Green space for chickens
@steevc mentioned that his chickens go on supervised walks through the garden as their run has nothing left growing in it.
As our chickens are mostly confined to a very large run, they eat anything that is green leaving the run dry and parched. One way we keep areas green which we rotate can be seen in this picture:
We just put wire mesh around a frame and throw seed onto the ground beneath it.
Too cool @brimax
Thank you kindly
Haha you're teasing them lol. Seriously though, good idea
When we move them, the devastation will take only 1 day but we'll be well on our way to the next patch for them.
Thanks!
You need to switch to the deep bedding and compost pile model. Your chickens will derive a good portion of their daily nutrition from the worms and bugs that take up residence in the compost and mulch. Chickens were domesticated from jungle birds and really enjoy scratching through the leaf litter. Check out Geoff Lawtons and Justin Rhodes permaculture chicken videos great stuff!
Our barn is 14' x 22' half of which has no floor and subscribes to the deep litter method. You can see in this video https://steemit.com/gardening/@brimax/the-compost-connection that we benefit greatly from this concept. Thanks for sharing your ideas!
That's pretty much what we are thinking of doing. We have some big wire baskets that we could weigh down with bricks whilst stuff grows under them. Meanwhile I can throw in some weeds they like. They are partial to brambles and dandelions.
I'm sure they'll appreciate it. Yesterday we removed one of the wire covered frames and within minutes it was back to dirt. Starting another one!
What plants do you give them? There's a jasmine vine up one side of their run that they pick at. Seems that is safe for them. We will try seeding some areas. A while back we were down to one hen and the run got quite overgrown. I found a load of eggs in there when I cleared it
Our chickens are fed as much pelletized food as they want. We then periodically give them Scratch (barley, oats & corn). We also try to give them fresh greens from the garden everyday (summer/fall).
What we do under the wire frames is spread the scratch out and let it grow. Once it is a fair size, we remove the frame and let them enjoy it.
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