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

[Eland]

In the photos on the Omlet website the chicken runs are always standing on perfectly manicured lawns. Why then does mine look as though it's been trimmed with a chainsaw?

 

My chickens love creating holes in the grass, digging for bugs and then taking a nap in the hole! Is this normal? Is there anyway to prevent my grass being destroyed? Or should I be looking for a new site using wood chippings as a base?

 

Any advice much appreciated...

[Chunky_Monkey]

Don't worry, we had our girls for under 3 months and all of the grass is all gone in their area of about 30ftx20ft! It's nice to know someone has hardly any grass left; I always see pictures of peoples chickens and they're always surrounded by grass

 

Moving the run regularly might help a little, but probably giving them a permanent area with wood chips would work better.

[Redwing]

Put the Eglu in a permenant spot and fence a larger area off for them to free range in and ban them from the rest of the garden

 

It will be a nightmare in winter as it stands and you will be forever stepping in chicken poo!

[Ain't Nobody Here]

I reclaimed my lawn after returfing it and now confine the girls to the flowerbeds . A permanent site is the only way .

[Eland]

Thanks for the replies and advice. Now I know what I'll be doing tomorrow - creating a new site for the chickens...

 

Are wood chippings best? Or are there other options to consider?

[Ain't Nobody Here]

Any kind of horse bedding is brilliant - magically dries up and absorbs the poos and the chickens love scratching about in it.

 

There are a few types - Hemcore, Easibed, Aubiose, Bliss, Nedzbedz to name a few . I've used the first two and they are both excellent.

 

You do have to keep your run covered, however, as if the bedding gets wet it goes soggy and can get smelly. Corrugated plastic sheets or shower curtains are ideal.

[smokiechicken1969]

Hi eland,

 

no, its not normal what your chickens have done to your grass. what would be normal is if they ALSO trashed your flower beds, stole from the strawberry planters, digged up all of your seedlings and pooped over every bit of furniture or decking you owned.

 

they are lovely though and they give me far more pleasue than the lawn ever did.

 

i think if you follow the fantasic advice on this forum you can have the best of both worlds.

 

 

the tip from ANH on horse bedding works really well i have found.

 

hope you have fun

 

 

 

 

x

[Space Chick]

We planted some Brussels sprouts from seed. Lovingly nurtured them indoors first, planted them out and marvelled at how they grew. The became about a foot high and really taking shape, thats when my garden terrorists stepped in and scoffed the lot.

 

Good job I am going away for Christmas otherwise I'd be having a sprout free Christmas lunch

 

Grass, I vaguely remember that too, green stuff like a carpet if I recall

[smokiechicken1969]

arhhhgg haha thats brilliant. did they ask for any roast potatos with them?

 

they key to what you have just said is 'lovingly' nutured. thats where you've gone wrong. if you hadnt been bothered about the brussels your girls would have definately left them alone.

 

love the image of them being 'garden terrorists', can just see them dressed in little balaclavas and lowering themselves onto the flower beds by ropes.

[AJuff]

Our chooks are digging for Australia . . under the tree outsdie the kitchen. I walked past the tree today and wondered what was sticking up from the grass . . it was the tip of a beak!!! The hole is huge and getting deeper by the day. They have dug up the red onions at least five times, stole pots of strawberries and eaten all the runner beans!

[legend21]

Our beetroot fell prey to the garden terrorists, do you think they communicate with each other up and down the country.

[sjp]

I must be the only person on here thats still got a lawn that chickens have free access to and I've had to mow it today mind i had to remove half the slate path from it first

[Janty]

Our garden is only just recovering and they have been in a WIR since June.

 

[AJuff]

I have grass . . a beautiful lush green grass with no weeds in it at all. That's round the side of the house and is carefully managed. When it starts looking a bit sorry I remove them from it and they get the back garden instead. I keep swapping them over . . . until the winter. . .

[Chook n Boo Mum]

We have grass, but little in our pots...including the arum lily which I had lovingly nurtured for about 5 years until it was discovered & instantly trashed after the snow earlier in the year..... and the WIR is bare of any green now except for the tree shoots which pop up in there & are duly ignored by all the feathered monsters

 

We call their dustbaths in the lawn "ankle breakers" as that could so easily happen in the dark if you don't know they are there...or when the grass needs mowing as it does at the moment...they are easily big enough to lose a Pekin in and some can even hold an Orpie with no problem....these are under a low growing tree so less likely to injure anyone

 

Sha x

[Jules.]

I stil have grass

 

Taken in the summer 08

 

 

And in November 08

 

Just restrict the free ranging to when its dry

 

the grass still looks the same today, lovely & lush

[Chucky Mama]

I must be the only person on here thats still got a lawn that chickens have free access to and I've had to mow it today mind i had to remove half the slate path from it first

 

Spooky, exactly the same as us even down to the slate on the lawn. I do have to stick up for our chooks. They have all day free range access to our garden and our lawn is lovely, all moss having been removed by the girls. They have dug dustbaths and beds for mid morning snoozes under shrubs which are not a problem. They have also scratched around in the flowerbeds reducing weeds and producing the most fantastic light soil. My only 2 niggles are my japanese azaleas which they find irresistable and my pototoes which I planted in dustbins that they stole to tops off and killed. I do have to make makeshift 'cloche' type protectors for any new small plants until they are tough enough to withstand nearby scratching when they first go in the ground. The grass under the cube is fine as they spend so little time in the run and it gets moved once a week a few feet. Our chickens have made good use of our garden, lets face it with the weather this summer there has been little opportunity to sit out in it ourselves

[TAJ]

I also still have plenty of grass - infact they have improved it - they dug out the moss and ate the weeds and left the fertilised grass. I use Omlet netting in the garden and find if they always have access to a soil area as well as grass they dig in the soil and just eat the grass. The cube is on a patio area and with netting they have about half the garden at any time for free ranging.

 

Tracy

[Eland]

Great stories and photos! Not sure whether to laugh or cry!! Still, my lawn was never that good to start with so at least I now have have an excuse

[cavysqueak]

We gave up on our lawn & had to restrict the girls to half of the garden! We didn't want to, as we liked them coming up to the back door to day hello & dancing around your feet whenever you went out, but there was just brown soil where our lawn used to be.

 

We've since re-turfed half of the lawn & it looks great, but I feel sorry for the girls who look through the chicken wire at it hungrily! Good luck for keeping your lawn green!

[debbier]

In the photos on the Omlet website the chicken runs are always standing on perfectly manicured lawns.

 

That would be the picture where there is no poo in it either? They must have had the chooks standing by in the Eglu, with the door shut, on virgin grass, with the photographer standing by to snap them as soon as they were released!

[TAJ]

In the photos on the Omlet website the chicken runs are always standing on perfectly manicured lawns.

 

That would be the picture where there is no poo in it either? They must have had the chooks standing by in the Eglu, with the door shut, on virgin grass, with the photographer standing by to snap them as soon as they were released!

 

I think the chickens were added by computer afterwards!

 

Tracy

[BocBoc]

Snap!

 

We have a permanant area for them now - on bark chippings

[Eland]

In the photos on the Omlet website the chicken runs are always standing on perfectly manicured lawns.

 

That would be the picture where there is no poo in it either? They must have had the chooks standing by in the Eglu, with the door shut, on virgin grass, with the photographer standing by to snap them as soon as they were released!

 

 

Don't get me started on the poo! How can so much come out of such small and otherwise lovely creatures? And for some reason my children are determined to head straight for it!

[Hen Watch]

Mine is not as lovely looking as Jules. lawn (great pics).

 

My first winter, they ate all the grass and turned it into mud.

 

 

2nd winter, I changed tactics. I put the eglu on the patio, Auboise bedding on run floor (covered run) and NEVER let them out on really wet days. The lawn was really munched and short, but it was ok and came through the winter.

 

I do have them on the other side of the garden in summer which is where they are now. So the winter spot has all summer long to grow and recover. But come October I will be moving them over to the patio ready for winter number 3.