Is long grass a problem?

[ChickenCanoe]

This is a good debate. I'd like to add something I haven't seen mentioned. Grass isn't particularly nutritious for an omnivore like chickens. They prefer and benefit from tender greens like forbs. Tall grass is too fibrous for them to easily utilize.
Clover, alfalfa, buckwheat, peas, beets, radish, etc. are much more appropriate forage.

 

[mrsmop]

I would imagine loose long grass like the above bird got into & growing grass that they could nip off would be entirely different.

 

[mrsmop]

HI new here... finally found how to post ... not directly to do with long grass ...I have made a run extension which a greenhouse used to be I got most of glass out ... but bit worried as mare /horse tail and buttercups think they poisonous to hens will they eat it ... few other weeds but don't know what they are called ... such a worry

 

[rosemarythyme]

I have horsetail on my property but not in the run, so I can't speak to that. There are some buttercups in the run but I haven't seen the chickens picking at it. They mostly go for the grass and clover in there instead.

 

[trufadog]

I know this thread is old but we had to put down our chicken today because we couldn't make her well and she was so skinny with a floppy comb. So when I took her all apart, I found that the gizzard had almost a walnut size of grass in it. She started getting sick about two days after we mowed the long weeds in our yard where they free range. None of the others had any problems, but now I am not sure when to do to keep the "grass" mowed. It would be hard to pick up all the grass after. We usually just leave it on the ground as mulch.

 

[chickengeorgeto]

The best and most prefered for chickens and any other species that I can name is young, tender, short grass. Long grass has little entrest for a chicken except for the seed heads that old grass produces.

Another problem with long grass is the ambush sights that long or tall grass provides fot the things with fur, fangs, and claws that stay up nights thinking about how best to catch and kill your chickens.

Chickens only have one tooth in their heads for their entire lives (the egg tooth used to break the shell when hatching) and the poor chickens one tooth falls out within a week. Therefor chickens are not too handy at grinding up highly fibrous grasses.

Chickens can not run very fast through tall grass seeing that they must bull or push their way past or over tall standing grass stems. Now if your chickens can fly like a humming bird or at least as well as a mocking bird this may not matter but most backyard chickens do well to get their tootsies of the ground. This is why I like chickens with jittery nerves (like Leghorns) because in a free range setting these chickens are survivors, not fox food.

Finally if your hens free range you may need a platoon of Navy SEALS to conduct a search for hidden nests. After a stint in the hospital a good friend of mine just managed to cut the tall grass on his place for the first time and despite only being able to only cut from 12 to 18 inch strips at a time he shredded 2 sitting hens who stayed hidden until it was too late... for the hens. So do what you think best because those chickens belong to you.

 

[HollyWoozle]

We lost a hen to crop impaction caused by long grass but that was because she got hold of some long grass which had been cut. So it is definitely a problem but I think only if they have access to it loose on the ground, rather than when it’s growing. Our chickens currently free range on an area of long grass and we have had no problems (since that time some was strimmed!).

 

[GC-Raptor]

but now I am not sure when to do to keep the "grass" mowed.

Mow more frequently, twice a week during the rainy season. GC

 

[rosemarythyme]

I find that if I let the grass clippings dry out after mowing that the chickens have little to no interest in it. I even collect the dry clippings to mix into the run litter. So maybe pen them up after mowing for a day?

 

[Doc7]

Well that's good to know! Mine always have access to shell grit and seem to eat a lot of soil as they are foraging. Hopefully that should be enough to help them digest grass.

Shell is not grit. Shell is for calcium,’grit is for digestion.