I have been reading a few places that chickens and horses cohabitate well. I am considering getting 3-4 Road Island Reds! Anyone free range chickens in their horse pastures along with a coop? I like the idea of them laying eggs but also because of the manure breakdown, insect control, snake killing and desensitizing. Thoughts and tips? Thanks in advance!

https://horsenetwork.com/2017/02/keeping-hens-horses-surprising-benefits/

https://www.horizonstructures.com/blog/are-chickens-and-horses-compatible-barn-buddies

https://www.horsefeedblog.com/2012/05/keeping-hens-and-horses/

I have about 40 chickena along with a Guinea gang of 5. They co habitat with the horses but mostly they ignore each other. 

Mine all just ignore eachother and cohabitate well. :) GET THEM!! lol You will love it once you get everything all set up.

I have chickens they love catching mice, rats, snakes they are really great to have around barns,houses. Just make sure you have a safe coop for them to stay in during the night.

I have 13 total. They spend more time in the barn than anywhere. We free range them during the day and they go into a locked secure coop at night. We are building another coop in one of my empty stalls in the barn for our next batch of babies we ordered. They can get on my nerves digging holes in my stalls dusting themselves and of course pooping everywhere they want! But I'm glad we have them. I'm getting between 4-8 eggs a day right now. They clean up the june bugs and we have no ticks on our place... they dont mess with our gardens but do go thru it and pick bugs and scratch around. My horse is use to them, they hang around him a lot waiting for him to poop so they can scratch thru it.. we ordered 18 babies ... just a word of caution... if you want them, order now! People are buying them up like crazy... all over from what I've heard. We ordered a few weeks ago and just found out we wont get our babies till the end of April with all the orders coming in. Afraid chicks are the new toilet paper lol!!! 

One of my horses had his own personal chicken.  Every day she would lay in his feeder.  He would wait for her to lay, than he would push her off and eat the egg shell and all.  His coat was awesone.

Where is a good place to buy a coop (for those of us who can't build things lol) and the chicks? Tsc is pretty much sold out of females only. 

See what pinterest has, you can get some really good ideals off of there for chicken coops. My chicken coop was a dog kennel that we set up years ago.

I'm the odd man out - my chickens destroy everything. Pine straw, mulch, stone driveways - they destroy it all! They went everywhere BUT the pastures! So I now keep mine locked up in a coop with a run. I enjoy them, and appreciate the eggs, but I won't let mine free range anymore. 

I love having chickens. Horses and cattle don't seem to pay much attention to them. 

I revamped an old shed on our property years ago to become the chicken coop and built a run off of it.  Had to cover the top of the run with chicken wire and bury it all around the sides due to lots of critters in our area. Chickens get turned out during the day and they go everywhere. Pens, pastures and DO NOT stack oat hay anywhere within chicken range.  They find those bales and work them over good. I love having them as I hate snakes and the disturbance of them scratching and motoring around keeps me from seeing the snakes. :)  I also love knowing I don't have to worry about a source of eggs.  My biggest issue is protecting them from our ranch dogs and a hawk will get one each summer.

When you begin shopping you'll find they are hard to get! Especially pullets. Poultry farms are inundated right now with orders.. you'll be at least a few months out. It's not because of easter either. I was fortunate enough to purchase 6 yesterday from a local lady. I got 5 easter eggers and 1 Brahma. I also asked for 5 more Brahmas, they are in the incubator right now. She told me this is the first time shes ever been sold out BEFORE they even hatch. It's getting tough out there. People are even buying up all the fertile eggs and incubators to hatch their own. I sincerely hope people realize the length of time it takes to actually get an egg from one. 

Do you have issues with predictors hanging around? 

I cant free range 24/7 or they get picked off by coyotes. I even had coyoties get into my duck coop this winter and take almost all of them.

Some horses will stomp a chicken to death but most don't care about them. If your horses dont mind and they are not going to get killed by predators they are awesome around the yard, I find they keep flys down to eating the larva. I will never be without poultry. 

What breed to you guys recommend? Did you purchase yours from breeders or a farm store?

I like color, so I have hens that lay the brown eggs and they are Wyandotte and Rhode Island Reds, and I have the Ameraucanas and Araucanas they lay blue and green eggs, my flock is thinning out because of the coyotes, a loner will come threw sometimes and take a hen, they get put up everynight in their coops but sometimes during the day one will disappear because of a coyote or hawk. But I love the color eggs, so cool because you never know what color you'll be getting.. 

We raised jillions when I was kid on the poorest farm in Kansas.  My mom always bought Leghorns and they were very hardy and yummy to eat.  

On where I get mine from, there is a feed store I buy from during the early part of spring that sells very healthy chicks, I buy from them about every 4 years. They always have a very good selection of different breeds to choose from. I only buy from this feed store.. 

We definitely have predators around. But as long as they are in a secure coop at night they seem fine. Only time I've had some killed was when we accidentally left the door unlatched. Coyotes got 8 hens and my guard goose. Hawks have only been a threat once... my chickens learned to take cover if they see something flying around. And neighbors dumb dogs, or I should say dumb neighbors dogs they let roam free got a few but my dogs will run them off or bark enough I will come out and run them off. I just got my first brahma chick but I think those are going to be my new favorite! Silkies are cool, and very sweet natured... but small. Depends on what you want them for.. eggs or just fun pets thatll give a few eggs a week.. I do only buy the hens that lay colored eggs... brown, blue, pink or green. I dont buy production hens .. they are boring lol! I've bought from TSC in the past but they never seemed to do well. So now I either put a custom order in with my feedstore or I will buy from a breeder. It's a little more expensive but the chicks seem healthier and more hardy. Plus I'd much rather support small business than anything especially now. You'll want pullets only if you want eggs ... roosters can be a nightmare 

It was kind of entertaining though to watch the roosters chase my little sister around.   One would even hide behind a bush waiting for her to get off the school bus and chase her to the house.

We had them for a short while, they had free roam and a coop with nesting boxes. Horses didn't mind them. I hated them bc they were always in my way in the barn and in the arena while trying to ride. But then they found their way up the stairs to the hay loft. The hay was covered in poop and eggs all over the place. No more chickens 

I have orpingtons and Ameraucanas for their eggs. I prefer the orpington eggs because they're a little larger. 

When I had some for pets, I LOVES Silkies. I had a pair of polish hens as well. Their eggs are pretty small for eating so I sold mine when we moved. The Silkies are still my favorite breed, but since I only have them for eggs to eat, I like my orpingtons. 

My orphington is definitely the alpha in my flock... she also thinks shes a rooster if you know what I mean. But I love her, she's definitely the largest hen we have. I cannot wait to get my other brahmas! The baby I got yesterday is going to be big! I saw the rooster and he was gorgeous! Lavendar colored and came up to about my knee cap , I'm 5'11. Thinking about purchasing some of her fertilized eggs and getting an incubator. Give my kiddos a great experience while we are home. I really want a silkie too I may sneak one in on my next pickup lol!

I found some 3-4 month old chickens on Craigslist in a sketchy part of town about 6 months ago and am really glad I snatched them up.  I got about 20 of them and we lost 2 over the last few months.   I was not picky as to breed so we have leghorn, wyandotte, barred rock, welsummer, ameracauna, orpington.  The barred rocks seem to be the most friendly and the ameraucauna seem to be the most skittish.  I have to keep ours in the large coop with a huge run.  I have had free range chickens before but apparently we live on a predator ranch because they killed a chicken every 2 or 3 days and we lost our whole first flock.  I highly recommend the automatic chicken door so when they go into the coop at night the door closes behind them.  Ive got enough animals and kids to settle in at night that I cant also run by the coop.