Re-Greening the henyard

[2DogsFarm]

Well...BYC told me so & it has come to pass.

My 5 pullets have eaten their yard down to dirt.
I put hay down for them through the winter as the Princesses did not care to walk on snow.
My thought was the hay would also protect any grass trying to regrow.
Apparently not.

While the rest of my lawn & even my pastures are greening up quite nicely, the henyard remains barren.
They do have a sizable dustbath established within the yard- fine, go for it, girls!
They get very limited freeranging as I work 4 days a week so only let them out for about an hour when I get home.

If I scatter some grass seed beneath the hay is there any chance they will leave enough uneaten to regrow some green inside the yard?

Suggestions?

 

[jbowyer01]

Nope it wont work lol. I just take my clippings from my mower and spread it in their run, they love it. I do have to rake out the run a little more often but I think the girls appreciate it.

 

[scooter147]

When you know what freezes over or you install astro turf. It's just a fact that a enclosed run is destined to be bare dirt.
I do as 2dogfarm does, put in grass clippings (needs to be from a fertilizer, herbicide and insecticide free lawn), leaves in the fall and the old bedding from the coop when I clean it out. This gives them something to scratch through and keep them busy.

 

[Jess N Jeff]

I tried to re-seed my backyard 3 times...they just ate the seeds. Now I limit their free ranging and layed sod. I mow the front yard and give them the clippings, then let them out. Usually they are pretty full on the clippings so they leave the sod alone...usually.

 

[Gonzo]

Quote:
thats what we do too!

 

[patandchickens]

Quote:
Nope. And if they did, they would just destroy the newly growing up stuff, same as they did the old.

Suggestions?

Get used to it

Or if the bare earth is causes mud or bothers you aesthetically, see discussion of what you can reasonably put in the run by looking at the 'fix a muddy run' link in my .sig below.

Good luck, have fun,

Pat​

 

[greenpeeps]

For that same reason we are going to have two yards with the new coop. On one side it will be a yard for the girls, on the other side it will be the garden. In the fall we will let the chickens in the garden side to clean it up then we will throw some seed down for the following spring. Hope it works

 

[2DogsFarm]

Pat;
I had already read your page on de-mudding (but of course it did not apply to ME then)
On re-reading I can say I already have a lot of your safeguards in place.
*My coop is on high ground, the yard actually slopes downhill from the coop itself.
*It also has gutters & downspouts - rusty but still working.
*door from coop to yard already has a nice little "porch" of pavers and an overhang
None of this was my doing - I inherited the coop from former owners who had kept chickens & turkeys in the past.

I had intended to rake up the hay I put down and add it to my compost pile but held out the vague hope that I could get some grass started beneath it first.
Ha
Ha

You mention using wood chips over the dirt - would cocoa mulch work?
I kinda like the thought of chocolate-smelling chickens.
I'll check to see if the mulch is toxic to animals first, of course!

 

[7&8]

Cocoa mulch contains the compound theobromine, present in chocolate and known to be toxic when ingested by dogs and cats. Here's a link to a brief article from PubMed.gov on a study on theobromine toxicity in broilers: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/6718300

Cocoa mulch contains caffeine, as well. Sounds risky to me, but I am cautious in general.

 

[Badlatitude]

You want grass in the hen yard?