I have one of those hand held tillers, it's in a circle, you push it in the ground, turn it, and it splits/chops the soil. Perfect size for most bare spots in the yard. I scatter in a healthy serving of seed, and then rake it over a little to settle the seed. It's been working! By "hiding" the seed into the turned up soil, the chickens pretty well avoid it when they're out, as do the wild birds, and squirrels.
The chickens get supervised free range, and we split the dogs off the back area while grass is growing, then we'll rotate the dogs and get the front by the back of the house reseeded. With all the rain at the end of winter, our yard turned into a mud pit! It's going to take something like 3 months to get it back into shape with all the rotating for the animals. LOL