Do your chickens eat a lot of grass when they free range?

[kelidei]

We put sod around the chicken run and my husband was whining that it will be so hard to trim around the fence (we have large river rock around it) HA! The chickens keep it trimmed quite nicely!

 

[Davaroo]

Hmmm, maybe its my brand of grass....

 

[Brick243]

I use a mulching push mower with a bag. I empty it into my pens. They eat a bunch of it.

 

[swedishfish]

All of my chickens love to eat clover, and thankfully I have an entire pasture full of it. But my Brahmas will not eat the other weeds in their run. They also will not eat ants, when my Wyandottes have picked clean their run. Is there a reason of this? The Brahmas have a huge ant swarmy thing in their pen that I found today that I know the W's would looooove <3 but I can't swap right now since I have broodies that won't move, and I have no idea how to do it to avoid a roo fight.

 

[BigPeep]

There seems to be a discrepancy here. Either they eat grass or they don't. Maybe it would vary by breed. I have a heritage breed which is reportedly a better forager. The more modern production breeds have that bred out of them. Anyone notice any differences?

 

[Davaroo]

Quote:
I think you may have hit something there. Either breed or grass differences are at work. I've never had a wide assortment of breeds, so I cannot say much about their varied taste for grass.
I do have grass, though, and find the chickens generally nip at it, but seem to prefer scratching it up by it's roots.

We also have to contend with the differing concepts of "free ranging." One person lets ther chickens loose amid juicy back yard grass... Does that mean the same 'free range' as another?
When compared to the hard, dry field grass of a sunbaked plot, there is little comparison.

That chickens enjoy green feed is known. This was exploited in the past by planting well managed plots of succulent clover, alfalfa and certain other nutritive ground covers like rape. Keep in mind these are not technically grasses, so there may also be some confusion there. Some people reckon that anything green, is grass.

It has been my experince that true grass is useful when it is kept trimmed, which allows succulent new growth to appear. The hard shoots and half sere heads of foot tall grass, on the other hand, seem to do little for the average chicken. For the most part, they pay it scant attention, other than to poke at it, here and there.

But then, maybe that has only been my chickens...

 

[caralouise1974]

Quote:
Agreed. Mine have a 25 foot square grassy area to peck around in most days, but on the occasion I give them the full range of our regularly trimmed lawn, they go wild - making those little happy 'I found something delicious!' squeaking noises as they munch at the new shoots of grass and clover.

 

[JoAnn_WI_4-H_Mom]

Ours have eaten a lot less feed since turned onto the pasture. Idle observation shows they eat clover and other forbes, certain seed heads (plantain, short stem blue grass) and some of the younger shoots of grass. We can see we will have to trim the taller patches at some point to encourage new growth, as they are on a patch that is too big for the number of birds we have.

They seem to chase and catch a lot of small moths as well.

 

[Davaroo]

Quote:
grass cut to something around 4" is said to be ideal.

 

[Ft Chix]

grass, leaves, weeds and they even jump at leaves on taller trees