Grazing patch updated

[630004]

The locusts had their grazing area moved today. Kind of hard to see from the top pic but it is amazing how much of the grass they have eaten. It’s most noticeable around the coop.

They now have lots of fresh grass to graze.

Here is my question how often do you change the grazing area for the chickens. Any suggestions on managing the space?

 

[Mrs. K]

My own chickens stay relatively close to the chicken house, that is where the bare spots will be. I will be curious if they do go a great distance out into that space, it is quite open from above. They might stay real close to the coop, as protection.

I think I would add some pallets up on blocks that could be moved around, but something they could get under if a hawks or eagles come over. Just an idea.

Mrs K

 

[neo71665]

They will start off staying close to shelter but as the grass clears they will venture out. Not sure they will ever really stray out to the furthest edge as it's too far away from any protection.

 

[aart]

Kind of hard to see from the top pic but it is amazing how much of the grass they have eaten. It’s most noticeable around the coop.

I believe this is more from scratching and pooping than actual eating.

 

[630004]

They will start off staying close to shelter but as the grass clears they will venture out. Not sure they will ever really stray out to the furthest edge as it's too far away from any protection.

They come out the complete distance already. the fact that it’s closest to our house might have something to do wit it

 

[630004]

My own chickens stay relatively close to the chicken house, that is where the bare spots will be. I will be curious if they do go a great distance out into that space, it is quite open from above. They might stay real close to the coop, as protection.

I think I would add some pallets up on blocks that could be moved around, but something they could get under if a hawks or eagles come over. Just an idea.

Mrs K

That’s a great idea.

 

[Ridgerunner]

My set-up in Arkansas was similar in that my electric netting was attached to a permanent coop. That's a different set-up than using it with a tractor that can be moved, so yeah, different management techniques are required. I assume that is electric netting, sure looks like it. My guess is that you haven't had it very long.

Here is my question how often do you change the grazing area for the chickens.

That's going to depend on several things, your climate, time of the year, and your chicken density mostly. If it is electric netting you need to keep the grass and weeds from growing up in the netting as it will short it out and render it not effective. The standard way to do that is to take the netting down and mow along the fence line. That might be a good time to reposition it. How often you have to remove that growth will depend on how fast the grass and such is growing then which depends on how much rain you get and time of the year.

How fast they eat it down will depend on how many chickens you have and all that growth rate stuff. Since you are tied to that coop, the area near the coop will be pretty bare. You can see that in your photos, mine was the same. Probably a combination of reasons: nearest to safety, first opportunity to eat and scratch when they came out, and mine dug some holes to take a dust bath there. Mine also roamed to the far ends. I had a lot of trees in it, fruit and nut trees. Each set-up is different. In winter I had a rooster and 6 to 8 hens. At the height of summer I sometimes had 50 chickens in there, mostly young ones growing to butcher age.

At the start I did change things around, I'll get to that. I changed it when I felt I needed too based on what I was seeing.

Any suggestions on managing the space?

I hatched and raised a lot of chick in that area, many of them cockerels. I hardly ever had any fly out except for cockerels. When they hit puberty they start skirmishing. If one gets trapped against the netting it can go vertical to get away. Sometimes it lands outside the netting. The same type of thing can happen when a hen is trying to get away from an amorous rooster but that was pretty rare. I found that the configuration of the netting had a huge affect on how many got trapped and got out. 90 degree corners were OK but don't make any harper than that. Flatter corners ae better.

Narrow corridors are also bad. To better reach a far area I made a corridor maybe 20 feet long and maybe 10 feet wide. The number of cockerels escaping skyrocketed. They could not walk beside each other without fighting. I quickly learned to quickly spread it out. You may not have this issue but if your birds start getting out it may be something to think about.

After about a year I bought an extra 50 feet of netting, that greatly extended the area enclosed in the netting. I was able to add over 1,000 square feet.

I also got tired of taking the netting down every week or two in the summer to mow under it. Don't even think of trying a weed-eater, you'll destroy the netting. So I set mine up in a permanent area and used Round Up to keep the weeds and grass down under the netting.

Mine did eat the vegetation down in the entire area but they only ate the stuff they liked. That means the stuff they did not like continued to grow and was shading and crowding out the good stuff. Three or four times a year I'd mow the area inside the netting to cut down the bad stuff and allow the good stuff to grow.

With electric netting the bottom horizontal wire is cold but all the horizontal wires above that are hot. You do not want a hot wire to touch the ground or vegetation. The netting can sag, especially as it gets older. I cut some twigs and used them to prop up the netting and stop the sag.

I used guy wires at the corners to keep the corners tight and help get the sag out of the fence. Wind can cause problems.

I found that a heavy rain can wash or wind can blow trash into the fence, where it can pile up. That might be where I'd mowed tall grass, had dead leaves, or even a plastic bag. If it's wet that can short out the electric fence. I had to clean that out occasionally, especially after a storm.

If that's not electric netting I've wasted a lot of typing. But with electric netting the soil is your ground. In dry weather I'd wet the soil where I had the ground rod to improve conductivity.

That's all I can think of right now. Good luck!

 

[630004]

My set-up in Arkansas was similar in that my electric netting was attached to a permanent coop. That's a different set-up than using it with a tractor that can be moved, so yeah, different management techniques are required. I assume that is electric netting, sure looks like it. My guess is that you haven't had it very long.


That's going to depend on several things, your climate, time of the year, and your chicken density mostly. If it is electric netting you need to keep the grass and weeds from growing up in the netting as it will short it out and render it not effective. The standard way to do that is to take the netting down and mow along the fence line. That might be a good time to reposition it. How often you have to remove that growth will depend on how fast the grass and such is growing then which depends on how much rain you get and time of the year.

How fast they eat it down will depend on how many chickens you have and all that growth rate stuff. Since you are tied to that coop, the area near the coop will be pretty bare. You can see that in your photos, mine was the same. Probably a combination of reasons: nearest to safety, first opportunity to eat and scratch when they came out, and mine dug some holes to take a dust bath there. Mine also roamed to the far ends. I had a lot of trees in it, fruit and nut trees. Each set-up is different. In winter I had a rooster and 6 to 8 hens. At the height of summer I sometimes had 50 chickens in there, mostly young ones growing to butcher age.

At the start I did change things around, I'll get to that. I changed it when I felt I needed too based on what I was seeing.


I hatched and raised a lot of chick in that area, many of them cockerels. I hardly ever had any fly out except for cockerels. When they hit puberty they start skirmishing. If one gets trapped against the netting it can go vertical to get away. Sometimes it lands outside the netting. The same type of thing can happen when a hen is trying to get away from an amorous rooster but that was pretty rare. I found that the configuration of the netting had a huge affect on how many got trapped and got out. 90 degree corners were OK but don't make any harper than that. Flatter corners ae better.

Narrow corridors are also bad. To better reach a far area I made a corridor maybe 20 feet long and maybe 10 feet wide. The number of cockerels escaping skyrocketed. They could not walk beside each other without fighting. I quickly learned to quickly spread it out. You may not have this issue but if your birds start getting out it may be something to think about.

After about a year I bought an extra 50 feet of netting, that greatly extended the area enclosed in the netting. I was able to add over 1,000 square feet.

I also got tired of taking the netting down every week or two in the summer to mow under it. Don't even think of trying a weed-eater, you'll destroy the netting. So I set mine up in a permanent area and used Round Up to keep the weeds and grass down under the netting.

Mine did eat the vegetation down in the entire area but they only ate the stuff they liked. That means the stuff they did not like continued to grow and was shading and crowding out the good stuff. Three or four times a year I'd mow the area inside the netting to cut down the bad stuff and allow the good stuff to grow.

With electric netting the bottom horizontal wire is cold but all the horizontal wires above that are hot. You do not want a hot wire to touch the ground or vegetation. The netting can sag, especially as it gets older. I cut some twigs and used them to prop up the netting and stop the sag.

View attachment 2964627

I used guy wires at the corners to keep the corners tight and help get the sag out of the fence. Wind can cause problems.

View attachment 2964629

I found that a heavy rain can wash or wind can blow trash into the fence, where it can pile up. That might be where I'd mowed tall grass, had dead leaves, or even a plastic bag. If it's wet that can short out the electric fence. I had to clean that out occasionally, especially after a storm.

If that's not electric netting I've wasted a lot of typing. But with electric netting the soil is your ground. In dry weather I'd wet the soil where I had the ground rod to improve conductivity.

That's all I can think of right now. Good luck!

WOW! Great detail! Thank you!
Yes you are correct. Electric netting.

Right now smaller numbers (17 hens, 1 rooster) than you had.

Being winter, grass is not growing a whole lot at the moment. In summer I suspect this will be more of a problem. It takes 2 of us about 10 minutes to move the fence so will probably just mow the area.

We have a one acre area that the we can use for the chickens. Ultimately, it would be great if they could just free-range in that space. I suspect the biggest decision on that is going to be the amount of loss from predation. Strangely open space seems to work better for them. We have had a few losses when they were too close to the trees

I'm wondering if its worth while putting in some dedicated containers for dust baths etc or if they are just going to do their own thing anyway

 

[Ridgerunner]

I'm wondering if its worth while putting in some dedicated containers for dust baths etc or if they are just going to do their own thing anyway

Mine do their own thing, usually in the shade.

 

[Sally PB]

I've wasted a lot of typing.

Even if OP didn't have electric netting, you didn't waste the typing, because I learned a lot! Thank you!