Are grass clippings bad for your chickens?

[Keltara]

Some of our hens will even follow the mower! I also give them all of the weeds and I pull out of the gardens and let them forage for the few worms and grubs that make it into the bucket.

Mine follow my riding mower. They love when I stir up insects and they also go crazy for the mulched clippings.

 

[ozarkchicks]

grass clippings shouldn't be bad for them, they love the insects too!

 

[Fifi-le-chick]

Hi,
This is my first post. I have had chickens for one year now and have used BYC as a great reference during these early days.

I have just 3 Brahma hens and a cock named Basil. They live in a run the whole time as I cannot let them free range. They have scratched up all the Grass that was growing there and I was wondering about putting down the Grass clippings in the run as ground cover. I suppose I would get about three mower bags each time I mow, would this be too much to put in in one go?

Any suggestions for ground cover would be great. I don't like the idea of gravel or sand

 

[coffeychicks]

My girls love when I dump the mower bags in their run. I have been doing it for 3 years and never a problem but I don't use chemicals either I just dump it in piles and let the scratch their way threw it

 

[Irishhenman]

Hens love grass cuttings, but just make sure they are not much longer than 2-3" because hens can get impacted crop

 

[Fifi-le-chick]

Thank you for the advice.

I put in a big bag of clippings in a pile, they loved it then I went out for a couple of hours. When I came back there was a thin layer on the ground and not much else. I hope they had fun as I will definitely do this now after each cut, I hope it helps with the bare ground problem, giving them something to scratch at other than just bare earth.

 

[Sunnysidedown]

I was going to post a similar question and ran across your thread.
We too have used grass clippings for about 2 months now (in the run, not the coop) and it does seem to work out very well. Like others have said I dump it in a pile or 2 and before you know it the hens (5 here) have turned the piles into a 2" shag carpet in the run. The grass absorbs the poop great and after about a week I'll rake it up and add it to the compost piles and replace with fresh clippings. Grass clippings are high in moisture so 2" deep is good enough for it to dry out quickly and not get clumpy/moldy. Since it is so moist and green I do not use it inside the coop but rather use dryer pine shavings for coop floor and nesting boxes. Good to know too about the shorter the clippings the better for digesting. Our "lawn" is just a mix of wild grasses and weeds with clover, no fert or other treatments involved, just rain. When I mow I try to concentrate on the clover areas to bag up mostly for the run. My 2 cents.

 

[coffeychicks]

My girls love clover I let mine run every evening so they can scratch and peck

 

[mamasoldier]

My chicks love grass clippings they play in them roll in them and eat them.. I have 11 hens and they get 2 bags of clippings a week. Never had issues

 

[marbleheather]

This is such a great idea and exactly the kind of information I was looking for! Thank you! My run is just starting to turn to muck but this week I will mow and put the grass clippings in.