i have an issue with my coop run.......

[HAPPYCHICKENLADY17]

Are your chickens confined to their run, or are they allowed out of the area to go wherever? My chickens have a large run that they’ve torn all the grass up in, so it’s completely bare earth (mud this week) and even though they free range all day every day, there’s not a blade of grass within their run. We move our coop yearly, and it takes about a year for the grass in the area to grow back. The bare squares make for pretty good gardens though...

YES, thats how it is with our chickens, they have about 20x30 area and there are 17 hens and one rooster, he is a little frizzle cochin ..then i have 2 silkie roos in a bachelor pad coop and another coop with a silkie hen and a frizzle hen that live with 2 yokohama hens....and they have torn up all that grass, i would let them let out in the big yard, (we have a little over an acre and a quarter of land total....but we have lawn care, and they put down chemicals for weed and fertilizer, so i dont let them out anymore

 

[Eggscaping]

it will be 2 years in february that i started my flock of chickens, the run was totally covered in grass, because we dedicated a partial part of our yard to the chicken area, now almost 2 yrs later, there is not one single weed or blade of grass left in that chicken area.....my chickens free range in that area, but what good is it if there is no grass or weeds growing....is there an alternative to the greens???

Some people section off their chicken yard so they have boxes like small raised beds...say, a foot square, or two feet or whatever they have room for. Then they soften up the dirt in the 'box' and sow seeds. Clover, oat grass, greens or lettuce, and tack hardware cloth over the top...probably an inch squares or so - and let it grow. The growing tips will grow through the squares where the chickens will nip them off without eating the plant down to the ground. That's what we plan to do. You might try something like that, since the chickens will fertilize the ground beneath while they walk on top of the wire and 'graze'.

 

[Folly's place]

IMO, you can use herbicides and pesticides on the lawn, or you can have chickens. The birds will eat everything they can reach, or that blows into their coop, and then into their eggs, and meat if you eat them.
Our 'lawn' is whatever grows, and gets mowed, and it's fine. Variety! If it's dry, something out there is still green, and the birds eat bugs and grubs, also good.
Mary

 

[trumpeting_angel]

I’ve planted a few things just outside the run, hoping they could eat what they could reach and the plants could still survive. Some mint has survived, but barely, because I began free ranging them. I’m in a rural area so there’s plenty of room. Winter will be a different story!

 

[HAPPYCHICKENLADY17]

so i can grow kale or cabbage etc and that should be sufficient

we have a small garden, and when its done harvesting the girls can go in and tear it up and eat what ever is left over, but when the garden is in full bloom its off limits to them

 

[trumpeting_angel]

Probably best for your chickens if you chose a lawn care service that doesn’t use pesticides. They still can’t graze on it, but at least they’ll be safe from anything blowing over them, or seeds or bugs picking up some chemical residue and being eaten by the chickens.

 

[woodmort]

ur 'lawn' is whatever grows, and gets mowed, and it's fine. Variety! If it's dry, something out there is still green, and the birds eat bugs and grubs, also good.

Sounds like our lawn and my lawn maintenance philosophy. I have a book entitled "Weeds of the Northeast" everything that is in there is growing someplace on our "lawn".

 

[HAPPYCHICKENLADY17]

How big of an area do they range, how many chickens. You can build some grow boxes and cover with hardware cloth to grow greens. They will only be able to eat the top of the shoots. I'm sure someone will chime in with theirs.

so i can grow kale or cabbage etc and that should be sufficient

 

[Folly's place]

Mowing favors grasses rather than taller plants, so 'no herbicides' will still have grasses out there. My yard also has shady areas that favor wild violets, and ajuga has escaped into another area. Also some shorter 'weeds' that look fine when the grass goes brown during dry spells. I don't water the lawn either, not here in Michigan. If I lived in desert, it wouldn't be grass!
Mary

 

[trumpeting_angel]

Depending on your neighborhood and your values, it might be difficult to go from a picture perfect, lush lawn to an area of mowed weeds. My lawn is the latter, but I live on 10 acres on a dead end dirt road in Vermont.

There exist, though, lawn care companies that use organic fertilizer and Integrated Peat Management, and afternoon a few years your yard would be much less toxic, a good place for children to play, and eventually a place for chickens to run around.