to reseed my lawn, I have to build a run for my free range chickens?

[siouxbee]

I'll have to check into the prices for turf, but I have almost an acre minus the house footprint to cover, and we're short on cash these days.

Seachick, I'm in CT, so just slightly warmer than where you are, tho it's hard to tell these days when winters are so weird. If I can put the seeds down in early spring, I could try to pen the girls in our garden with some netting over it for hawks. And maybe use scratch or kitchen scraps to lure them in. I wonder if they'll catch on...? It's not huge, maybe 12 x 20, but it's a lot bigger than 4 x 8 ;-)

they do occasionally go in the woods that surround the house, but spend a lot of time on the lawn. Maybe a combo of the approaches you recommend would be good -- sometimes in the fenced in garden, sometimes corraled in the woods, and after that maybe hope we really overseeded and between that and the clover, enough will survive. We had grubs a few years ago, and crabgrass has totally taken over where they were. Guess I should figure out what to do about that too. ;-)

This is our first year with adult chickens, since we got our chicks last april and may. Are my flower beds vulnerable? they spend time in there now, but what will happen when the perennials come up?

 

[kstaven]

No doubts they will dust bathe in the flower beds given a chance.

 

[SeaChick]

siouxbee-

just don't try reseeding during summer if you hope to avoid crabgrass. It'll blow in and germinate if there's no frost, and shade out the new baby grass... you have to do it early enough that the grass has a chance to establish -no bare areas!- before last frost. Fall is definitely a better time for reseeding but you can probably get at least some done this spring if you're VERY diligent about watering and get the new growth thick enough before summer. If I were you, and I wanted to try this spring- I would reseed it as soon as you major snow is all gone. Here's a page on non-toxic lawn care in Connecticut: http://www.ct.gov/dep/lib/dep/p2/individual/organic_lawn_care_calendar.pdf

Oh, and try using a lawn rake to herd your girls in/out of thier "corrals". We have a big red one and all I have to is pick it up and they all go running back to the coop. I can also herd them with it. For some reason it is terrifying to them! Hilarious.

 

[chicknmom]

Anyone tried this? Additional tips or suggestions?

 

[chicknmom]

Or how about sod?

 

[chicknmom]

Anyone tried this? Additional tips or suggestions?

Referring to earlier post: "Rake in grass seed and clover. The clover will come up first and act like a cover crop allowing the roots of the grass to get established."
I obviously used the 'reply' button incorrectly!