Carontheroad
In the Brooder
I’ve noticed that most posts show lovely green grass for free ranging their chickens. I wanted to connect with people that have NO grass at all because they live in the woods. Only the forest floor material. What benefits or challenges have you had with this type of scenario?
I’m trying to seed out a bit of clover outside their closed run so that they have something to free range on. We also live on a side of a small mountain and they don’t typically venture up it into the woods much but so far we only let them out for a few hours before dusk due to fear of predators. Our 2 1/2 acre property is mostly hilly so establishing large fenced in areas is difficult due to the land being unlevel and the mountain rock is not far below the surface in many places. We don’t have unlimited water in our well where we can water large areas if we did want to try and plant grass.
On the plus side, there is alot of trees and visually interesting areas for them to explore but this also comes with alot of predator hiding spots. We did have a hawk (or maybe a juvenile eagle) get into our open run section last year, no casualties because our chicken area is right next to the house and I heard and saw the ruckus. We later strung some blank CD discs over half of the open run and put two plastic crows in their run and this seems to work so far. The CD discs reflect different colours (even into our house) and has a festive feel which was a bonus surprise. I think it would also help to keep flighty chickens in. The fencing for the walk in run is secured around trees and there are trees inside the run. Part of the run has a chicken wire roof but mainly to keep chickens in as not strong enough to keep predators out. The coop is large and built like Fort Knox so nothing getting in there. Due to our terrain a chicken tractor is out of the question but I would love some ideas about keeping the run floor from being just dirt. I currently have 3 rectangle boxes with hardware cloth on top in the run that I’m trying to grow plants in so the chickens can pick at whatever grows past the cloth but hopefully won’t uproot the whole plant.
There is a raven that keeps coming to “visit”, landing in the trees or a shed just outside of the open run. It flies off when we go outside to check. I read that ravens will want to eat pullets but not mature hens. I do have 4 week old pullets that will be joining the others in a few months. There was no problem last year with the pullets. I’m not sure why the raven keeps visiting. I like to think he is protecting the flock from the overhead eagles and hawks that are always in our skies but that might just be wishful thinking.
We also have black bears that come through our property in spring and fall on their way to wherever they spend the winter. Two were on the coop deck last year but seemed more interested in the aluminum garbage can that they were rifling through that had empty feed bags in it. They didn’t seem to notice the chickens in the run and funnily the chickens weren’t alarmed either. We had to go outside with the bear horn and also scoot the chickens into the coop.
Anyway, that’s some of our experiences of woodland living with chickens and would love to hear what others are experiencing. I sometimes wistfully look at these nicely grassed yards and fields that chicken owners have but then I remember how much I love our wilderness lifestyle.
I’m trying to seed out a bit of clover outside their closed run so that they have something to free range on. We also live on a side of a small mountain and they don’t typically venture up it into the woods much but so far we only let them out for a few hours before dusk due to fear of predators. Our 2 1/2 acre property is mostly hilly so establishing large fenced in areas is difficult due to the land being unlevel and the mountain rock is not far below the surface in many places. We don’t have unlimited water in our well where we can water large areas if we did want to try and plant grass.
On the plus side, there is alot of trees and visually interesting areas for them to explore but this also comes with alot of predator hiding spots. We did have a hawk (or maybe a juvenile eagle) get into our open run section last year, no casualties because our chicken area is right next to the house and I heard and saw the ruckus. We later strung some blank CD discs over half of the open run and put two plastic crows in their run and this seems to work so far. The CD discs reflect different colours (even into our house) and has a festive feel which was a bonus surprise. I think it would also help to keep flighty chickens in. The fencing for the walk in run is secured around trees and there are trees inside the run. Part of the run has a chicken wire roof but mainly to keep chickens in as not strong enough to keep predators out. The coop is large and built like Fort Knox so nothing getting in there. Due to our terrain a chicken tractor is out of the question but I would love some ideas about keeping the run floor from being just dirt. I currently have 3 rectangle boxes with hardware cloth on top in the run that I’m trying to grow plants in so the chickens can pick at whatever grows past the cloth but hopefully won’t uproot the whole plant.
There is a raven that keeps coming to “visit”, landing in the trees or a shed just outside of the open run. It flies off when we go outside to check. I read that ravens will want to eat pullets but not mature hens. I do have 4 week old pullets that will be joining the others in a few months. There was no problem last year with the pullets. I’m not sure why the raven keeps visiting. I like to think he is protecting the flock from the overhead eagles and hawks that are always in our skies but that might just be wishful thinking.
We also have black bears that come through our property in spring and fall on their way to wherever they spend the winter. Two were on the coop deck last year but seemed more interested in the aluminum garbage can that they were rifling through that had empty feed bags in it. They didn’t seem to notice the chickens in the run and funnily the chickens weren’t alarmed either. We had to go outside with the bear horn and also scoot the chickens into the coop.
Anyway, that’s some of our experiences of woodland living with chickens and would love to hear what others are experiencing. I sometimes wistfully look at these nicely grassed yards and fields that chicken owners have but then I remember how much I love our wilderness lifestyle.
I definitely don't have a 'grassy' area, I have beach-side jungle. I have definitely found my issues. 
