String trimming around coop and run?

[Elderado]

Not sure if I’m just being too soft on the girls, but the string trimmer scares the s#%* out of them and I feel sort of mean for it. Do you guys just say “too bad” or let the weeds go or hand pull?

 

[Mother of Chaos]

Not sure if I’m just being too soft on the girls, but the string trimmer scares the s#%* out of them and I feel sort of mean for it. Do you guys just say “too bad” or let the weeds go or hand pull?

“Deal with it.”

- actually, we temporarily re-route the yard fencing so that the girls take care of them.

 

[Elderado]

“Deal with it.”

Say no more!

 

[rosemarythyme]

They'll get used to it, and may even anticipate it and start following you around if it flings enough plant bits and bugs their way.

 

[KyCoop]

I have to let them out of their yard before i string trim and mow.
They love getting too close to the grass and bugs they kick up. They get excited when they hear the lawn mower start up.

 

[Esc_Quaily]

Interesting question. If I were in your shoes/wellies, I'd try as already suggested to re-route the run so the girls can take care of the grass for you. My dog has always been terrified of the hoover, he's 8 now and is still as scared as he was as a puppy. We tried exposure therapy, we tried putting him in a separate room with comforts, we tried reassuring him but nothing worked. I only hoover now when he's outside. Perhaps I'm too soft too but I wouldn't use the strimmer near the coop if they are sh&t scared.

 

[Elderado]

Interesting question. If I were in your shoes/wellies, I'd try as already suggested to re-route the run so the girls can take care of the grass for you. My dog has always been terrified of the hoover, he's 8 now and is still as scared as he was as a puppy. We tried exposure therapy, we tried putting him in a separate room with comforts, we tried reassuring him but nothing worked. I only hoover now when he's outside. Perhaps I'm too soft too but I wouldn't use the strimmer near the coop if they are sh&t scared.

Poor dog…You sound just as soft as me . Very cool of you to try, what sounds like just about everything you could, to help him. Im thinking I might just try to get it done in the few minutes of light I still have outside after they go back into the coop.

“We can judge the heart of a man by his treatment of animals.”

Immanuel Kant

 

[DLA]

Not sure if I’m just being too soft on the girls, but the string trimmer scares the s#%* out of them and I feel sort of mean for it. Do you guys just say “too bad” or let the weeds go or hand pull?

I can run my riding or push mower all around the coop and run and mine couldn't care less but they hate the string trimmer. Must be something about the sound of it. I just do it as quickly as possible and give them a little treat after. But these are rhode island red hens and they don't get upset for long about anything. LOL.

 

[Mother of Chaos]

Not sure if I’m just being too soft on the girls, but the string trimmer scares the s#%* out of them and I feel sort of mean for it. Do you guys just say “too bad” or let the weeds go or hand pull?

I should add to my original, slightly flip, response:

As prey animals, chickens often react pretty spectacularly to anything new. A new type of food?! I’m trying to murder them! Wearing my giant floppy white sunhat into their area?! It’s a chicken-killing invader from Saturn!

Our EE alerted to American Airlines CRJ commuter jets flying overhead for the first few weeks, calling a warning to the others to freeze (which they did.) Now it’s the UPS truck’s backup beeper.

Your chickens will probably never learn to love your weedeater, but they’ll probably learn to just move to another area while keeping a wary eye out.