Busybird Posted March 11, 2008 Share Posted March 11, 2008 My three girls arrived at the end of January and have spent their time since scratching up the area of lawn that houses their eglu and run (moved each weekend) and in which they are allowed to free range each day. This recent bad weather has finaly turned what was once a rather unloved area of lawn into a mud bath . For next winter I will consider permanently siting the eglu on slabs and hemcore but for now am looking at damage limitation. Is it possible to reseed a lawn without relocating the hens? I can just imagine them finding grass seed a tasty treat . Does anyone else keep their eglu on lawn and, if so, does the grass recover when the warm weather arrives? I'm beginning to think that I was hopelessly naive thinking that I could just move the run around and thereby allow each area of lawn to recover. I don't mind that this area of lawn will never be pristine with chickens on it but I hadn't expected it to be reduced to mud inside two months . BTW my girls are wonderful, produce lots of eggs and add such character to the garden that I can't imagine being without them now. OH is rather concerned about the mud though... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chelsea Posted March 11, 2008 Share Posted March 11, 2008 I dont have my eglus on lawn. However we have just had to returf our lawn because the chooks ate it/destroyed it all. My mum is more "green fingered" than me and she said our lawn wouldnt recover and we needed to returf. We only had laid turf last september and now did it again last week. In the summer your lawn will be fine as it grows like the crackers so it recovers better. The ideal solution would be to fence off the lawn in the winter (or part of it) and keep a bit you dont mind the hens scratching and then keep another bit protected. We will have to fence off our lawn come next winter as otherwise we will be returfing several times a year! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hen Watch Posted March 11, 2008 Share Posted March 11, 2008 My chooks arrived 11 months ago. It was Spring and I kept the chooks on the lawn and moved the eglu along a few feet every few days. The grass was fine all Spring and Summer long. It recovered within days. But come Winter, I fenced off their own section of my garden. Put Auboise in the run. My soil is clay so this weather makes the lawn very soggy and the chooks love it..... they can reduce a meter square of lawn into mud within 10 mins. In fact they did that today..... I kept them in the run in yesterdays rain and today I thought I'll just let them have a short time free ranging and then they dug a small pond in the lawn. So I can't advise you yet if the lawn will recover from it's winter hammering. But please take it from me that come Spring/Summer it will be ok. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
