Seeding your run

[Mtnboomer]

There has been a lot of discussion on here about run floor material, mainly avoiding the mess of muddy or poopy runs. Here is something that worked for me 2 yrs ago and I plan to return to this spring.

My adult flock is free range and their coop provides only a safe haven from nocturnal predators, but my juvenile birds (1.5-4mos) are kept in a coop/run combo until large enough to join the free range flock. This also allows the two flocks to see each other and coexist while keeping the young birds safe from the older ones. The C/R consists of two 3x 8' coops (stacked) with an 8x32' run. When I first started this system of brooding pens (indoors) to C/R to free range, the run was fully vegetated. Since it would sit empty for up to 2-4 months between batches of chicks, the vegetation had time to recover. During which I would overseed with clover to help it.
Then we got the ducks a year ago which shared the run with the chicks 24/7. They proceeded to eat everything in sight including whatever they could reach when they stuck their heads through the fence. Hey at least I never had to worry about trimming the weeds.
Today was butcher day and the ducks were sent to a better place. The chicks will be moving out and joining the adults this week as well. We do not plan to hatch out another batch of eggs (12-15) until march so they won't be entering the run until mid june (no more ducks for a while). In the mean time, I intend to reseed the run with clover and native grasses. Also plant sage, rosemary, thyme, and fennel outside but adjacent to the exterior fence of the run. As much for my benefit as the birds.
Hopefully it takes and will save me some material costs and reduce the feed bill a little while providing a more pleasant and stimulating environment.
I apologize for the long story but thought I had better explain the scenario. Has anyone else tried this in a permanent run not a portable one that you move around the yard? Instead of moving the run, I am moving the birds. Successful? Any other suggestions for beneficial yet durable plants to use?

 

[azygous]

I grew cover crops last year in a space where I had removed three dead pine trees. I seeded it with native grasses and wildflowers and mulched it with straw and fenced the chickens out of it with plastic deer netting. I let the winter and spring snows do their job. By summer, it was in full glorious bloom and I removed the fencing. The plantings survived active chickens. The key is to fence them out until the plantings get established.

 

[Ridgerunner]

I personally have not done that. My area inside electric netting is big enough to stay green during growing season but I keep them out of it in the spring for a week or two until the green gets growing. It has turf but the grass needs to get ahead of them or they keep it picked off. If you are growing from seed the roots need to get established so when they pick it the plant breaks off instead of pulls up.

A few years back someone on the sister gardening site had a set-up where she had one coop with 8 runs coming from that, sort of pie shaped. Four were used as gardens, the other four were used as runs on a rotation. Or maybe it was 5 and 3, can't remember for sure. She would pasture the chickens on one run until they ate it down, then open up the next. She always had a recovered run to put them in. Then the next year she's switch the gardens to the runs that had laid fallow and the chickens had fertilized. She felt that reduce garden pests too.

There are lots of different ways to do this. Your way sounds great to me. Clover is a great choice. I'd suggest you also include native grasses that they eat. That's what should be suitable for your climate and soil. I'd think Bluegrass and Bermuda would be good choices in that part of Appalachia.