Can I keep chickens and doves in the same coup?

[Bridgette]

Hi everyone , long time 'no hear', been busy settling into my new life in the country!

Here's my dilemma! The new small holding we've just moved to about a month ago, has quiet a big chicken coup - it's about 5m x 10m, divided internally into 4 sections.

We haven't had a chance to get any chooks yet - we're having the freakiest summer here, and this ex-city girl is trying to figure out what to do with all the fruit trees... so the chooks need to wait for a while till I get my ducks in a row.

In the meantime, our incredibly well-meaning neighbours have promised my 3 sons some of their doves for Christmas... but can I put the doves in one section of the coup, and at a later stage put chooks in the rest of the coup? The chooks are going to be free range - I'm busy establishing veggie patches on a 4000m2 plot, so it will be quite a while... but can I do that? Put them in the same coup?

Regards
Bridgette

[BonnieT]

Hello,

I am no expert, but I have chickens and i don't see why you shouldn't mix them - mine are free range and mix daily with loads of other birds (even when they are in the coop - they are in and out all day) - infact they take no notice of each other.
In my experience other birds roost much higher up than chickens, who prefer a spot only a couple of feet off the ground, so they won't be competing for roositng space, when trouble generally crops up.
The only thing that may be a problem is that the doves may want to eat any layers pellets that you feed the hens - the wild birds in my garden love these. Not sure what doves eggs taste like!! (I bet they sell them in waitrose!!)