Poultry with Sheep?

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Good idea? What are the pros and cons? We have about 12 sheep, more on the way, with 2 llama gaurdians and 3 cows. We are thinking 30-50 chickens. We have a 70 acre field attached to a 1 acre fenced barn for overnight. That is where our coop would be.
 
Both sheep and adult chix can carry cocci - so when you have lambs or chicks, you need to be aware and use amprolium so you don't have losses. Other than that, I don't know of any problems.
 
So we're finally ready to let them out. We have a chicken wire fence set up. Are chicks are about 4 weeks old. Is this an appropriate age to let them out to hang with the sheep and llamas, not to mention their poop?
 
I would be very concerned re mixing them at this age due to risk of Coccy (as already mentioned) and other bacteria. They will not yet have immunity to the bugs their own flock/species carry let alone from another species. The earliest I mix growers with adult chickens is at POL due to their immature immune systems . I assume as they not on heat at 4/52 you live somewhere nice and hot---I wish I did at the moment !Ros
 
Make sure that your sheep cant eat any layers pellets - my friend lost a couple of sheep that ate the pellets. Cant remember what exactly it was in the feed that caused them to die (copper? possibly - im sure someone will know.
 
What does POL mean? Hmm well our dream is to have all of our animals together on the 70 acre field, but we'll wait on that one. Plenty of other dreams to follow right now. Any natural alternatives to amprolium? We're organic, plus we hate that stuff.
 
POL means point of lay - from approx 16 weeks until they lay. There is not an exact age for when they lay as this depends on the breed, pure breeds tend to come into lay later then hybrids, also depends what time of year they were hatched too.

Cant help with an organic alternative to amprolium, but in my experience natural remedies are only a preventative not a cure. I use garlic & ACV as a preventative but still worm the chickens with flubenvet twice yearly. Wild birds carry all sorts of nasties.
You could say have worm counts done on all your animals then worm as/when needed chemically.
 
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