Chicken bald back

[CallyChook]

Last year my garden was just home to four large fowl, and with regular poo picking there was never a smell or issue with disease/pests. However, this year there are seventeen birds in the same space and while there is still plenty of room for them, I realise I will need to do more by way of maintainance to keep the free ranging space fresh and hygienic.

 

I was recommended to buy stalosan F powder, but have also heard that garden lime (the non caustic stuff!) is great for scattering on the ground. Does anyone have any advice about which would be best? My grass is now barely existant, with the ground basically a scratched up soil and muddy pit, but it does seem to grow back to a degree over the summer months! Is it ok to just repeatedly put the stalosan down or does it build up toxicity and eventually kill the grass?

 

Any ideas on keeping some grass going would be great, I really dont fancy having to put chippings or mulch of any kind down, and the area is far too big to put a cover over.

[C&T]

Stalosan is great at killing any bugs and nasties that can build up in a run etc, and garden lime can help combat any smell. Both are sensible things to be using from what I understand.

 

Neither will help your grass grow back though! And the only thing that will protect the grass is keeping the chooks off it... I think you have to resign yourself to having no grass in that area - especially over the coming Autumn and Winter months - and putting something else down instead like wood chip.

[CallyChook]

I was wondering about putting plastic mesh down and pinning it with skewers? Stuff like this: http://www.just-green.com/2239/Just-Green-Garden-Fencing-Mesh.html so that the grass can grow between the holes, but my big birds can't do foot long scratches in it and get the roots up. It's mostly because I have silkies and polands, and the last thing I want is for their run to turn into a mudbath and have to keep bathing them all winter!!

[C&T]

Would have thought come winter, with the grass not growing, the chooks would still eat all the grass that was left through the mesh, and you would still end up with a load of dirt/mud?

 

They certainly shortened our grass last winter, and the only thing I could do so as not to lose all the "green" was to keep them off the grass completely. (They made a great job of sorting our the veg patch for me instead - eating any slugs/snails and eggs and mixing in the compost ready for the spring!!!!)

[alet_chicken]

Hi Callychook, in the past I have pegged down mesh in the way that you describe, to protect fragile parts of the lawn (outside their run), and to allow newly seeded patches to grow. B&Q and Wilkinsons sell a 1.5m x 5m roll of plastic mesh, which I have found a convenient size to manoeuvre (but it's probably not as strong as the stuf that you have linked to).

 

It may be worth keeping an eye out initially to check that they don't get their toes caught in the mesh (but they will learn quickly not to scratch on the mesh). Be warned that their poo will still crust on top of the mesh (sorry for the graphic detail ), and this might kill the grass anyway if not removed. They will trample the grass (if it's a small area) and they will eat all the grass sticking through the mesh.

 

In short, putting the mesh in their run will certainly prevent any nasty craters, but in my experience will not prevent muddiness. Best thing for the lawn really is to keep them off it.

 

My run base is soil-and-woodchip and though I don't have fancy chickens (and I never wash them ) I have found they stay clean enough as long as it's dry (my run is covered). Another option might be to go for a hard base, with horse bedding/woodchip.

 

Hope this helps a bit.

[karlotta]

I've used Stalosan in the past and found it to be great. I've also been wondering about Garden Lime and all the garden centres round here seem to sell it only in pellet form - I was expecting a powder?

 

Where does everyone get their Garden Lime?

[alet_chicken]

I bought some garden lime from B&Q a couple of months ago, and it was a powder in a box if I remember correctly.