Wondering what life might be like with goats and chickens - take a look at this video 🙂

Raising chickens isn't a one-step, easy to follow process. As a special follow-up to a recent email, I got this tip for stopping chicken predators from Michel, one of our readers…

They suggested keeping pygmy goats with bells around their necks, as a companion pet to your chickens - in their pen. Because they scare off dogs, coyotes, racoons, and other predators. This has been effective at keeping all their chickens alive for more than a year. So that's not too bad - if you can manage it on your farm or property.

Simple enough - right?
Well, maybe not.

After publishing that tip I got several readers commenting that goats (dairy goats specifically) may not mix well with chickens. And they may not protect your flock as well as you think. One reader proposed trying a donkey instead, based on some success her friends had using one. It seems donkeys might be a better deterrent to predators in some situations.

So, there's not always a clear-cut answer to things and plenty of room for conflicting opinions.  Millions of people are keeping chickens and there is probably a million different ways that they do it. And with regards to protecting a flock - a rooster can usually do a pretty good job as well 🙂