http://www.thegardencoop.com/blog/2012/02/07/grazing-frames-backyard-chickens/
I saw this link on Pinterest, and thought I'd post it here and get the thoughts of all you fabulous Chicken Lovers. The idea is that you build frames with hardware cloth over and plant grass seed under them. When the grass grows, the chickens can eat the grass without ripping out all the roots and ruining the ground like they do in their run. I was thinking of adapting this idea to the far end of my run by making four or five frames in a square and planting the grass, keeping the rest of the run with sand. I am building a 10ft x 14ft run, so the far end (probably about 10ft x 3ft) could be a line of these grass frames. Then they have tons of room to dust bathe and scratch, AND greens to eat.
Does this sound plausible? It makes total sense in my brain, but seeing as I've never had chickens (other than as a child) I wasn't sure if it would work the way I hope... Any thoughts? My babies are only between one and three weeks old, so I think if I planted seed now, it'd be growing well by the time they got to be out in the run. If I can't get seed to grow in the heat, then I could just buy some sod to lay down when we transfer them to the run.
I hope to one day be able to allow them to free range in the backyard, but I have a potential chicken eater on my hands (the otherwise sweet and well trained pup in my avatar picture) and we're planning as if we won't be able to let them free range just in case she never stops trying to make them into lunch. She is only 18 months, and we've only had the chicks a very short time, so were really hoping she'll get used to them... but you never know.
Here are a couple of the pictures from the link, in case it doesn't work on here. (These are not MY pictures.)
I saw this link on Pinterest, and thought I'd post it here and get the thoughts of all you fabulous Chicken Lovers. The idea is that you build frames with hardware cloth over and plant grass seed under them. When the grass grows, the chickens can eat the grass without ripping out all the roots and ruining the ground like they do in their run. I was thinking of adapting this idea to the far end of my run by making four or five frames in a square and planting the grass, keeping the rest of the run with sand. I am building a 10ft x 14ft run, so the far end (probably about 10ft x 3ft) could be a line of these grass frames. Then they have tons of room to dust bathe and scratch, AND greens to eat.
Does this sound plausible? It makes total sense in my brain, but seeing as I've never had chickens (other than as a child) I wasn't sure if it would work the way I hope... Any thoughts? My babies are only between one and three weeks old, so I think if I planted seed now, it'd be growing well by the time they got to be out in the run. If I can't get seed to grow in the heat, then I could just buy some sod to lay down when we transfer them to the run.
I hope to one day be able to allow them to free range in the backyard, but I have a potential chicken eater on my hands (the otherwise sweet and well trained pup in my avatar picture) and we're planning as if we won't be able to let them free range just in case she never stops trying to make them into lunch. She is only 18 months, and we've only had the chicks a very short time, so were really hoping she'll get used to them... but you never know.
Here are a couple of the pictures from the link, in case it doesn't work on here. (These are not MY pictures.)
