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

[Steph101]

We've just re-turfed the garden, since a year of constant free ranging managed to reduce it to a pile of unsightly mud. They now have their own area, complete with wood chips, and rubber chippings inside the cube run. A couple of questions though...

 

Will all that chicken poo underneath the new turf be too strong for it, and make it difficult to 'take'? And... when do you think we will be able to let the girls back on to it ( there are eight of them)?

[beverley]

hi, i have recently re turfed, and diddn't let them loose on it for a couple of weeks,

i think this was still too soon, as it is very easy for them to kick the edges up.

i have to say though, that they prefer the soil in the borders, but they tend to kick stones,

twigs and mud on to the grass. they have no respect..i'm thinking of putting pebbles

along edges to see if this will deter them. (i don't hold a lot of hope)

beverley

[cluckbok]

Beverley, ours kick up the pebbles too as well as the slate! They didn't to begin with but now they have gotten clever! They flick it all onto the grass. We are going out on the weekend to get some defences!

[Ain't Nobody Here]

I returfed a month ago (well, my gardener did, not me!) and have confined the girls to the borders behind Omlet netting (set at least 6 inches back from the grass edge). Where they can reach they've cropped the grass to within an inch of its life .

 

I'm not planning to let them on it at all, ever .

[Steph101]

I returfed a month ago (well, my gardener did, not me!) and have confined the girls to the borders behind Omlet netting (set at least 6 inches back from the grass edge). Where they can reach they've cropped the grass to within an inch of its life .

 

I'm not planning to let them on it at all, ever .

 

 

I don't blame you in the slightest! I'm feeling really guilty though... they keep gazing at the grass longingly, so we threw a few leftover strips of turf in to amuse them - it was like throwing a s"Ooops, word censored!" of meat in to a tank of pirahnas. I've also been hanging up cabbages, and giving them spinach, rocket, watercress, lettuces... anything green, you name it!

I think my LSH would kill me if we had to re-turf again......! He did his back in relaying it....

[Jules.]

I mowed my "lawns" on Monday.

 

The front one was full of dandelions, & the grass was about 10 cm long.

 

When I mowed the back grass I thought the mower had broken, it wasn't picking up any grass. Over the winter the girls have kept the grass short- but I still do have grass, & not a weed in sight

 

I only let them free range for short times during the winter, & then only when the grass was dry.

My cunning plan to save my grass worked!!!!!

[Patricia W]

Mine definitely prefer the borders to grass. The only damage has been the areas under trees that are full of moss. These are now bare - but I'm collecting the moss for the hanging baskets!