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Steph101

Too many chooks spoil the garden...

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...or is it just our garden that's starting to look like a desolate war zone?

Will someone please tell me the benefits of free ranging, I hope there are some; I need some justification for having a wrecked garden. :shock:

Does everyone have gardens like those smiling people on the Omlet home pages, or are they just people whose chickens have just arrived? :roll:

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Does everyone have gardens like those smiling people on the Omlet home pages, or are they just people whose chickens have just arrived? :roll:

I like that quote! I have only had mine for 8 days now and some of them are still a little cautious about going too far from the shed so my garden is still ok for the moment. It is a large garden that is too sloped for any use really. If the kids have anything with wheels they end up in the hedge at the bottom so we don't really use it much anyway. My husband says you can't have chickens and a garden too so I guess it will end up bare also. At least he won't have to mow the lawn! :lol: Clare x

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My garden still looks ok six months on - but I do only have 3 hens!

 

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=482161&l=69911&id=663092293

 

I also have a fairly large garden with lots of different things for them to do so no one area really bears the brunt of their attention. Mind you, hubby spent the weekend constructing them a summer run to keep them off the lawn and borders during the summer months so some plants can grow and the kids can roll around the lawn. I miss their little beaks tapping on the patio door though!

 

Jo

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Know the feeling - HOWEVER - the girls are absolutely FANTASTIC at getting rid of the ground elder we have had around the quince tree for the past 15 years - NEVER managed to get rid of it. Take four chickens, give them a week and MAGIC!

 

Shame about the flower bed around it though.........

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It depends how you define 'free ranging' out of the run, or free to do what they like. I use Omlet netting, so chooks get a lot of grass, plus the odd empty 'chicken bed' (no longer flowers in these, just sandy soil for chickens) and they do all their scratching and digging in the soil provided & dust bath. I have put log roll, only 6 inch stuff around the borders so the soil stays on the bed and not scratched out on to the grass.

 

So yes the rest of my garden still looks as it use to and the chooks are happy to - win-win at the moment.

 

Tracy

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That's what I'm doing; sectioning bits off with Omlet netting. It's really useful. I, too, miss them coming on to the patio and walking into the kitchen though. I remember the first week we had them, and I was cleaning their eglu out. I looked around the garden, couldn't see them anywhere! My son shouted 'Mom, they've gone in the kitchen', and there they were, all standing by the fridge! :lol:

But I can't help noticing that grass is all slowly being munched away; not to mention being knee deep in poo. Thought it was supposed to be good for the garden? :roll: Thought the nitrates made everything grow thicker? Not grass, anyway. :? We do rake it, but maybe I need to go round on my hands and knees every night digging 'em up! :evil:

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Benefits of freeranging: they look beautiful trundling around the garden, with more space to rummage about. Seeing them in the garden makes me smile and laugh even when I'm down in the dumps! :D

I've only had my girls about 6 weeks, they are in a walk in run during the day and get freeranging before I go to work, evenings and weekends. Ive decided to completely re-think the garden. I'm going to abandon a lot of my usual flower planting and try to create a garden which is a cross between a chicken play area and a garden. My thoughts so far are to put in some big grasses, bigger more mature plants instead of flowers. Add some attractive rocks and stones which are nice to look at, but also good for the chooks to perch on. Oh and hanging baskets for flowers, high enough so they cant get their little munchng beaks and kicking feet at them!

Do you think my lawn will survive though? I do hope I can at least keep my lawn!

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I've completely given up on the idea of a lush green lawn, but at least I never have to mow it! We move our hens so they roam on the front half of the lawn over winter (I like being able to see them from the window!), and the back half in summer. Apart from filling in a few holes and bald spots, the lawn does recover. I also rake up the poops each week 'cos trampled poos will kill off the grass if the light can't get through. And all the flower beds are fenced off! But I wouldn't have it any other way!

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My thoughts so far are to put in some big grasses, bigger more mature plants instead of flowers. Add some attractive rocks and stones which are nice to look at, but also good for the chooks to perch on. Oh and hanging baskets for flowers, high enough so they cant get their little munchng beaks and kicking feet at them!

Do you think my lawn will survive though? I do hope I can at least keep my lawn!

 

That is the sort of garden I am going for. At the moment 1 side is like this with gravel in the bed rather than soil and is still looking 95% normal, but the other side was a normal flower bed with flowers etc. This has been demolished and the soil is all over the grass! I'm off to the garden centre and B&Q some point soon to get some more huge rocks and gravel, and a load of hard wearing plants. The end flower bed I will leave as bare soil so they can still play in that if needs be.

 

My lawn is looking a little bit worse for wear after huge amounts of free ranging over the winter - a big mistake me thinks! :roll: Hopefully it will recover in the summer especially after having chicken poo fertilise it all winter.....

 

But I hate leaving them in the run so I won't stop their free ranging, they love it when the door is opened, barging past me and sprinting straight over to the shed door to wait for some corn or straight into my flower beds to cause havoc :lol: Little beggars :wink:

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Ours go out in the back garden (was just lawn; still is lawn but with veggies in raised beds, fenced around with chicken wire). The other bit is for "best" and is where all the flowers live...

I've had them about 8 months and the lawn still looks fine - not perfect by any means, but green, at least. I've only got 4 though and they spend most of there time scratching about under the hedge, which is probably why the grass has survived.

Could try the hard-wearing grass seed mixtures to returf with?

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Our 5 have half the garden where the lawn isn't great anyway as it is too shaded by trees. They get let out onto the main lawn for a couple of hours a week to clear all the pests.

 

They have done a brilliant job of clearing the moss and yarrow from the lawn. We've been trying unsuccessfully to get rid of the yarrow for years. So far the grass has survived but does look a bit sp"Ooops, word censored!" in patches, but I think that's just where they've cleared all the other stuff that was preventing the grass from growing.

 

They did make a mess of my veg patch though. Luckily it isn't planted yet. They dug some really deep holes but did manage to dig up lots of really odd looking grubs so I guess they did me a favour really

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My garden has always been scruffy...we are neither of us gardeners...I just keep it tidy.....so I am not too bothered.

 

The benefits of free ranging are for the hens not the gardener!

 

Yes, I meant, 'What are the nutritional benefits to the chickens?'.

Not the gardener! Apart from munching grass and spreading their wings, etc.... errr.. :oops: Right.

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I guess it depends on what your garden is like to start with.If its like a classic 17th century immaculately manicured garden with fancy box hedging-then standby for it to quickly end up looking like a bomb has been dropped on it.

But if its an average garden with plenty of shrubs and soil beneath-the chooks will love it and they might just leave your lawn alone... :lol:

 

Mine isnt full of flowers etc because i suffer from hayfever and i have bulletproof shrubs for them to gnaw! :lol:

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I gave my lawn a rake over this evening and once I'd removed all the shrapnel from their scratching I actually have a half decent lawn! Very short grass, but it is green and it is growing! So that just proves it can survive 10 chickens! :lol:

 

Where on earth does all that shrapnel come from?? Our lawn was absolutely covered with stones and massive bits of hardcore that I wouldn't have believed chickens were capable of excavating :shock:

 

Our garden was an absolute mess when we moved in so we did a Groundforce on it about 5 summers ago and it looked lovely for several years. It now looks tatty, but we can live with it.

 

Does anyone have an example of what they believe is the perfect garden for chicken keepers? And I don't mean one that is a mass of concrete!

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I gave my lawn a rake over this evening and once I'd removed all the shrapnel from their scratching I actually have a half decent lawn! Very short grass, but it is green and it is growing! So that just proves it can survive 10 chickens! :lol:

 

Yes-bizzare! :lol:

 

Mine too manage to rip stones from the lawn which ordinarily would be buried out of sight! Cant damage the mower blades cause they're eating my lawn better than a goat and havent used it since getting them so at this rate i'll be able to flog it... :lol:

 

They're not fond of eating moss,but they seem to like ripping it out of the lawn with their claws. :D

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