Is grass bad?!

[Rorie]

After having just had a chicken put down due to sour crop, we have been reading a lot about illness in chickens.

The better half has read that grass can cause big issues with their crop. Somehting to do with the grass not being able to be digested? This seems really strange to me as i have seen loads of chickens roaming about gardens etc.

Our plan was to let them be free range in a section which is currently grass.... but does this mean maybe its a bad idea?

 

[erinszoo]

Not sure what you've been reading or where but our chickens eat grass all the time and free range in our yard and we've never had any problems with it. They especially love crab grass and bermuda.

Maybe it's a problem if that's all they eat or something or don't get enough grit. Not sure. Ours get pellets and scratch and all kind of scraps from our vegies and fruit as well as oyster shell every day too.

 

[Ntsees]

Grass should not pose any problem. I've lost birds with sour crop that had access to grass as well as those that had never having eaten grass. Grass might not be the problem and it could be something else.

 

[Hummingbird Hollow]

I have heard that what causes problems with grass is when you toss long lengths of it into your run. If your chickens are free-ranging, they peck at the grass and tear off little bites of it at each peck. If say you are weeding your garden and pull up long strands of grass and toss them into your chicken run, the chickens can eat it like spaghetti, gulping down in long lengths and it can form a ball in the crop that won't pass down to the gizzard where the grit grinds it up. Because chickens don't have teeth, and because the grass you toss in isn't rooted into the soil, they eat longer segments, which can cause problems.

 

[Ntsees]

I have heard that what causes problems with grass is when you toss long lengths of it into your run. If your chickens are free-ranging, they peck at the grass and tear off little bites of it at each peck. If say you are weeding your garden and pull up long strands of grass and toss them into your chicken run, the chickens can eat it like spaghetti, gulping down in long lengths and it can form a ball in the crop that won't pass down to the gizzard where the grit grinds it up. Because chickens don't have teeth, and because the grass you toss in isn't rooted into the soil, they eat longer segments, which can cause problems.

Yes, I am in agreement with you.

 

[Erin~TheChickenLover]

Free ranging is the best thing you can ever do for your chickens. Grass is excellent for them. After all, they have been surviving partly on grass for thousands of years. Free ranging= happy, healthy chickens that are just the way they should be.

 

[jpcode]

How long is too long? I through grass clipping from the mower all the time.

 

[Rorie]

i think it was basically the long grass issue that was mentioned which i heard would cause the problems. So i guess as long as the grass is short, or rooted, then its not gonna be an issue?

Cheers

 

[Erin~TheChickenLover]

How long is too long? I through grass clipping from the mower all the time.

Well if you have not had a problem yet then chances are that you are fine. Don't believe everything you hear on the internet.

Many people throw grass clippings from the mower to their chickens, and they don't ever have a problem. I'm one of those people.

 

[Hummingbird Hollow]

Well if you have not had a problem yet then chances are that you are fine. Don't believe everything you hear on the internet.

Many people throw grass clippings from the mower to their chickens, and they don't ever have a problem. I'm one of those people.

I lost a very nice Jersey Giant to sour crop this summer. I can't claim I know exactly what caused it, but I had been pulling long strands of grass out of my rock garden and pitching it over the fence into the chicken run, where they happily gobbled it up. We don't have a lawn, so I have no experience with grass clippings, but I'd imagine that this wouldn't create the same issue, because the clippings would be short.

Now, I've also read that too much bread or starchy people food can contribute to sour crop. The bread can form a doughy mass in the crop that also can't easily pass on to the gizzard and can lead to a yeast infection in the crop. In the weeks leading up to my case with sour crop, my mom had been picking up whole loves of bread or packages of hot dog buns at the senior center and tossing the whole bag to the chickens. The Jersey Giant in question was pretty much alpha chicken, so she usually got more than her fair share.

I can't tell you whether the grass or the bread...ore something completely different caused the sour crop, but I can tell you that since reading up on the subject, I limit bread to one slice for the entire flock of 9 and either chop up any greens I toss over the fence, or sometimes weave long greens (there are several weeds they really like) through the fence so that when they peck at them, they tear off small bits rather than swallowing large chunks.