Chicken repellant???

[peterjarmo]

I'm a new chicken owner, I have had 8 pullets (5mos old) for about a month now. We try to free range them for a few hours a day and have noticed that they tend to favor certain parts of our lawn and have been eating the grass down to the roots in these certain areas. Is there any sort of natural spray we can spray on these parts of the lawn to keep the chickens moving along so we can rehab these areas in the lawn? Its ok if theyre on the lawn just not on the same spot all day... With dogs you can spray a rosemary oil spray in areas which will keep the dogs away; I'm looking for the chicken equivalent if it exists...
Thanks for any ideas.

 

[WalkingOnSunshine]

Sorry, nothing to help you. Chickens are hell on landscaping. The only chicken repellent that truly works is a good fence.

 

[Pele]

Your best bet is to either sacrafice a part of your lawn, or buy a chicken tractor to direct their ranging.

The tractor is like a little mobile coop, that you move around to different parts of the yard. So each day you can move them to a new patch, and let the previous patch recover.

 

[WoodlandWoman]

You can buy a roll of fencing and make a circle around these areas, temporarily. I would also try sprouting something like wheat grass and also offer some other dark leafy greens. Chickens usually act starved for green feed, if they haven't been getting them for awhile.

You can offer the other green feed to them while they're in the run. If they eat their fill, it may keep them from being so hard on those spots.

Is there a particular type of grass or other green growing in these patches? If it's the same as the rest of the yard, I don't know why they like these particular spots.

Edited to add, I find that a rigid wire, like 2x4 welded wire, stands on it's own just fine without any posts in a modest sized circle. It's large expanses that need support. For one spot, you could leave it on the roll, just unroll some of it. For a couple of spots, you can cut an appropriate length and close the circle with a clip or wire wraps.

 

[Alaskan]

I think a roll of standing wire would be ugly.

I would build a frame, or a few frames with chicken wire on the frame.

Think a big picture frame, and the picture part is wire. Then, put these over the bare spots. The frame only has to be two to four inches high, and will be easy to move around as needed, and since they are right on the ground will not be much of an eyesore.

I have used something like the frame idea in my chicken run to grow grass for the chickens to eat.

 

[cafarmgirl]

If they are fenced away from one bare spot they are just going to make another one someplace else. You've only had them for a month, it's only going to get worse. I would suggest fencing in an area elsewhere for them to roam about in. Make sure it's a spot where you don't care if there is not a single growing thing and that there are holes dug all over the place for dust bathing!

 

[peterjarmo]

Well thanks for all the suggestions. Sounds like I'm going to have to physically block them, I've got some fencing stuff I can make something up with... I was hoping there was some sort of spray they'd be averse to but doesn't sound like it...
It's strange that they favor the certain areas because it's all fescue grass. Their favorite spots are areas that are always shaded throughout the day, maybe the lack of sunlight makes that grass taste better to them or something.

 

[SD Bird Lady]

It is the cool soil they are after. The shadier spots stay moist and cool so they dig/scratch into the soil and make nice places to bask and there are also generally more bugs in the cooler moist soil. At least that has been my experience as my flock loves laying and scratching under our cedar trees (not complaining they can't hurt them ugly things). Hope you can get it worked out. I think frames are your best bet. Then you can also move them into flower beds to keep cats from pooping there lol

 

[peterjarmo]

That would make sense about the cool soil. Well I was researching another problem; one of our wyandottes has had all her tail feathers plucked and I noticed a bleeding quil today and saw a few hens taking occasional pecks at her. Decided to pull the bleeding quils and sprayed her backside with blue woundkote.
In my research, though, I read a lot of advice saying to put pine tar on the feather pulling areas and the other chickens will stop because it tastes so bad to them. Anyways I think I'm going to get some pine tar or pine oil, dilute it down and then spray it in these lawn areas and see if it keeps the chickens moving past these spots. I'll keep you all posted, although it may not be for another week or so...

 

[Alaskan]

I would really worry that the pine tar would kill the grass.

I find it SO WIERD that your chickens have an entire yard to play in...and yet they are still eating each other.

I have had that problem just recently, I think that if one blood feather gets broken accidentally, then all the other chickens are attracted to that blood and just won't stop! *blach*

In my case, I found that the chicken being picked on, had to be cleaned up, and then separated for one to three days until the damage was healed enough that there were no more highly attractive pink or red areas.

You do want to make sure that it was a random accidental thing, and that the pecking/eating each other wasn't caused by an inadequate diet or being cooped up for too long in too small of a space.

Good Luck!