Newbie here. Have a coop but worried about weeds.

LunaChickie

In the Brooder
Jan 26, 2016
30
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So the place where I'm going to put my coop is just dirt. It was half of my garden (which I'm over dealing with for a while). We have struggled with this garden because my area is HORRIFICALLY plagued with morning glory. And as you know, once you have morning glory, you have morning glory. Otherwise it's a perfect spot for my run. I've never owned chickens before so I'm entirely green here. Does anyone have any ideas on how to put down some sort of base layer to at least keep the morning glory to a minimum? Will the chickens keep morning glory down?
 
There won't be a HUGE amount of space for the run itself. I'll be letting them free range for a bit in the backyard here and there but mostly in the run.

Man it'd be SO NICE if they'd do all the morning glory work for me haha
 
Welcome! If you put shavings, leaves, and hay down as mulch in the run area, your birds will mix it all up and kill anything green in the process. The weeds won't have a chance! Mary
 
Thanks guys! How often do you think the lower layer (run layer) will need to be replaced? Do they mix it up enough I can go for a while before replacing it?

I warned you. Greenie!!
 
Thanks guys! How often do you think the lower layer (run layer) will need to be replaced? Do they mix it up enough I can go for a while before replacing it?

I warned you. Greenie!!
Have you read about the Deep Litter method? You start with about 4" of pine needles, straw, leaves, as @Folly's place suggested, and let the chickens scratch it up, and you help at times by turning it over. You add more over time, and switch it out every so often as needed.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/643302/results-from-first-year-with-deep-litter-method
 
I wish my garden was big enough to give half of it to the chickens. If I were in your place, I would put the coop in the middle of the garden and enclose sections of the garden into paddocks. The coop would have a pop door on each wall that led to a different paddock and I'd rotate the birds through the different paddocks seasonally to fertilize and weed for me.
 
If your chickens are confined to a small area, the run then they will keep anything green from growing. Our run is 10 x 20 and nothing sprouts in there! However we do let them free range as well and as mentioned earlier Morning Glory is toxic to chickens. HOWEVER we do have Morning Glory all over the place and they leave it alone. Would prefer to get rid of the MG but as you said, once you have it it's there to stay. It does grow along the run on the outside and I just pull it up when I see it so it won't climb up the wire.
 

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