Chickens are eroding my mulch hill, need advice

[Turanga Leela]

My chickens free range in my back yard. The grass part of the yard is flat, and as you go away from the house, there is a hill that goes up at about a 45° angle and then there is a forest behind that. The hill is covered with mulch to prevent erosion. Well, the chickens are digging up the mulch hill so much that there are areas that are just sand now, and everything is washing down into my grass yard. I don't know whether to order more mulch, or should I try to plant something on the hill in the spring? I have already lost about 2' of my grass yard all the way around where the mulch has been scratched down the hill. Here is a photo - please advise!

 

[MarkJr]

Fence them in, or fence them out. Whichever is easiest.

 

[BuckeyeAmy69]

Fencing is the way to go. Chickens LOVE mulch.

 

[Mrs. K]

Nothing you plant, is going to take with chickens scratching there, unless you fence them off, and let it get very established. Chickens are hard on landscape.

You could put in rail road ties, or some type of board, across that hill in several places, and that would slow the run off. Once in a similar set up, I just laid posts down, with stakes driven into the ground in front of them, and over the course of a year, it terraced itself.

But if the mulch idea is working, and you want to keep it, then fence the chickens off of it.

 

[3KillerBs]

Agreed on the need for fence.

Chickens LOVE to scratch through piles of organic material in search of food. They're creatures of the forest floor so a pile of mulch triggers deep instincts in them.