Maintaining yard for free range

[Irish6425]

We live in a residential neighborhood and my 14 girls free range approx 8hrs a day on an almost 1/4 acre lot. So far we have only a few patches that they have torn all of the grass up and were wondering how to maintain the yard for them to provide adequate greens for them.

We are not overly concerned with the overall look, I just want to be able to meet their needs and replenish the greenery. What do you recommend we seed with? We live close to Houston so we see pretty warm weather 9 months out of the year. We thought about a clover yard but there are a lot of honeybees in our area and my kids play in the backyard a lot. Any other suggestions?

 

[Den in Penn]

As it is a yard to be used by all the family I'd just use grass seed and let what ever else that comes up that the chickens will eat, grow. Unless the yard has been weed controled for years there's plenty that will show up.

 

[HEChicken]

If you plant clover you probably won't need to worry about bees. The chooks will eat it long before it is able to flower. It is an excellent green for them and they will eat it so fast you'll never even see it.