emmat Posted January 8, 2008 Share Posted January 8, 2008 over the course of the winter my 3 hens have managed to dig up my whole lawn with their scratching about. i don't mind as they seem to enjoy it but is there anyway i can stop them doing this - or do i have to restrict their access? the pictures on the site always show chicken mooching about lush green gardens - mine looks more like a mud bath at the moment! Help! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ziggy Posted January 8, 2008 Share Posted January 8, 2008 My chooks will murder the lawn if given the opportunity... I did look at the pictures on the omlet home page recently, all these lovely pics of people and kids gazing happily at the camera from around their eglu or cube, and I did think, looking at the state of the lawn inside the said eglu or cube run, that those pictures were either taken immediatley after setting up the chooks, or were done solely for advertisement purposes in a camera setting... there is no way that a chook's run put on grass will contain such lovely patch of lawn, apparently untouched by the chooks, looking just like the rest of a well tended garden lawn... Our garden is quite big and the chooks prefer to scratch and play in the other bits than the lawn itself, and their run is on woodchips, so we don't have an issue with it, but when we had them on the lawn permanently the damage was total! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Egluntyne Posted January 8, 2008 Share Posted January 8, 2008 You can't stop them....it's what they do! You can restrict them using poultry netting. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ktdot Posted January 8, 2008 Share Posted January 8, 2008 Our lawn is all mud, they haven't scratched it, just eaten it totally down. Am hoping it will grow back in the spring, at least it's well manured!! I have got some Omlet poultry netting I shall use to keep them off it until it recovers. Plan B is to re-turf, luckily it's only a small garden! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aunty e Posted January 8, 2008 Share Posted January 8, 2008 My lawn looked amazing...when I returfed it completely a year after getting the chooks at a cost of £200. It's pretty bad now, but I'm not letting them out much in the winter (as grass doesn't really grow) and I can reseed in a couple of months now I have some decent top soil under the turf for the grass to grow in. We try to throw fun things into the flower beds when we do let them out, so they confine their scratching and digging to the beds (where we don't care). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sarah 2 Posted January 8, 2008 Share Posted January 8, 2008 Glad to hear other people don't have grass to. Our garden is now just mud. My DH told me not to worry because it will grow back. I don't think so. How can it when the chickens have eaten it ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tweety Posted January 8, 2008 Share Posted January 8, 2008 It will grow back sarah 2! My chooks had devastated a huge patch of grass during the summer, but I moved them for the winter and it is now lush and green again. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Billy the Whippet Posted January 9, 2008 Share Posted January 9, 2008 My two have access to the garden most of the time and they do muck it up a bit - however as I only have two it does recover! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jules. Posted January 9, 2008 Share Posted January 9, 2008 I have netting across the bottom of my garden where the eglu is. I'll be very surprised if the grass around there grows back in the summer Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sarah 2 Posted January 9, 2008 Share Posted January 9, 2008 It doesn't look like the grass has any hope of recovery. Only time will tell. It has given me some hope though. Thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hen Watch Posted January 10, 2008 Share Posted January 10, 2008 My lot destroy the lawn when it is a really wet day. The rain soaked lawn gets scratched into a muddy puddle. So last month we got some Omlet fencing/netting and now they have their own corner of the garden to destroy. We plan to turn that corner into the veg plot come summer so they can manure it for us over winter. Just for balance, in case any potential new chook owners are reading this post worrying, in the summer months I move the eglu every few days and the grass bounces back greener within a week. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
emmat Posted January 10, 2008 Author Share Posted January 10, 2008 Thanks for your replies everyone! I think I will just have to let the critters do that they need and in the spring when it's growing back I'll give them a dedicated area to scratch up that I don't care about! Bless them. After watching Hugh's Chicken Run this week I feel very lucky to have 3 feathery friends jumping about on my lawn! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chickster Posted January 10, 2008 Share Posted January 10, 2008 My 2 ladies were digging huge great holes in my lawn during the wet summer which was causing me great distress so I ended up repairing the holes with new turf and then covering the entire grass with plastic coated chicken wire. I trimmed it to size, pushed the edges down the sides of the turf where it meets the patio and path, and then pegged it down along the joins with small tent pegs. Because it's flush with the soil the grass can still grow through, I can still mow the lawn if needs be, and the hens can eat the grass but can't churn it up. Have a go, it really works!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
emmat Posted January 15, 2008 Author Share Posted January 15, 2008 wow that's a cunning idea! my garden is 110ft with about two thirds as lawn so it could be a bit of a mamouth job... might be good just to do it in their fave spots though. thanks for the tip! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ubereglu Posted January 15, 2008 Share Posted January 15, 2008 Our garden needs some seriuos re design and soon as the chickens really are causing havoc. Now we have four hens they have really enjoyed scratching it up as it's been wet and the worms have come to the surface. Just have to persuade Dad and work out where!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
