staples & nails & other stuff?

[mrkep]

I have the new run almost completed, the chicks are still 4 weeks from moving there, but I think I have created a problem. During construction, I have dropped metal stuff inside the run. To add to the problem, I haven't cut the grass in there. So I'm thinking that given chickens tendency to pick up and eat anything new, they will eat the metal stuff and it will injure them. ??
Please confirm or not my worry about this. I guess to fix it, I will have to cut the grass, then get one of those big magnets on a stick. I have been thinking about how much fun the chooks would have with all that tall grass and weeds.
Thanks , mrkep

 

[Ridgerunner]

There is a risk to the chickens. Not an absolute certainty of harm, but a risk. If it is still 4 weeks away, you have plenty of time to cut the grass and let it grow back. They would prefer the shorter newer grass. It is more tender. Whether it is short or long, they will have it destroyed fairly soon anyway.

 

[lleighmay]

Go to a farm supply or hardware store and ask for a magnet which you can use to sweep the area and pick up the metal you've dropped. I have one that's a bar shape with wheels on both ends and a long handle. The other one is round and looks kind of like a metal detector. This, coupled with cutting the grass, should do the trick.

 

[PineappleMama]

Just what I was gonna say... we've got so many magnets around here I couldn't find them all if I tried... but most people don't. That would be the easiest way to get all those things to me... actually, if you've got plain ol' fridgey ones you could pile them all in a zip lock, then run that back up and down an around... should pick up things. Worth a shot anyways.

 

[featherz]

Yah, we got one of those big magnets on a stick and swept through the coop.I still missed one screw (that I know of) that I saw when they got the grass down enough. Thankfully it was way too big for them to swallow yet at seven weeks!

 

[Schultz]

Yup, that's a common problem here too and that is exactly how I handle it as well. I have the big bar magnet with wheels on either side. I just finished constructing the new run for my turkeys and even though I "scalped"(about 1" high) the grass, and ran over it with the magnet for about an hour until I didn't seem to be picking anything, I let the turkeys into their new run and what do you know, the next day they managed to find cap nails from the roofing project from about a year ago! Luckily, the nails had the blue plastic cap on them and they didn't eat them. I quickly picked them up but after a week, they still keep finding more.

Just have to do your best and keep your eye out for more for awhile. Good luck!