Do you guys think chickens will destroy my lawn?

[EggWalrus]

They gotta put something sweet/savory in cat food that most dogs can't resist. I've never seen any of my dogs eat wild citter poo, only turds from animals that eat human fed food.

 

[Melky]

Hi all. I'm not new to chickens, but I have never personally owned them. I have racing pigeons and chukars, so I'm not new to birds. My brother has LOTS of chickens, and I have several friends with chickens, so I know their behaviors and most everything I need to know to have them. But I am wondering one thing about whether they'd ruin my grass.

I live in a pretty urban area, with a 5500sqft lot. Whole back yard is fenced in. I keep my chukars in a very small chicken coup, and I only have one left, and he's very old, so my plans are, when he goes, to get two hens, and have them live in his chicken coup. But this coup, while being advertised as a 3 chicken coup, in my opinion is WAY too small to keep chickens in unless they have ability to free range. It has two nest boxes sufficient in size for two normal sized chickens to lay in and be fine at night, but the run and overall size IMO is just not fair unless they are able to get out and run around. So, my plan is to have an open door policy, otherwise I will need to build a new coup. We have no risk of coyotes or foxes where I live, and we have very few raccoons. We get possums from time to time. We do have hawks, and it gets pretty bad during hawk migration, I rare let my homers out November through February, as the migrating goshawks are just ruthless (the resident red tails don't seem to be a big problem).

Anyways, acknowledging they like dirt baths, and I do plan to make a designated dirt bath area, I'm wondering if I get two hens and let them live in that small coup with a door open policy, whether they will just completely destroy my beautiful lawn....

Thoughts?

Get what you want. Mine only have two dust bath spots in back yard, one near base of house for bugs and other by greenhouse. One in run. They do not tear apart my gardens or lawn and have 4 hens. I smooth over the dirt from time to time and they will return to same spot.

 

[FlyWheel]

LOL, well, that would be a consequence I'm not sure I would enjoy, so I might have to simply fence their area off.



That could be problem, since my dog has recently taken a liking to my pigeons' poop. He knows under the aviary there is a supply of it. So maybe I'll have to fence of the area where the chicken coup and pigeon loft is and solve two problems!

I'm sure you've heard the old saying about a $hit eating dog. It's true, they do. They like to eat that stuff!
Especially Cat Turds! I don't know what they put in cat food, but it makes a dog love them. Dogs will gobble them down like they were Milk Duds!

My current hunting dog is the first dog I've owned that doesn't eat goose turds. He does, however, very much enjoy cat turds, pigeon turds and deer turds.

My guess would be they're after the probiotics. Do you feed your dog exclusively processed dog food?

 

[EggWalrus]

they're after the probiotics. Do you feed your dog exclusively processed dog food?

Not since I got a cat, and I don't have to clean out the litter box either!
He does it for me!

 

[townchicks]

That could be problem, since my dog has recently taken a liking to my pigeons' poop. He knows under the aviary there is a supply of it. So maybe I'll have to fence of the area where the chicken coup and pigeon loft is and solve two problems!

That will be a problem. My dog loves the dove poop if he can get to it, it was an easy transition for him to chicken poop. he'll even dig it out of the compost pile if I forget to cover it. It won't hurt them though, it's just annoying to me.
You might consider bantams, they'll still scratch at the lawn, but might do a little less damage. I agree with @sourland , get 3.

 

[EggWalrus]

If you only want a couple, buy a dozen. Half or more usually turn out to be roosters. If your lucky you'll have 6 pullets to keep and 6 roos to eat. Out of those 6 pullets, couple may die, that leave 4. Then a predator comes along and gets one or two. Now you're left with 2 or 3.
Example of Chicken Math!

You may add well just go ahead and get 2 dozen! You know you want to!

 

[LamarshFish]

They gotta put something sweet/savory in cat food that most dogs can't resist. I've never seen any of my dogs eat wild citter poo, only turds from animals that eat human fed food.

I don't know, so far my dog's favorite seems to be wild deer turds lol.

My guess would be they're after the probiotics. Do you feed your dog exclusively processed dog food?

My dog's food has very good probiotics. My pigeons get weekly probiotics, so it's a worthy theory, except that my dog's favorite turd is still wild deer turds.

I've never seen a dog except my current dog ignore goose turds. Literally every other dog I know will just inhale them. I could only guess it's because he's more interested in retrieving dead geese than eating their poop.

 

[Peeps61]

We call them "crunchy" tootsie rolls.

 

[chickengeorgeto]

They gotta put something sweet/savory in cat food that most dogs can't resist. I've never seen any of my dogs eat wild citter poo, only turds from animals that eat human fed food.

Hopefully that will break your next door neighbor from allowing her little lap dogs to eat from the families dishes.

 

[RNPAULIE69]

Well there are a few factors that play into it like what breeds you have or the amount of yard you have

I have a welsummer, speckled Sussex and a buff Orpington. They free range for about 4 hours a day on 1/2 acre