Free ranging in a moss-covered yard

[PJHN]

My backyard has been taken over with moss over the past 4 years and I don’t have the money to eradicate it ( my neighbor did and the moss came back 2 yrs later. Money wasted, so I’m not replicating that)
…. Sorry, I went on a tangent there!

Okay so my question is: Will chickens free range on moss? Is it harmful to them if ingested? ( I don’t have any chickens yet: I’m in the info-gathering/planning stage)

Thanks, and I look forward to your experienced knowledge and suggestions.

 

[nuthatched]

It's fine. Better than grass.

 

[PJHN]

That’s great news! Thank you

 

[Just2chickens]

My chickens love to eat moss

 

[PJHN]

Yay!
Great news

 

[Perris]

Moss absorbs nutrients from the air and the water, not from the soil/ ground it lives on, so typically terrestrial moss is very low in nutritional value when consumed. However, it makes a very attractive habitat for lots of insects and other mini-bugs, and they are very valuable sources of nutrition to chickens. See e.g. https://conservationdistrict.org/2018/the-benefits-and-ecology-of-a-moss-lawn.html

Grass is an excellent food for them if you still have some. All the world's staples are varieties of grass - wheat, rice, maize - and over 600 different grass species are used for grazing and forage in agriculture worldwide. See e.g. https://www.genebanks.org/resources/crops/forages-grass/

 

[PJHN]

Thank you very much for this important nutritional info about moss and grasses.

 

[SamLockwood]

I've got a section of the area they forage in that's mossy year-round and it doesn't seem to bother mine.

 

[Susan Skylark]

I guess chickens will eat anything, moss?! Pretty but not appetizing!

 

[Just2chickens]

I don´t know why they eat it... but they also eat grass and a lot of other plants, they seem to know what they can and can not eat, they only eat moss in the fall...