Weed Killer and Free Ranging

[Savuti]

We have gardeners that come to our house weekly. I only recently noticed/found out that they are using weed killer in the backyard where I plan on having chickens. My boyfriend has asked them to cease spraying since I'm at work when they show up, mainly because I raise all my plants that I currently have organically and don't like unknown chemicals being used on my property. Now I'm concerned about any residual chemicals and having chickens wandering around out there. Is there a time frame I need to wait before introducing chickens or will there always be a chance of a chicken being affected?

By the way, when I do finally get chickens I plan on limiting the gardeners to the front, more landscaped yard anyway. All they really do is mow a badly maintained lawn that's more weeds than actually grass in the backyard

I think I can handle that, we already maintain the rest of the vegetation anyway.

 

[Savuti]

Does anyone have any ideas? It wasn't my choice to have gardeners, but no one was living at this house permanently for awhile and if they hadn't been coming, the yard would be incredibly overgrown and probably full of brambles. I know they've been using the weed killer mainly to control the brambles, but I'm hoping that it won't linger in the soil too long. Did I maybe ask this in the wrong place on the forums? Thanks in advance!

 

[galanie]

Most weed killers break down quickly enough that the chickens will be fine. They won't eat the dead plants anyway. And it tends to dissipate quickly once in the ground.

 

[rebel-rousing-at-night]

I have a friend that was to spray some poison oak in my back yard. Fine because I can't handle the itching.

Mind you my yard is not some manicured work of art. I noticed last week I had bunches of dandelions dying in my side yard. I thought oh no....that idiot has sprayed there as well. I mean for weeks I've told him how I was going to put a chicken tractor there as my chicks would need to be moved.

I called him and told him nicely that I did not want my dandelions killed as they were very important to have for chickens and rabbits. I asked what had he used because I needed to find out about putting my chicken tractor there.

He had to call me back with the name of the product as he couldn't remember.

To make the long story short I had to call the company that made the product.They told me I could not have my chickens on the part that had been sprayed for 8 WEEKS!!

 

[Savuti]

Thank you for your responses. I don't really care about weeds in my yard, if they are causing a problem I just pull them, it gives me something to do outside. I think I'll try to find out what kind of chemical they were using, just to be safe, since I know one area was really dowsed to kill the blackberry plant that came over from my neighbour's yard. Thanks again!