondering why we only found ONE tick on Epona all spring and summer!!!! And NONE on us!!!

Thanks, you've given me a reason to LIKE those noisy pooping machines!!!

 

Another benefit of having chickens, FRESH eggs. Store bought eggs don't come close to their taste.
Posted via Mobile Device

 

Cherie, is right they can get salmonella from them, even adult horses can get it if their immune system is down even a little bit, from an infection or colic. It is deadly. Plus the horse will become carriers of it, as well as other worms.

 

This is probably pretty random...
A neighbor to my parents had a dog that died from Nitrogen poisoning. She would walk into the coup everyday with the owner to collect eggs and the Nitrogen absorbed into the dog through its pads. I have never heard of this before and I imagine a horse would have wade through knee deep of chicken **** everyday before it would effect them..who knows...LOL. All I know is I hate chickens and will never own any
Posted via Mobile Device

 

textured feed has actual grain in it as opposed to just pellets. Some off that grain passes through to the manure un digested . The chickens figure this out pretty quick and will scatter the manure everywhere as soon as it hits the ground. Dries out and is scattered. No manaure to pick up, no fly breeding ground. Pelleted feed and straight grass makes manure the chickens ignore.

 

Thanks for the reply Joe4d =)