Free range play area

heather134

Chirping
Jan 9, 2021
43
65
86
Indiana
Now that I'm fairly confident our hen didn't die from avian flu (instead I suspect fowl play), I'm focusing on creating a better free range area in our urban yard. Last year I bought a lot of perennials which of course the girls promptly ate. I don't want them cooped up all summer, but I also don't want the yard to look completely trashed like it did last year. We have some fencing material so I can block off a section of the yard so they can scratch and eat weeds to their heart's content. It's an area that used to be a vegetable garden, but gets too much shade to be productive. Should I put any special ground material there for the girls to take dust baths, like sand or topsoil? Any other suggestions of things I can add?
 
Another thing for fencing is electric mesh from Amazon, it works for sheep and others, but since it gives, then hens can't land on it and it's too high to fly over without getting zapped. Then they are still able to have a large area to enjoy and the fence is very light weight and easy to move.

They can usually find they're own place to dust bathe, but if you wanted to make them something, I spray paint old tires exciting colors and fill it with sand and such. They love it!
 
Once they destroy any vegetation it's good to put down some kind of appropriate litter to manage mud and manure.

Coarse wood chips of the sort you get from a tree trimming service are often considered the gold standard in the area of mud and odor control. If you can't take a truckload you *may* be able to haul them from a municipal yard-waste area.

Alternately, there is PLAIN, UNDYED mulch in bags for small areas.

Straw has it's advantages and disadvantages. Likewise leaves, pine straw, and less common options that are, like my pine straw, locally available. In the Corn Belt you might have chopped corncob available.
 
Another thing for fencing is electric mesh from Amazon, it works for sheep and others, but since it gives, then hens can't land on it and it's too high to fly over without getting zapped. Then they are still able to have a large area to enjoy and the fence is very light weight and easy to move.

They can usually find they're own place to dust bathe, but if you wanted to make them something, I spray paint old tires exciting colors and fill it with sand and such. They love it!
Tires would be great! The area is so weed infested already so that might help.
We have a Tractor Supply movable fence that works pretty well, we just didn't get it until late in the season last year (after the girls had enjoyed the lovely buffet I planted for them)
 
Once they destroy any vegetation it's good to put down some kind of appropriate litter to manage mud and manure.
Really good point about mud and manure. We limited their ranging to a very small area at the end of last year and they ate every bit of grass in that spot. It's still a muddy disaster. I'll keep a closer eye this time. Fortunately they'll be in the area that has the most weeds and is where the grass grows faster (for some weird reason). Maybe I won't have to mow as much?!
 
Really good point about mud and manure. We limited their ranging to a very small area at the end of last year and they ate every bit of grass in that spot. It's still a muddy disaster. I'll keep a closer eye this time. Fortunately they'll be in the area that has the most weeds and is where the grass grows faster (for some weird reason). Maybe I won't have to mow as much?!

Even well over the recommended 10 square feet per bird minimum it often doesn't take long for chickens to turn it into a wasteland.

That's why we usually need to use some kind of litter in the run. :)
 

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