How Horses Benefit from Chickens

If you have horses, chances are you have other animals to! Dogs, cats, maybe even a goat or donkey, and possibly you have some chickens? Or perhaps you don’t; maybe you should consider adding some chickens to your stable yard family. Not only are chickens low maintenance and provide breakfast, but it is astonishing how beneficial these birds can be to your horses! 

Really, those feathery fluff balls that peck at the ground are beneficial to horses? YES, and not only that, but horses are beneficial to chickens! *Learning about a Symbiotic relationship in grade school coming to mind?* And because now you’re curious, allow me list the benefits! 

Eat bugs

Probably the most  obvious pro is that chickens eat insects. They gabble down all those flies and ticks that plague our horses. 

Spread manure 

If you have ever watched chickens, you will have seen them digging around, spreading dirt or manure in an effort to find any hiding morsels to eat. As your chickens spread horse pies, something some people use machines for, they also eat the fly larvae living there. So not only do chickens eat flies, but they also devour their offspring, which really puts a dent in the fly population.

Keep barnyard clean 

Chickens will eat practically anything, that means they will eat any grain that drops on the ground. While this means that you have to keep them away from your grain bins and horse feeding buckets, it also means that those grain bits won’t attract insects or rodents. Furthermore, your horse won’t be scavenging the ground for any dropped grain, and ingesting sand or dirt which can lead to colic. 

Natural desensitizers

We all know that horses can spook at the least spooky things. This makes sense as horses were designed to live in the wild, and had to be ready for predators. Yet, today equestrians don’t really want their horses to spook at a plastic bag during a show, cause that can be dangerous. So we try to desensitize our horses to everything possible. Well, chickens can help you with that. By being their normal bird selves, flapping and squawking, they help get your horse used to noise and movement. So next time you’re on a trail ride, and a bird is in the path, your horse will be familiar with feathery friends.

Fertilizer

If you grew up in the country like me or have driven past country fields, you probably remember the smell of fertilizer during spring. Chicken poo is used by farmers everywhere as a cheap fertilization method. While your barnyard chickens won’t fertilize as much as crop dusters, they will provide some nutrition for your lawn and pasture. 

However, horses aren’t the only ones who benefit when chickens are around. Humans do too, chickens eat the pesky ticks and flies that bother us too. They provide us with eggs. And in return, the chickens get plenty of food. It is even considered that having horses with chickens detours predators, especially aerial ones!

Yet, if you already have chickens or are considering getting some, there are some important things to consider. 

• Chickens should not be housed with horses. While chickens can mill around the pastures and barnyard, their roost should be kept away from the horses and they shouldn’t be able to get into horse grain and hay as horses shouldn’t digest straight chicken poo. 
• Commercial chicken feed can be poisonous to horses, and should never be fed to them. 
• Horses shouldn’t be fed chicken scraps. Horses can eat melon rinds and corn cobs, but for the most part they should not eat table foods or moldy stuff, so if you give your chickens your table scraps or expired food, make sure your horses can’t get to it. 

Keeping chickens with horses should be easy and problem less as long as the two are not housed together. When they aren’t meandering, chickens should be kept in their own house with a roosting place and egg boxes, with their feed inaccessible to horses. For me, keeping chickens around my horses has been a great experience. 

I have kept horses and chickens together for a long time now, with no problems. My chickens are kept in a large fenced off area that I use as a riding arena and a sacrifice paddock. My horses and chickens share a waterer with no problems. The chickens have their own area for getting scraps that the horses can’t get to that is right next to their house, and their feeder and nesting boxes are inaccessible to the horses. The horses grain buckets are tied up so that the chickens won’t devour their grain for them. My hens are often let out to meander in the pasture and I have seen them eat flies, grubs, and even slurp up a worm one time! Who would have ever thought that my little feathered friends would be so beneficial to my horses!! 

*What’s been your horse and hen experience? Considering getting chickens and have some questions, email me or ask in the comments! And let’s all give a BIG thanks to our bug eating, manure spreading feathered buddies!!* 

Tails & trails, 

               Reese