Barren Run Does Not Equal No Greens for Chickens

[tomcatbubba]

Hi all, I just wanted to share some wisdom from my own flock. I've been rotating runs so my birds have some fresh greens and even after months of "nuking" a run that looks like it will never grow a living thing, within weeks of moving the birds out it looks like the Amazon jungle. So....even if you have your chickens on only one run, they are constantly grooming weeds and grass that emerge, so it may look like they aren't getting any fresh greens, but they most certainly are. It may not be the same as free ranging, but I don't subscribe to the wisdom that chickens in a run don't get fresh greens.

 

[Den in Penn]

Rotating runs is a good way to keep them green. Not every one has the space to build a run complex. Certainly if the run is big enough sprouting plants can give them some thing, usually not enough though. A lot depends on the climate you have.