I want to grow grass but my flock keeps eating my grass seeds

[23Villamil]

i have yard surrounding my house and everywhere is dirt. I want to start growing grass and I’ve tried but they eat my grass seeds and I don’t want to take any chances of them dying by what’s in the grass seeds. I do have a couple of patches of dead or dry grass and it does rain here but gets up to 100 F during the summer. There are weeds here and there and some random spots of dead grass. My neighbors on each side have crazy grass growing and my chickens eat through the fence.
So does anyone have suggestions or brands I could use. I’ve tried putting the grass seeds under stuff so my chickens won’t eat them but they somehow find ways. And good grass seeds? I live in Southern California so it doesn’t snow here if thats any help. Thank you!

 

[azygous]

It doesn't matter what kind of grass seed you sow, you need to fence it off until it becomes established. Even if you didn't have chickens that live first and foremost to scratch in the dirt for every single seed they can find, you'd still need to fence it off from foot traffic until the grass is rooted and thriving.

I tried tossing out grass seed in isolated patches in the chicken's main play yard a few years ago. I went to a lot of trouble to line each patch with 2x 4s and stapled deer netting scraps over the seeded patches. The chickens still managed to scratch through the deer netting and eat every single seed.

Now, I have a dedicated area fenced in by five foot high deer netting, and I seed it in the winter with all of the chickens' favorite things - chard, alfalfa, spinach, flax, grass. It remains fenced until the plants have firmly taken root and reach a size where they will survive if browsed heavily. Around mid Jun or July the yard is opened daily for the chickens to party, and then closed up again at night so the deer and wild rabbits don't consume it all.

The type of grass that holds up best under chicken scratching and grazing is bunch or tuft grasses. These, unlike sod type grass, have deep vertical roots that resist being torn up. Sod grasses are shallow rooted and are more easily uprooted by active chicken feet. Choosing tuft or bunch grass varieties will be a lot more worth your time and effort.

 

[rosemarythyme]

x2, your only option is to fence them out of the area you're seeding. Even if they don't eat the seeds their constant scratching will kill off any sprouted seeds. Depending on the size of the space seeded, you may need to keep them out permanently, as they will denude established lawns as well.

 

[Acre4Me]

fence them out of wherever you actually want grass to grow and have it survive.

 

[MROO]

I know this is an older post, but I just came across it and figured I'd put my two cents worth in anyway ... A nasty drought pretty much killed off most of the true grass in my back yard a few years ago, leaving the white clover free to colonize pretty much wherever it wanted. It turned out to be a blessing in disguise. Clover has a dense, thick root system that is very tolerant of both chicken scratching and human foot traffic. It's just as green as the grass was, and actually takes less maintenance - it requires MUCH less mowing than grass. As an added bonus, the bees and butterflies love it. After watching the population decline for decades, I actually have honeybees again!