Wire on the ground-Wire on the ground

[mjdtexan]

Has anybody here had any success with putting chicken wire on the ground to prevent the chickens from scratching all the grass up. I dont mind it so much that they have taken the grass but they are continueing to scratch the dirt and now that area is becoming lower than the rest of the yard creating Hen Lake when we have rains.

My idea is this- Create a new run on the other side of the hen house with wire on the ground. While they are running around this new yard (hopefully not scratching the grass out) I can fill in the old yard with good dirt and resodding it. Once that grows I can alternate between the runs to keep it green

Sounds like this will work or no?

 

[onthespot]

maybe you can put a raised wire floor, say, exactly two inches tall and they will just eat what sticks up through the wire and you can move your tractor around and never mow or fertilize again!

 

[gsim]

Quote:
I did 600 sq ft of my run with 1/2" sq plastic mesh that looks like the hardware cloth mesh. it lies flat on the ground and all strips are fastened together with tie wire. The grass should grow up through it. Too soon to tell if it will work. Was slow and labor-intensive. I thought of what you want to do and decided that it takes so long to get grass to where it has a deep hardy root system that chooks cannot destroy, that it would just be better to do what I did. Will know more as the year goes on. My aim was to keep them in live greens all year. You will have to keep them off of it a year to get any really good roots.

 

[mjdtexan]

Quote:
I did 600 sq ft of my run with 1/2" sq plastic mesh that looks like the hardware cloth mesh. it lies flat on the ground and all strips are fastened together with tie wire. The grass should grow up through it. Too soon to tell if it will work. Was slow and labor-intensive. I thought of what you want to do and decided that it takes so long to get grass to where it has a deep hardy root system that chooks cannot destroy, that it would just be better to do what I did. Will know more as the year goes on. My aim was to keep them in live greens all year. You will have to keep them off of it a year to get any really good roots.

Hey, thank you. I will be looking forward to hear how this is going to work for you.

I am thinking of making a coop tractor and putting a chicken wire floor in that just to see if that will work before I commit all that chicken wire to the ground. Another concern I am having is if the chicken will hurt itself in an effort to do what is normal for the chicken to do. In other words, will the chicken scratch at the wire because chickens are hard wired to scratch?

I am gonna do that in the next couple of days, build the small tractor with the wire floor.

 

[WestKnollAmy]

You mean you can have grass and chickens, too?

Anyone ever wonder why the old farmers and ranchers never had a grassy yard in the old days? Chickens!

 

[mjdtexan]

Quote:
Yes, I've thought of that. My issue is that I provide a "run" for them that is totally covered so that predators can not get at the chickens and I just feel like I should do something to provide them the green they obviously want. Kind of a respect thing if you will.

 

[philhyde]

Related question - is there a lawn grass you can have that chickens won't eat?

 

[mjdtexan]

Quote:
I dunno about that chicken repelling grass. Good question that.

P.S.- In my threads I dont care if you stay on topic or not. I just let them go where the conversation takes it. Its all good

 

[philhyde]

Cool.

It would be very nice to have ornamental grass that they don't find tasty.

 

[alicefelldown]

Having wire on the ground wouldn't stop chickens from trying to scratch. It's what they do. I'd be very concerned about injuries to their feet.