Chicken Tractor

[Karen711]

does anyone feel guilty about their chickens in a bare dirt run?? My girls have a nice new coop and enough room in their run for the 7 of them......... However I still feel bad for them. I am an animal lover and want them to have a nice place and not be bored ect. I dig them up weeds and give them treats but wish for them to free range which can be dangerous. We have Eagles Hawks ect n I would just have a cardiac arrest if something happened to one of them

Maybe I need to try to build a chicken tractor??

 

[Scooter&Suzie]

I get what you mean - I felt bad that my girls couldn't run around and forage! I just lost too many of my pet hens to hawks, so I stopped letting them out unless I was right next to them. I did the same you did, finding greens for them to eat. Let them out when you can be outside with them - I found within an hour or so they returned to their coop anyway. So they must not have disliked it too much!

If you want to build a chicken tractor I bet they would love it - But they will quickly destroy everything under it, so you will have to be prepared to have bare patches and move it often

Don't worry about this too much - You aren't doing anything wrong with having them just on dirt. It's a hard problem to solve and it's what a lot of people have to do. Your chickens sound like they still get plenty of yummy, fresh greens and a lot of love, so I'm sure they are as happy as chickens can be

 

[DonnaMiniFarm1]

I give my girls greens everyday I dig in the run area too help them find worms and such. I have ducks in the same coop and run as well so they have a kiddie pool for water. I throw in scratch and kitchen scraps( mostly fruit and veggies) as well they love to pick fruit rinds clean. I have a tractor but I found they destroy the area in a short time moments. I had plans of moving them around the yard but my lawn would be destroyed. I would also be afraid that they would eat all my flowers and plants to the ground as they did to anything I planted in the run area. I do have some roses that I sandwiched between fence so the look pretty but don't get eaten.

 

[Karen711]

I get what you mean - I felt bad that my girls couldn't run around and forage!  I just lost too many of my pet hens to hawks, so I stopped letting them out unless I was right next to them.  I did the same you did, finding greens for them to eat.  Let them out when you can be outside with them - I found within an hour or so they returned to their coop anyway.  So they must not have disliked it too much!    If you want to build a chicken tractor I bet they would love it - But they will quickly destroy everything under it, so you will have to be prepared to have bare patches and move it often 

Don't worry about this too much - You aren't doing anything wrong with having them just on dirt.  It's a hard problem to solve and it's what a lot of people have to do.  Your chickens sound like they still get plenty of yummy, fresh greens and a lot of love, so I'm sure they are as happy as chickens can be 

Thank you so much for your response I feel better about this now