Suzy's Chicken Tractor vs. The Lawn
When I was first deciding if I wanted a tractor, I asked this question. What the heck is it going to do to my lawn? I see other people ask this question from time to time. Now I have the answer, and I thought I would share it. Here are some photos of what my tractor does to my lawn in a week.Here are my facts:
I have four hens in a 4x8 run. I move the coop and run daily (which takes less then five minutes). My lawn is a pretty well-established mix of grass and weeds. These photos were taken in October in Central PA. The weather had been partly rainy, and partly sunny that week. It takes a full week for my lawn to recover from a single day with the chickens. There is a trail of little rectangles where the tractor had been. Sometimes the chickens leave me little dust-bath holes. They look a lot like the holes I dig weekly with our zero-turn mower, though, so we're kind of used to them.
Here are my photos:
Sunday The hens are in their tractor scratching up my grass. | |
Saturday The hens were here yesterday. | |
Friday The hens were here 2 days ago. | |
Thursday The hens were here 3 days ago. | |
Wednesday The hens were here 4 days ago. | |
Tuesday The hens were here 5 days ago. | |
Monday The hens were here 6 days ago. | |
I couldn't be sure where the hens were on the previous Sunday. The lawn had recovered. Here's a shot of the total area where the tractor had traveled during the week. | |
the coop and days 1 and 2 | |
days 3, 4, and 5 | |
days 6, and 7 | |
days 8, and 9 | |
days 10, and 11 The lawn was still pretty rugged two weeks after the hens had occupied it. | |