Chicken pastures complete. Pics on #19

[patman75]

I'm adding a chicken fenced in pasture attached to my run. The chickens will not have full time access to the pasture. They will only have access to the pasture when I get home from work (2 hours in th evening) and when I'm around on the weekends. This will also help the pasture recover when the chickens are locked inside the run.

The pasture is also attached to the garden so from late fall to early spring they will have double the area. Which doesn't matter at all in the winter because they wont leave the coop or run with the snow.

So the big question is how big do I have to make the pasture so that the chickens eat and destroy everything? I have 12 hens.

Thanks everyone.

 

[j3707]

Can't tell you exactly, but here's my experience: Over the last couple years I've probably averaged 80 sq. ft./hen...free access all day and still plenty of green grass. 'Course they jump the fence and forage in the woods sometimes.

I'd give a WAG of 50 sq. ft./bird for your situation. If you've got the space, go bigger.

And with your plan of limiting access to pasture, you get to decide when it's overgrazed. You've got all the cards buddy!

Might also want to experiment with some raised beds covered w/poultry wire. You could grow some nice greens and keep them protected. Trying that out myself this year.

Good luck...

 

[patandchickens]

Well, realize that some areas probably *will* get rather shaggy and bare-looking (typically around the door to the coop, in shady spots in summer, and anywhere they happen to decide to dig dusting holes).

Considering your area on the whole, though, if the chickens are only out there 2 hrs a day and you have pretty good grass-growing conditions (soil, precip, etc), geez, I dunno, I'm going to say maybe 25-50 sq ft per chicken?

As the previous poster so accurately says, "you hold all the cards buddy" LOL -- if they are chewin' it down too much, give them less time on the grass til it recovers; or you can subdivide the area so that you give them access to one half of it and let the other half rest for a couple months.

The important thing to remember, when you are doing controlled or rotational grazing, is to never let the grass get beat up TOO bad (not grazed too short or too badly scratched up). It should still look like you could easily let 'em graze it more. Otherwise you start depleting the grass's stored energy and roots start dying (then, grass plants start dying), and it gets more and more fragile and bounces back less and less.

With your setup, you should be able to play it by ear and get good results.

Good luck, have fun,

Pat

 

[Fred's Hens]

Agree with the wisdom above. You'll need a half acre for those dozen hens at minimum, but that based on our rainfall, not yours. If you have an acre, and can section it off into 4 pastures of 1/4 acre each, to rotate, they'll never bald it off, with timely rains. Without rotation, even a 1/4 acre pasture can take a pounding. With rotation, the droppings have a chance to blend and actually spur the grasses to thicken and flourish. To sum up: rotation is more important that sheer size.

 

[patman75]

Thanks Pat and j3707.

Your right about if I see that the pasture needs a break I can just keep them locked in the run for a while. I want to make sure they have access to a much greens as possible to keep them happy, healthy and out of my landscaping

The area that I have for them just has grass with maybe a few dandilions and clover, it needs more good stuff for them. I'm going to rotoliller 1/2 of it and plant a pasture mix for them. I will have to keep the out of the newly planted area for a good chunk of the spring/summer until it gets established. Then in the fall I will rototill the other side so that the whole area has a good mix for them. I have plenty of compost and the chickens have been in that area late last fall and this spring already so I should be good on soil nutrients for the pasture.

I'm also going to try a salad bar in the run. A clover mix under some chicken wire raised 2-3 inches off the ground.

I have the room so I'm going to shoot for 50+ ft sq per bird.

 

[patman75]

Fred's Hens :

Agree with the wisdom above. You'll need a half acre for those dozen hens at minimum, but that based on our rainfall, not yours. If you have an acre, and can section it off into 4 pastures of 1/4 acre each, to rotate, they'll never bald it off, with timely rains. Without rotation, even a 1/4 acre pasture can take a pounding. With rotation, the droppings have a chance to blend and actually spur the grasses to thicken and flourish. To sum up: rotation is more important that sheer size.

thanks fred

you make some good points too.... now you got me thinking about adding a few doors to the run and have a few different pastures...hhmmm.​

 

[patandchickens]

Quote:
Can I make a suggestion that will save you lots of aggravation and probably result in a better pasture anyhow?

DON'T rototill. Just overseed, and also quit mowing so low and you will find there is a lot more biodiversity waitin' to pop up (i.e. "weeds"

) than you might've thought. If the existing turf is really dense and you don't think that whatever it is you wanna overseed will be able to come up through it, just rototill some little *patches*, to make islands of <whatever you're seeding in>.

Not only will this let you get the chickens out there more sooner, it will give you healthier plants and probably at least as much plant diversity as if you ripped the whole plot up.

The only reason I could see for ripping the whole thing up would be if you had some noxious weed you were trying to get rid of, or if the soil was in poor shape and needed loosening/amending. Neither sound like they apply to you.

Good luck, have fun,

Pat

 

[Fred's Hens]

Totally agree. If you roto till, the soil will be too loose and garden like. You want to leave the root system of the old sod in place. Chickens will tear up loose soil. As they fertilize, even poorer "lawns" and fields become rich and lush. Truly.

 

[patman75]

Make all the suggestions you want, I'm listening

I have heavy clay loam soil. A soggy mess in the spring and hard as a rock in July. The turf is a mix of perennial rye, creeping fescue and Kentucky blue. There is also a mix of weeds, but not too many good weeds where the chickens are. I have not used weed killer in over 3 years. I already cut my lawn on the highest setting. The turf is very dense.

The lot was an old farm field that had been farmed for decades and is very nutrient deficient. My first year with my garden was a disaster nothing grew well and my onions where the size of my thumb. The 2nd year garden with chicken compost and bags of leaves helped a lot. Everything was 3 times bigger. Even the trees I planted did not grown until I put a chicken tractor under them.

Do you still think rototilling is too much? Maybe some shallow tilling just so the seeds can take?

 

[trinityfly]

We keep about 20 chickens and they can free range on about an acre of fenced in forest. (Big Fir and Pine with some Oak). The forest floor is "duff" mostly fir, oak and pine tree droppings. The birds destroy most every plant that tries to get a foot hold on that acre, including young trees. Over a summer the forest floor looks like it has been turned over by a rototiller. They even eat some of the numerous mushrooms that grow from the duff. I have tried to limit the time the chickens can spend in the field but even so the minute anything green pops up the birds eat it. I figure I would have to keep the chickens out of the field for a year or more to allow seedlings to get restarted and then would have to try to protect the plants once the chickens have been let out.

No greater love huh?

Good luck with your problem