Grass for Chickens-Taking a look at the natural health benefit provided by this everyday green

Thank you for your article. We had let all our grass die off because of water restrictions here in Southern California. We decided to lay a couple rolls of sod in the chicken run to give them greens to eat, they seem much happy for it. They keep the grass short, so we don't need to mow. Having 9 chickens and hope to add a few more, we will probably increase that area from 9 to 65 square feet.

Thankyou for all the great info!! We let our chickens (29 plus Roscoe the rooster) free range and they peck and scratch at all sorts of things. We did plant a few patches of oats and rye for them as well; along with every so often, mulching the taller grass in their chicken yard . We recently got our garden in and found out in a quick hurry that some of our plants needed protection from our two legged friends!!!

Thanks for the info. My girls are not happy unless they can go and graze through the yard everyday.

Good article - good information
We planted wheat grass for our chickens. The love it

Excellent article. Great pictures.

I've been looking for this information and here it is all in one spot Thanks for posting this!

Also, to keep my backyard from turning into a mud pit, I periodically pick up their poo 2-3 times a week. I only have 7 girls so it's manageable. There are several benefits to this:

• Yard does not turn into a dirt pile. If you just leave the poo in the yard, inevitably, the acidic poo will burn the grass and create a new potential hole in the lawn so one way or another its gotta come up.
• Collect the poo and create compost with it. If you're also a gardener, this is an excellent opportunity to make your own gold standard compost. I have a 55 gallon drum that I put the poo in after I collect it. I add other yard waste to the same bin and just let nature do it's thing. After it fills up, I let it sit and within a few months I have amazing compost I add back to my garden.
• You don't need to mow your grass nearly as often. This surprised me. Here it is, June 1st and yesterday was the first time I've mowed my backyard all year. Meanwhile my neighbors have been at it once a week for a couple months now. The girls naturally keep the lawn at a good length just by doing their thing. The clippings that I did cut were collected and added into my composter.

Tip: Collect your coffee grinds as well and use a lawn spreader to naturally fertilize the grass so that it grows a bit fuller and quicker. It's safe for the chickens and will add beneficial additives your soil.

Very nice lists of plants for chickens to eat. I like the categories. More pictures to help folks identify plants would make it better.

Thank you

Great information! I didn't know how healthy grass was!

I learned a lot and remembered stuff, too. Thanks. Great article.

Great article. Thank you. I also have lost all of my grass after getting my chickens though and would love to know how I can have some for them. How do you keep it growing for them, without them turning it all to dirt like they've done here?

Well done ! Good information here !

Great info! But how do you keep your lawn alive with chickens? Ive had my chickens a year now, and not a blade of grass in sight! Our yard used to have grass, but since the chickens have moved in, just dirt. Any tips?

Good content, but it needed better proofreading prior to posting. There's no good excuse for not correcting typos and grammar prior to posting.

Having recently, by chance, discovered the protein levels in grass, and then done a bit of research and discovered the other goodies it offers our chooks, I thought about sharing my new-found knowledge with BYCers, then I searched to see if anyone had already done it, and you had - and you've done it really well - thanks! I wish I'd found your article sooner.

I had no idea that grass was so healthy for chickens, nor that long blades of grass could caused crop problems, and so much more. Lots to learn from this artice

Great article! I didn't know that buttercups were bad, thank you!

thanks for the info!

Also gives them great exercise and fresh air! Great article! Thank you!