Growing back grass

[skatcatla]

I think you might also try one of the cover crops like Winter Triticale, winter Rye and/or vetch. All will do pretty well in cold regions unless it gets freezing by you. Even if the chickens don't eat much of it, it will really help replenish that soil for spring grass planting.

If you want something to actually feed to the chickens, another option might be to get that grass in pots that you can get at pet stores and just keep it inside under a light, and bring it out to the chickens to munch on. I think if you supplement their feed with your kitchen vegetable scraps and some flax or sunflower seed, they should be ok through the winter though.

 

[snugglepup]

Ok, then what I would do is go by Southern States and get a bag of their "pasture mix." Its usually a combo of fescue, orchardgrass, rye and clover. You'll probably do better with a mix than with a monoculture of any one grass. You CAN seed fescue-types in the spring, it just doesn't do as well as it does in the fall. You can even put the seed out now, but it likely won't start sprouting until the ground warms up a bit. Either way around here, you'll want to give it some kind of supplemental water right now. For a small area, you could probably just recycle the water you dump out of chicken waterers and such easily enough.