Shared a pic of my bright pink chicken tractor in another thread, and figured I'd share a little project I'm working on with the tractor.
Here's a picture of the tractor again. I bought it a few years ago off Craigslist. I didn't need it, but it was available for probably half the cost of the materials it'd take to make it, so I couldn't leave it.
Usually when someone has chickens in a tractor on grass, they'll move it often as to not have the chickens kill the grass. That got me thinking...the grass in my backyard is, well, bad. It's typical New England forest soil...thin, clay heavy, acidic. Nothing like the nice stuff I make in my chicken compost system.
So I got to thinking...what if I were to purposely left the chickens on the grass long enough for them to decimate the grass? The chickens would eat the grass and scratch up the soil. They'd even add their own fertilizer.
I can then move the tractor, put down some nice chicken run compost and plant grass. I put two chickens in the tractor with plenty of food and water. They get food scraps to snack on as well. They do their "chicken thing".
The fence and bins are to keep the dog, children, and geese off the freshly planted grass. It's slow going, but you can see the difference in the quality of the grass behind (new) and front (existing) grass.
Two recent enhancements I've done to cut down on compost sifting:
One is once the chickens have been in one spot for about two weeks, I give them about 20 gallons of unsifted compost in the tractor. They scratch it all around, eat any worms and bugs, and spread and break up the compost.
Second, I picked up a compost spreader that sifts and spreads compost pretty nicely. It's sped up the spreading of compost before I replant the grass.
So, I have happy chickens, a use for all that compost I'm making, and nicer grass. It's also been impressive seeing how the compost I'm putting down is changing the soil, including the water-holding capacity. A heavy rains forms puddles in parts of the yard that haven't gotten "the treatment". The areas that have? I haven't seen a quantity of rain they can't soak up and hold.
Anyway, I figured I'd share my slow-motion approach to upgrading the lawn via chickens.
Here's a picture of the tractor again. I bought it a few years ago off Craigslist. I didn't need it, but it was available for probably half the cost of the materials it'd take to make it, so I couldn't leave it.
Usually when someone has chickens in a tractor on grass, they'll move it often as to not have the chickens kill the grass. That got me thinking...the grass in my backyard is, well, bad. It's typical New England forest soil...thin, clay heavy, acidic. Nothing like the nice stuff I make in my chicken compost system.
So I got to thinking...what if I were to purposely left the chickens on the grass long enough for them to decimate the grass? The chickens would eat the grass and scratch up the soil. They'd even add their own fertilizer.
I can then move the tractor, put down some nice chicken run compost and plant grass. I put two chickens in the tractor with plenty of food and water. They get food scraps to snack on as well. They do their "chicken thing".
The fence and bins are to keep the dog, children, and geese off the freshly planted grass. It's slow going, but you can see the difference in the quality of the grass behind (new) and front (existing) grass.
Two recent enhancements I've done to cut down on compost sifting:
One is once the chickens have been in one spot for about two weeks, I give them about 20 gallons of unsifted compost in the tractor. They scratch it all around, eat any worms and bugs, and spread and break up the compost.
Second, I picked up a compost spreader that sifts and spreads compost pretty nicely. It's sped up the spreading of compost before I replant the grass.
So, I have happy chickens, a use for all that compost I'm making, and nicer grass. It's also been impressive seeing how the compost I'm putting down is changing the soil, including the water-holding capacity. A heavy rains forms puddles in parts of the yard that haven't gotten "the treatment". The areas that have? I haven't seen a quantity of rain they can't soak up and hold.
Anyway, I figured I'd share my slow-motion approach to upgrading the lawn via chickens.
Last edited:
