Free ranging/lawn care

[JDN]

Thank you everyone for your suggestions and feedback!! So if I have large areas of weeds, creeping charlie what can I do to get rid of this??

Plant a chicken tractor over it, remove in two weeks, plant grass over the resulting moonscape.

 

[JDN]

centrachid has a point, gross (a lot of) vegetation is highly overrated for chicken food. But a diverse culture of grasses, weeds, shrubs, brush, and trees will provide more insects and other wee creatures that hens dearly love to eat.

Remember, the more your hens have access to the great outdoors then the more often they need to be wormed. Not trying to be gross here but a chickens' table manners is little different than going to a subway station and buying a bag of popcorn, then scattering the popcorn kernels on the men's room floor and getting down on all fours to pick each piece of popcorn up off the floor with your lips and then eat it. The things that hens come into contact with in a free ranging environment would curl your hair if you only knew. Grasshoppers, Earth worms, darkling beetles, slugs, snails, and the ever present cricket are just some of the more dangerous things.

Sounds like protein to me...

 

[lazy gardener]

A monoculture of grass is a haven for grubs. Invite other species into your lawn, and you will be less likely to have grub issues. (Not to say that my weedy lawn DOES NOT have grubs.) Apparently, this is a very bad grub year. This is the first season I've ever had patches of grass destroyed. The grubs would have killed the grass in those areas, but the chooks beat them to it. They have completely removed the grass, while feasting on the grubs in several areas that average about 15 x 20' in diameter. If the chickens had not done so, skunks and crows would have. I'll not use poisons in my soil.

What I would do, if I wanted to discourage weeds: Use a bagger system on your mower. The bagger will collect all the weed seeds. I then dump the leaf clippings in the chicken run, coop, use it to mulch my potatoes and other garden crops, put it in my sheet composting area and on my HK mound. Over time, by using a bagger, I do believe my lawn is becoming a bit less weedy. You could also overseed the lawn in the fall with a good grass seed.

 

[Folly's place]

All good advice! You have chickens, and will you eat their eggs?
Herbicides are NOT good eats, either for the birds, or for you, through their eggs.
The birds are fertilizing as they go.
A mixed planting; biodiversity; much more interesting than monoculture.
Mary

 

[staceyj]

The chickens will 'weed and feed' your lawn, lol. I wouldn't use chemicals where mine free range. That product sounds like it contains herbicide, not good.
My girls weed my garden for me...I put cages around all the plants and the chickens weed the walkways.
View attachment 1385325

Great garden !

 

[staceyj]

Don’t forget the spiders frogs mice lizards and small snakes...

Chickens love them too!!
Lol.

*No weed and feed or any other chemicals here.

If it’s green and growing I’ll mow it, bag it and dump it into the compost area for the girls. They love foraging through it.

 

[bchanfcb1987]

Watering is of course the most important aspect of turf health in Summer. Correct lawn watering practices will enable a lawn to send down roots much deeper into the soil profile, past the evaporation level of the very top of the soil, which as a result will make our turf more heat and drought tolerant.

 

[Oolala]

centrachid has a point, gross (a lot of) vegetation is highly overrated for chicken food. But a diverse culture of grasses, weeds, shrubs, brush, and trees will provide more insects and other wee creatures that hens dearly love to eat.

Remember, the more your hens have access to the great outdoors then the more often they need to be wormed. Not trying to be gross here but a chickens' table manners is little different than going to a subway station and buying a bag of popcorn, then scattering the popcorn kernels on the men's room floor and getting down on all fours to pick each piece of popcorn up off the floor with your lips and then eat it. The things that hens come into contact with in a free ranging environment would curl your hair if you only knew. Grasshoppers, Earth worms, darkling beetles, slugs, snails, and the ever present cricket are just some of the more dangerous things.

Mine even knows where the cats toilet area is, the number of times I have caught them eating that

 

[Oolala]

Hello fellow chicken friends I have free ranging chickens in my backyard and when I am home I let my chickens free range. I also have a lot of weeds, dandelions, and patches without grass which I have previously used Scott's Weed & Feed on. I am wondering if I can still use Scott's Weed & Feed and wait a certain amount before letting my chickens free range in that area?? I'm open to other suggestions on what to use on my lawn, for killing weeds and replenishing my grass. Thanks in advance

Sounds like my lawn, forget trying to reseed it though, the chickens will eat every last bit of seed once they know where it is, at least the weeds keep it green in summer when the grass has all burnt