Grazing Frames

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We built one this year. I'm taking it up today because its not really working. We did construction mess over the top and the holes are too small for the variety we planted. Plus our sometimes free ranging hens never really ate what did make it through the wire. They just like to stand on it. If I raise the frame, they ignore the grass in favor of the bugs hiding in it. Maybe for confines hens and with different wire, it would be more successful.
 
I'm going to make me some and am wondering what I can plant in them right now? I'm in Zone 8 in South MS. Also I got poultry wire for mine and sure hope that will work. Going to do them 8' long and have a middle brace and it all will be 2x4's. and only 2 foot wide as well. Going to put them in my run.
 
I saw this on Pinterest and thought it was such a good idea!
I made one for our run. I used 1x4 boards. (so it's roughly 4" high) It's about 6 ft square. I used 1/2" metal fabric (like for covering windows) and secured it to the boards using washers and screws. I supported the center with a large brick, to prevent cave-in, as I knew they'd be walking on it...
My chickens like it a lot!
I didn't seed mine. I bought sheets of sod and placed them in the box and just made sure to water well. I am guessing I will have to re-seed in the spring, as none of it is seeding out. They pluck it all off before it gets high enough. Some areas grow better than others. There are a couple ares that wood chips got blown in during a storm, and that area is a little brown.
But they are up there eating all the time. I think it really works well!
Here's a pic of mine enjoying it.
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What a great idea!!! Wish I had the space to do this. Thanks for sharing! I'm learning so much BYC already :-D
 
Good point. We only have a little ten square mtr section where our grass is going to be laid, i might make a small frame and use an off cut of grass to put in the back of the chook nook. Thanks again for the great ideas!! :-D
 
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I built 2 grazing frames last summer and I had mixed feelings about them. They do protect an area so the chickens dont make their entire run barren , however the area they cover is small so I didnt have much new grass growing at a time. Then again, I had over 20 chickens in my run which is about 25' x 25'. The chickens liked to stand on it as others have said which means they made fertilizer deposits there.
 
I had to water the grass seed under the frames anyway so i just hosed the poo off. All in all, I think the frames do help and I will use the frames again this year. If I hadnt had the frames I would have had no grass left. I ended up building a second run next to the original so I could rotate the pastures. I still used the frames in the trun the chickens were in to protect the grass
 

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