Eglu cube or go up with 2m run

[BarbaraJ]

hmm well i had 3 now 2 so 5 may be ok , 6 maybe too many!

[chickenanne]

Am sure with ours, a good part of the problem is us walking over the lawn in the wet wintery months: we're on heavy clay - rather than simply the chickens alone, which I think it would cope with.

Ours love scratching under the hedge, tehy aren't so interested in the grass: perhaps planting a few rugged shrubs as bare-root plants now, fencing them off until established, would deter from the lawn?

[fowlbird]

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.

 

we've got a garden 160x60, our TWO girls had the run of half of it and managed to trash everything

 

I think some hens are more ruthless than others in their foraging...

 

Plants which survived:

shrubs

rosemary

curry plant

feverfew

roses

ivy

jasmine

cotoneaster

firethorns

[Mutrix Farmers]

Here is some grass for chickens...

 

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

 

Tom

 

what a good idea, but it's quite expensive. OK if you have an acre to reseed, but too much for my 16 sq m that the girls have ruined.

[fowlbird]

Here is some grass for chickens...

 

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

 

Tom

 

what a good idea, but it's quite expensive. OK if you have an acre to reseed, but too much for my 16 sq m that the girls have ruined.

perhaps split a pack with others in the area?

[atsw]

I think it can also depend on your chooks. Our first two weren't too bad, during the summer the grass was really green and lush in the areas the girls were allowed in. Come autumn the grass started showing signs of distress and we moved the Eglu and run onto the veg patch. Our next three were ultra destructive, even in the summer they would dig great holes in the lawn. Mowing the grass was like walking over a ploughed field it was so rutted. Tulip and Poe passed on, Fifi remains and has been joined by Di and Anna. They are Buff Orpingtons, and all three are still free ranging most days and the lawn is not showing any sign of significant decline. By the spring I'm expecting to see a really lush green lawn spring up with all the poo that's been deposited during the winter .

 

Andrew

[Minnie the Moocher]

Maybe some are more destructive than others then.

 

It looks like a chicken battlefield out there. Mine dig huge craters! Perhaps [when I'm not looking] they let off little chicken bombs?

[chelsea]

Maybe some are more destructive than others then.

 

 

I think you are right.

 

Apart from a few bedding plants in patio pots my girls have not touched any of my plants.

 

Also I think some breeds are different to others, my feathered legged cochins dont scratch as much as my hybrids and they dont like to be on mud.

[jill the potter]

My girls are now confined to the veg patch until spring as they've eaten every blade of grass!!! will have to re-seed in the spring. What would be the best time do you think?

 

The raised beds in the veg patch look like they've been finely raked over! Thinking ofrenting the girls out!!! Might take them up to the allotment for a couple of hours when the weather's better. See what they can achieve there!!

[Muffy]

I realised that they were going to ruin the lawn within days of them arriving. I only have 2 but the patch under the run went nearly bald within 2 days even in the summer.

They now have a part-paved, part-mudbath (ex-lawn) area to themselves and seem pretty happy in there.

I let them out while I'm in the garden and they run around seemingly intent on pillaging anything green they can reach, yet when I give them green vegetable remains they are totally disinterested.

[fowlbird]

I let them out while I'm in the garden and they run around seemingly intent on pillaging anything green they can reach, yet when I give them green vegetable remains they are totally disinterested.

ours are just the same

[abwsco]

Ours weren't too bad until they ate everything in the borders that they possibly could and then decided to attack the grass. We gave them their own fenced in area and that was stripped of grass within days. I let them out into the rest of the garden the other weekend and the girls made lots of very cute delighted and excited sounds but within minutes dug up a HUGE patch and two of them also made a rush over a wall and onto our nextdoor neighbours lawn!

[Woodcat]

hey

 

Ours don't seem to decimate the grass where the eglu run was for the winter there is a bald patch and the place that we walk on rather than going round on the path is muddy but the rest is right as reign and we have 5. They do however tend to decimate sections of the border but only sections that contain plants they like they appear to be quite picky. However if we ever forget to shut the gate to the top of the garden where the veg patch and the green house are they shoot straight into the green house and make for Australia. Last time they dug it out enough that it sank so now instead of a muddy lawn we have a wonky green house.

[laurmurf]

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

 

 

There was another recommendation for Meadow Mania, for their hen run mix, and it comes in smaller quantities - £8 for a kilo:

http://www.meadowmania.co.uk/default.cfm/loaddoc.95

 

I bought a small bag for Xmas for my OH from the chickens! We've seeded an area and fenced it in a ring and the grass is coming through already. I had intended to tough it out this winter with my free ranging girls and hope for the best in the spring and regrowth, but I'm not convinced there will be re-growth!

 

I think we're going to fence off a part of the garden for our 8 and let them destroy that from now until March (if I can hold out against their pleading for that long) and let the grass recover for a bit.

[Seagazer]

My girls have certainly helped to trash our lawn. I will admit to a bit of it being my fault though. Where they have scratched the bark onto the lawn, I haven't swept it off quick enough (like not for a couple of months ) and this has killed the lawn off.

 

I am going to get them a walk in run which I think they would have to be in permanently (hubby doesn't like garden being ruined and we have a lot of foxes round here). But where the run would go is all concrete and patio. The patio was laid especially for my girls. I would like them to have a bit of space for normal chickeny scratching around. Does anyone have a combination of hard base and ground in their walk in run or should I just get my OH to pull up a bit of patio that he so lovingly laid for me and net this off so they can have a bit of free ranging if anyone is in the garden?

 

I hate the thought of them not having a bit of earth to dig worms out of. The other option would be just to net off a bit of one border although I'm not sure OH would be happy about that.

[Ain't Nobody Here]

Our (very small) lawn is shrinking . It was very poor condition before the girls arrived anyway, but they scratch at the edges and in the borders, deposting all the earth & debris on the lawn. I've given up raking it all back in so only time will tell if grass will grow at the lawn edges ever again .