Will Chickens be my lawn mower?

[Arage]

Hello. I live in Australia on approximately 2 acres and due to a very wet and warm summer last year, our paddock is full of beautiful long grass. I have thought about putting a horse in there to eat it but have in the past had chickens and thought I might like to have fresh eggs again. My question is, does anyone think they will be good at eating down the long grass? My issue with the long grass is that we get snakes here, and as most probably know, Australian snakes are not nice ones...very poisonous. Our cat has been bitten twice by an Eastern Brown Snake and once by an Eastern Tiger Snake (still alive!). So, just wondering if anyone has had good success of free range chickens munching down a fair amount of grass. When I say a fair amount of grass, most of it is up to mid shin to knee length and some parts are longer. Thanks.

 

[aussie pete]

hi ,i'm in nsw .my chooks (light sussex & australorps) tend to flatten tall grass by walking it down ,they tend to prefer shorter stuff to eat ,we have brown's here too, so i tend to mow grass to keep length down as i had one brown in nest box last yr.lucky i saw it , before i shoved my hand in to get eggs

 

[TXchickmum]

-not too sure that they will do well eating tall grass as it can potentially impact their crops. They will definitely mow down relatively short grass - eat any and all of that!

 

[WillsC]

I doubt it.....unless you dump a LOT of chickens in there. Geese would help you out or even muscovies but again would take a lot of them.

 

[ScottM]

Nope, but goats might do the trick.

 

[perchie.girl]

Goats are browsers not too thrilled with grass sheep are much better at mowing. My Ideal situation would be to have goats and sheep for weed and grass control. I have three goats and they are pretty much interested on what ever is on the OTHER side of the fence... hee hee. my little Reprobates.

Like the others said tall grass might impact.... if you can give it a good mow and they will keep it picked.... add in a goose or two (they are grass eaters) and you will have goose eggs and chicken eggs.

With regard to snakes I have Guinea fowl and they pretty much either run em off or eat the little ones. They lay eggs too plus have the added benefit of being Walking Burgler alarms... Not the best choice for a city flock though.

Rule of thumb on Guineas..... If you can keep Peacocks you pretty much can keep Guineas.

deb