Lawn Friendly Breeds

[Down Under]

Something that is commonly over looked when picking a breed is wether or not the breed is going to turn your yard into a total wasteland, so I have been slowly making my own list of Lawn Friendly Breeds that I would love others with first hand experience to add to, you can even add if you had to mow the lawn or not


My list so far:

Brahma.
Minorca - lawn mowing required.
Langshan - lawn mowing required.
Cochin Bantam (aka Pekin Bantam).

 

[Debbie292d]

It totally depends on how big your yard is and how many chickens total will be in that yard.

After that, the breed doesn't differ much in how much grass/bugs/weeds each can consume. It stands to reason bigger eaters would tend to eat more grass though.

Ours is 2.5 acres, and 30 silkie chickens don't do diddly to it although they can clear a row of kale in 10 minutes if you forget to shut the gate to the garden.

 

[Perris]

As Debbie says, not putting too many chickens on too little grass is the key to success with chickens and lawns. The sorts of grass in the lawn, and the presence or absence of weeds, are also important. Briefly, the more different plants and funga you have in your lawn, the better it will both supply food for your chickens (including lots of little bugs on those grasses and weeds) and withstand their grazing of it.

To add my breeds to your list - and the grass is mowed fortnightly from about April to about November here (grass does not grow below 10 C, so the cutting regime is based on the temperature not the date)

Araucana
Penedesenca
Swedish Flower
Welsumer
and hybrid offspring which includes Barbezieux, Leghorn, and Norfolk Grey, all the parents of which (so the pure breeds of those three) also were 'lawn friendly'.

I suspect all breeds are lawn friendly if there if enough lawn for the number of them that you put on it.

 

[rosemarythyme]

I'll also add the age and energy level of the birds plays a factor. I've always been fine letting my old hens pick their spot and just hang out, even if it's an area I'd normally shoo them away from (like the very patchy grass in front of their run). They simply don't dig vigorously enough to do much damage.

On the other hand my young birds will kick gravel and dirt several feet, so I have to herd them away from areas I don't want torn up.

 

[Down Under]

Thanks for the replies already but I should have given a description of the other end of the spectrum.

The Quamby, which as far as I am aware we only have in Australia is a cross between a RIR and Sussex, are super unfriendly to lawns to the point that if they see any grass they will dig it up. I am sure if you gave 4 of them an acre and a week you would have an acre of dust. When looking up why they wanted to live in a dust bowl it seemed that it was a trait that they get from the RIR but as I have never kept RIRs I cannot confirm that it is where the trait comes from.

 

[Perris]

I have had RIRs and they behaved just like the rest here. Edited to add, for clarification, they left no offspring so I did not include them in the list of breeds here, though one of them did go broody and did raise other hens' chicks:

 

[Down Under]

I have had RIRs and they behaved just like the rest here. Edited to add, for clarification, they left no offspring so I did not include them in the list of breeds here, though one of them did go broody and did raise other hens' chicks: View attachment 3973971

Ok then I don't know where it comes from.

 

[Rock17]

Pekins are definitely not lawn friendly, at least they haven’t been in my experience