4m x 3m Omlet pen, cube, new auto door still boxed and coop light

[Happy chickens!]

OH has been a bit worried about what his beloved lawn will look like next summer, but have just found a great bit of advice to reassure him in a book on chicken keeping I got for Christmas:

 

The droppings are a very useful bonus to keeping hens. Lawns on which hens are allowed to roam recieve excellent conditioning and end up much greener and lusher as a result

 

So from that it would appear that the girls should be allowed to free range to their hearts' content and the lawn will get greener, rather than turn into dust..... Ummm or perhaps should believe the graphic photos on this forum about lawns and keep the girls to their part of the garden except on special occasions.

 

[The Ives Clan]

We used to have a beautiful lawn, which is now a mud patch. We have a small garden with the girls free ranging most of the day. This was fine during the summer but lost the grass over the winter. I think we will end up re-turfing the whole lawn as there seems to nothing left of it.

 

I am looking for an harding wearing turf. Has anyone got any ideas of what we should use???

[kez]

We got our in October and now have no lawn

 

Our plan is to get a walk in run (delivery soon ) on a slabbed area, re-seed the lawn - which should come up lovely with the amount of chicken poo on it. will only be allowed to free range for a limited time then

[judith67]

I think it depends alot on which soil type you have.

I have clay soil and I got my chooks in June. So I thought it would be fine - in summer rock hard and in winter squidgy. But... we didnt have a summer did we so its been squidy squidgy..... The last 2 month I have been in utter dispair, have no grass left at all, garden has been like a swamp, cant get your footing, the chickens aren't bothered however. At the moment they free range 3 days a week.

 

I love my chooks but if someone had shown me a picture of my garden today, before I got them, I dont think I would have.

 

I don't want to put anyone off, just giving you some food for thought.

[Ygerna]

I am sat here, laptop on my, er, lap, watching my girls clear more garden per minute than the man I PAY to do my Garden does in an hour. I am going to be dispensing with his services, he is a lovely chap but, well, the chickens are going to destroy the garden and I could use the money to be honest.

 

I knew that they would trash it. My OH didnt and doesn't. He is in for a shock Luckily! we have three children, two of which are old enough to play outside so they will do their share of destruction too, so I can say it was them, and not my girls

 

On the other hand, he might stump up for a beautiful walk in run if he thinks its them doingit, hmm which route to take

[Tessa the Duchess]

I am looking for an harding wearing turf. Has anyone got any ideas of what we should use???

 

We had to re-turf our lawn because the chickens totally destroyed it they scratched up all the roots, it was never going to come back Did a bit of research and ended up turfing with RTF turf, it has a much longer root structure than normal turf and apparently can withstand drought much better, it is also supposed to be very hardwearing. The chickens have their own freerange area now, nowhere near the new lawn.

 

Tessa

[Old Speckled Hen]

My four free range all day and spend a lot of their time scratching about in the borders. They dislodge all the mulched leaves but thankfully the lawn has remained largely intact. They are very good at raking up the moss on the north side of the garden.

[Mutrix Farmers]

If you don't let the chickens even look at the lawn it should be OK. Once a month shouldn't do the grass any harm, although Katie can scratch a hole in grass the size of a dinner plate in 2 minutes.

 

When did you ever see a farm yard that looked like a bowling green? Sorry Happy Chickens, hens means mud!

[The Ives Clan]

Thanks for the replies and to Tessa the Duchess. I have just read about the RTF turf and think we will give it ago. We will have to wait for it to dry out a bit as we are on a hill and you can now get from the top to the bottom in seconds (sometimes you can even remain on your feet if you are lucky!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)

[Minnie the Moocher]

Same here: no grass left but lovely muddy enclosure.

 

On the River Cottage forum chickens were suggested as a means to clear an area of scrub land. If my girls are anything to go by, it's a fab idea!

 

Chickens + lawn = mudpatch

[BarbaraJ]

I haven't really had a problem with my lawn since last march they free range every day in the lighter months and 3-4 times a week for couple hrs at the moment

taken now:

 

excuse the mess but maybe it larger than some gardens but we really haven't noticed much destruction. the gravel on the patio though lol or maybe we just aren't fussy lol

Edited January 12, 2009 by Guest

[yvonne]

I think the size of garden makes a big difference. We are lucky enough to have moved to the country and have quite a big garden; the girls have access to about half the lawn (maybe 60 yds by 20yds) and the veg patch and free-range most of the time.

 

Lessons I have learned over the past 2 and a half years are:

 

1. Move the run regularly ( at least once a fortnight) to allow the bald patch where they peck up "spilt" (they do it on purpose !!) food to re-grow

2. Use pellets, not mash as it causes far less mess on the ground (and consequently attracts less rats)

3. Keep them off anywhere you walk a lot such as a patio to avoid getting covered in poo every time you go into the garden

4. Give them access to as much messy garden as you can - ours scratch happily around the borders and veg patch and don't scratch up the lawn much at all. The half of the lawn they have access to is defiinately greener - due I assume to all the poo.

 

If I had a smaller garden, I must say, I'd probably opt for a walk-in run as pictures of the muddy swamps are a bit offputting - lovely as my girls are !

[Egluntyne]

When I had just 4 chickens....I did indeed have a beautiful lawn. They de-thatched it with their scratching and fertilised it with their poop and it was lush an green.

 

Not any more.

[BarbaraJ]

hmm so with 6 i may change my mind???

[Egluntyne]

It depends on the size of the lawn I suppose.

[Hen Watch]

I have 4 chickens and in the summer the grass is OK. They live on the right side of my garden in the summer.

 

But in winter they get moved to the left of the garden and eat the grass away and turn it into mud (my clay soggy soil doesn't help matters). But they did this the same last winter and we just reseeded it come spring and moved them to their summer home whilst the grass regrew.

 

I guess if I had a smaller garden and couldn't do this then I would maybe think of a permanent walk in run arrangement.

[BarbaraJ]

i suppose thats the thing today as its drizzled and been yucky all day i am happy to leave them in their run!

[RichardandFamily]

We have a large garden and the chickens have around half of this all year round. The bantams have an eglu inside a large walk in run in one corner and the big chickens have a cube inside a netted area next to this. The grass inside this is a mess but they like so we're happy!

 

Like Egluntine said, it really does depend on the size of your garden.

 

Richard

[chelsea]

agree with some other replies.

 

Depends on the size of your lawn, if you have a fairly big garden where the chooks free range your lawn will be able to cope with the munching. If (like ours) your lawn is small and the chooks are allowed to free range in the same area all year your lawn will turn into a mud patch.

 

You can get over this by partitioning off your lawn come the winter when it stops growing, you could fence/screen off an area come late October and not allow your hens on it till Spring.

 

The lawn just wont cope with hungry hens in the winter.

 

We returf every spring, our lawn is so small it only costs about £25 so its cheaper than screening it off.

[Happy chickens!]

I'm impressed that so many of you still have some lawn left! I was just very suprised reading my new book that it suggested chickens and lawns are compatible.

 

We have given our girls a permanent area of the garden to 'refurbish' as they see fit - it has grass (for now) and a concrete area which I've put the Cube on to make cleaning easier. I'm going to carry on letting them roam the whole garden for a while, but once the warmer weather arrives (whenever that is), they'll have to stay in their bit - more cos I don't fancy bare feet and chicken droppings!!

 

The only thing I don't like is that now we've moved the cube, it is hidden behind some bushes and I can't see the girls from my kitchen window.

[welsh sarah]

hi

i am lucky i have a large ish garden and my girls free range all day every day, my lawn has never looked so good, it doesnt have as many weeds in it now and it is very green ( well in the summer it was, not too beautiful with this weather )

 

sarah

[fowlbird]

I read somewhere about a grass seed especially developed for use with chickens... there's a link somewhere on these forums I'm sure...

 

we have beautiful lawns now the girls aren't allowed past what used to be the herb garden

[tom123]

Here is some grass for chickens...

 

http://www.thegrassseedstore.co.uk/agricultural-grass-free-range-poultry-c-21_34.html?gclid=CI7O7LTUiZgCFQnllAodCFj-CQ

 

Tom

[fowlbird]

that's the stuff, Tom!

 

OH ids thinking of growing some in the walk-in run (when it finally gets done )

[cluckbok]

Well we have a small garden and last year just before we got the chooks our grass was really bad, it was getting to the point where we thought we would have to re-turf it. Then along came the chooks and we watered in the poos and we had a lush very green lawn last year. It's a little patchy at the moment but come the spring I'm sure it will be lush once more. If you really want a nice lawn it's probably best to make sure you not got too many chooks for what the lawn can manage.