Great article on using hay and very nice to reuse what a garden or land has to offer.
Hay is my favorite bedding for nest-boxes. Chicken comfort to lay an egg. ? The chickens like to eat some of it when they take their time to lay an egg or hormones make them broody.
I have only 100m2 of lawn to gather grass for hay. But this is enough to make a few boxes ? of shortcut hay. I don’t like it to let it grow higher then 6 or 7 cm, cutting it at 3 cm gives me lengths of max 4 cm. I find the short hay no problem at all.
When the weather forecast are good (no rain ) its the best time to make hay.
I use 2 methods:
- 1. Mow and leave the grass on the lawn to dry. Gather it after it dried (max 2 days) with a rake.
The advantage of this method is that the small clippings stay in the lawn and feed the lawn.
- 2. Gather the grass with the mower. And put the grass in a few mesh boxes they use in garden centres and let it dry/ rake it a few times. The smallest pieces fall through so the hay isn’t getting dusty.
the advantage of this method us that we can use the lawn immediately.