Tips on keeping chickens busy so they don't wipe out grass in the run?

[starforever61]

Hi guys!
We're in the process of building our coop with a run that has about 130 sq. ft. of space. We're getting 5 chickens. Obviously, the grass will get horribly run down and it'll turn into just a dry dusty area. Is there any way I can prevent this from happening? Would it help if I put a big bag of grass clippings and weeds in the middle of the run every other week to keep them busy with that instead? I'm up for anything here. I considered a chicken tractor, but I'm afraid some animal would tip it over and grab them during the day when I'm not home. We live right on the boarder of a bunch of wetlands. There are lots of prey animals out there that would love a chicken dinner.

Please help!

 

[shmooborp]

chickens will eat the grass no matter what, they are programmed to do it haha, but some things that Might help are hanging food from string, like a head of letus and they well peck at it, or some friut like a banana or cantalope. at my local farm store they have these big blocks of seeds squished together with molases like some kind of seed block and they love those. worms are always fun too

 

[Chickenmaven]

Quote:
NO.

Sorry. They are going to kill every last blade.

 

[Buff Hooligans]

Quote:
Yes, that's the real truth.

 

[starforever61]

Darn it.

 

[Kiwi Chicky]

We have opted for the - try to prolong the life of the grass - option

Our run is about 3m x 5m + the shed/coop

In the run space is an old boxed vege garden about 1m x 1m

They love digging in the dirt and it's keeping them from digging up all the grass in the run.

Every other day I drop a couple of spade fulls of compost in the garden for them to scratch around in a eat the worms!

They are eating the grass, but not really diggin it up. (yet)

Today I actually gave them a clump of grass from a patch where I'm digging inthe new vege garden, and they've eaten most of the grass off it and sratched it into loose roots.

In summer time I'm going to try and get a tub full of sand in the pen for them to take sand baths

 

[starforever61]

Thank you sooo much! That's an excellent idea and I should totally tell my mom about that so her friends that "just so happen" to be builders can put that in mind! We have an under-used sandbox that we can put in one part of the run, and I absolutely love that idea. Thanks again!

 

[Sunny Side Up]

Five chickens in that amount of space will eventually turn it into a lunar landscape, but it will take them some time. You can prolong the inevitable by giving them other things to peck at & dig in, but eventually all the green will be gone.

One option is to plan for them to have 2 or more different yards to run in, and when one yard is beaten down & eaten up, you can plant something like clover in it & switch the birds to another pen.

 

[LegHorn-BusHorn]

Two weeks or less! Happened to ours.

 

[dlhunicorn]

since a tractor is not an option how about fencing panels that can be moved thereby rotating the area they have access to (giving the previous section a time to recover before they actually have a chance to totally destroy it?)
I have a hedge surrounding my yard (nothing grows underneath it) and that is where they prefer to dustbathe... it also provides them a cool place of shade from the sun and a relativly dry place when it rains.