Topic of the Week - Chickens and Fall Leaves

[Kflores80]

Oh boy do we love fall time! 5 GLWs blend in perfect with the fallen leaves. I’ll be leaf bagging up at least a dozen this week to prep for a long New England Winter. girls are middle molt now so that will be done before winter sets in.
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Look at that cute fluffy butt!!

 

[WaterfowlsPoultry]

omg! Pics or it didnt happen

I couldn't get pictures because it happened so fast! We yelled at him to stop (as if chickens understand English) and he walked away

 

[BDutch]

I simply collect the leaves every autumn on my ‘lawn’ with a mower, and dump the leaves in the run. The run has netting on top.

I get good soil / compost with the chickens, the poop, the leaves and the rain. Earth worms and other soil life turns things upside down. Never had problems with parasites like round worms.
When the chickens free range a lot and they don’t eat al the scratch I have scattered, I even see greens and grasses growing in the run.

 

[WaterfowlsPoultry]

We did end up putting some leaves in the back! We put a huge pile of leaves and in less than an hour it was scattered around from our chickens scratching it and stuff!

 

[lovesfarms]

Yesterday I raked and the leaves went in the coop. It looks like I never raked so today we are enjoying the leaves in the yard...

 

[paintedChix]

I don't have any chickens currently.

But did leaves in coops, breeding pens & runs in the past...





Edit to add -

Have lots of leaves & yard debri. Just a matter of collecting it all...

 

[My Very First 6 Chickens]

During fall time when the leaves rain down, the hens always have their heads cocked, looking up and running away often! Heres Delicious with the tilted head!

 

[PopoMyers]

I wish our leaves here would get brown and dry like many of you lucky peeps do. Made the mistake once, of dumping wet leaves in the run. They did get spread around, but also packed down, along with poo, so the run became quite stinky after awhile, like stagnant water. When the weather warmed and cleared by the next May, I took my pick and tiller through it so it could dry out.
Last year, we dumped piles if leaves on the bare dirt. No evidence left behind. The chooks do a great job as tiller tractors.
Raking leaves into piles and not removing them immediately away from chickens makes a great daily upper body workout.

 

[TooCheep]

We did end up putting some leaves in the back! We put a huge pile of leaves and in less than an hour it was scattered around from our chickens scratching it and stuff!

If you have a large enough run, that's how you do it. Just dump the leaves with your wheelbarrow (or whatever). Spreading them is chicken work!

During fall time when the leaves rain down, the hens always have their heads cocked, looking up and running away often! Heres Delicious with the tilted head!

Their instincts just kick in. When the leaves fall, they are more visible/vulnerable to hawks. Fortunately, they also have a better view of any potential dangers.

 

[My Very First 6 Chickens]

as wonderful as dry leaves in the run are…..the opposite is true of Wet leaves. utterly useless!