You can have chickens and grass too!

[azygous]

Here's Su-su a five-year old GLW who loves to dig and eat grass. She and all my flock of seventeen free range every day on the natural native grasses around my house. They never manage to decimate the grasses as happens in most back yards. Why?

Because these native grasses are bunch grasses and the roots naturally go down very deep, making them not only chicken proof but drought resistant.

Most of your back yard grasses are sod and have a shallow mat of roots that are easily dug up, killing them. If you want to plant grass for your yard that chickens can eat and dig in without destroying your hard efforts, ask for dryland pasture mix at the feed store. There are also individual bunch grasses you can select, but they're more expensive.

This grass will take a while to get established, like any grass would, but in two years, you'll have a backyard of grass that won't disappear after the chickens have been turned loose on it for a couple weeks.

 

[howfunkyisurchicken]

I've managed to keep grass in my yard the entire time I've kept chickens. However, somethings happened this year that I've never experienced before. We bought some grass seed from TSC just before Spring. When the weather began to warm, we seeded the bare patches in the yard and covered them with straw. And immediately got some very hard rain. The bare patches in the yard are still a little bare, but I've now got grass growing IN MY CHICKEN RUN
Its been there a couple of weeks, is growing well and the chickens are leaving it along (probably because they free range the rest of the yard). If I can manage to keep grass in that run, I'll feel pretty darn accomplished

 

[azygous]

Have you noticed grass seed does have a penchant for wandering where you least expect it? That will be a marvel, having actual grass in your run!

 

[howfunkyisurchicken]

Yep, it sure does! But I'm not complaining one bit