[Jacob-list] sheep, goats & chickens

[Aaron and Abigail Brown]

This year we had our worst 'fly strike', but it happened with one of our
collies. Collies have thick coats and undercoats. While feeding this
particular dog, King, I noticed that there were lots of flies around his
hind quarter.
Upon closer examination there were millions of fly eggs laid in his coat and
under coat. I tried to rinse them out with water but there were too many for
this, I had to resort to scissors and cut his hair down to the skin. As I
did this, the area infected kept enlarging as I found new areas with eggs
laid. I found 4 small areas were maggots had hatched next to his skin.  I
had caught it just in time before the maggots could do any damage. It was
all started from a 'hot spot' that he had near his rear end and had been
chewing in that area, making it moist and susceptible to the flies. He might
have looked funny for a while but it certainly saved his life.

We have enjoyed everyone's comments on chickens and sheep running together.
Having purchased new chicks this spring and receiving freebies from some
friends, we are considering running a couple or three with the sheep.

Thanks for all the interesting posts.

Aaron & Abigail Brown
Shiloh Farms
Indiana

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I built a chicken coop in the main paddock with the sheep. They have their
roosts, feed thing, and water thing in there, so that's where they sleep.
(sorry for the technical chicken terms,...just try to follow along  :-)  )
Although they cruise around together, I've yet to see any poop on fleece,
and there seems to be plenty for them to do other than goof around with the
hay. I feed grain in a trough I built in the"Sheep the Modern Way" book, and
I have to turn that on it's side after grain time, as the chickens will
roost on that and poop in it. Other than that, everyone gets along great,
flys are minimal, and I hope I never see flystrike,..ugh, maggots are
horrible!!!

Troy Allen
Drover's Oaks Farm
Derry New Hampshire

> One thing no one has mentioned with the chickens used for fly control is
> the poop problem.  Don't the sheep get their fleeces dirty living with
> chickens?  I'm really tempted to move our chickens in with the sheep after
> reading all the comments, but I don't want to sacrifice the fleece quality
> for a few less flies.



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