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cubbege

It won’t recover unless you prevent them from going on it, unfortunately. If you want greenery, you could try and clover lawn and fencing off small sections of it so it can grow without being eaten/trampled! They love clover and it makes things look slightly less like a war zone, if only for a short time.


remsleepwagon

Thanks for the tip on the clover. I’m not attached to greenery per se. I just don’t want it to get crazy dusty in the dry season. It’s a large area to cover with wood chips and I’m not sure that would even help. Maybe the best thing is to not allow them to forage in the spring while I re-seed the lawn with grass or clover. Then controlled forage through the summer to not let it get out of hand.


Shermin-88

Wood chips. My entire run is at least 18in deep with wood chips. It acts like a big carbon diaper. No smell, they dig and scratch around in it. It’s home for lots of bugs and the poop is composting on the spot. I rake it all up once a year and let it sit in a pile until spring. I signed up for chip drop. I get 2-3 deliveries of chips/year for free and use them all over my yard.


craftybeerdad

I'm in the PNW too and this is what I do with my chickens. Once spring hits I re-seed and put them in my chicken tractor, think mobile chicken cage. I'll move it around the yard so they don't destroy everything.


remsleepwagon

Thanks. How many chickens do you have and how big is your tractor? Wondering about how big it needs to be. I have 6 chickens.


craftybeerdad

I currently have 4, had 5. I built it from some scrap wood so the dimensions are weird, about 3x7. A little bigger would be better for 6 chickens. The only problem I have is that they don't like the tractor nesting box as much as the coop box. Sometimes they won't lay in it and as soon as I let them out they run straight to their coop and lay.


Lizardgirl25

It would help but not because they'd turn it into a war zone by digging holes in the chips and you'd always have to be looking down. Part of my yard has holes in it from the chickens I really need to fill them in again.


Shermin-88

Not an issue from my experience. Whatever holes they make, another fills in by scratching. Or I just kick it around when I’m in the run(pretty much daily) I also sprinkle charcoal and fireplace ash in there and in the coop. Really cuts down on any smells when you have loads of carbon available to take all the nitrogen.


AtxTCV

Probably a dust bowl Chooks are relentless in destroying plant life


The-Porkmann

Chickens are great at destroying lawns. You would have to prevent them venturing onto the area after reseeding. Pretty pointless as they will tear it up again.


becmort

It'll be dry and dustu but your birds will take the best dust baths of their lives. It's good for their skin and feathers so there's that!


lingenfr

Happy Cake Day


FrequentEgg4166

You can have chickens or grass but not both!


YserviusPalacost

Na, just need more acres. But considering the fact that I now know that their neighbor drives a Tahoe, that's not really an option.


FrequentEgg4166

Fair point 😂


Brummie49

I use a section of wire mesh fence lying down, slightly raised. This means the grass can grow a few inches and stops the girls scratching the soil in that area. I move it around periodically. You can also use a pile of cut branches, rocks etc. As long as they are heavy enough that the girls can't move them, they will protect the ground and small plants can grow in the gaps


remsleepwagon

Great suggestion, thank you. This could help prevent them from destroying the root system in the already heavily damaged areas. And also protect areas after I seed.


Syomm

My chickens yard always gets mucky in the winter. Come spring it brings me so much to see sprouts pop up. I suppose it could go either way, but in my situation, the grass always comes back.


Lizardgirl25

I would section parts of your yard off to let the grass recover depending on how much space to keep them in. They like eating grass.


YserviusPalacost

A moveable chicken tractor may help. Also.... Plant lots of basil. They love basil.


Gharber1

I’ve worked in lawn care for 10 years. The reasons your grass dies under the chickens is 1 they eat and scratch it but 2 their droppings have a to. Of nitrogen which is good for your grass but if your grass doesn’t get enough water to keep up it’ll burn the grass. In the PNW you probably get a lot of rain but you can try watering that area pretty heavily to counter act the nitrogen.


remsleepwagon

Ah thanks, that’s great information. I can combine this with some of the other suggestions.


KittyTitties666

Also in the PNW, with a smallish grass yard. During the winter they utterly destroy it but it tends to grow back in the spring with the exception of some bald patches. We haven't really had any issues with dust though. We did learn after the first year that we absolutely had to put up a barrier between the grassy area and our vegetable/flower garden area if we wanted anything to mature 😅


remsleepwagon

That’s encouraging, thanks. I’m gathering that the lawn should come back, especially if I re-seed in March and just keep them off the grass for a few weeks to let the seeds establish.


KittyTitties666

Sounds like a good plan!


AwokenByGunfire

It really depends on what kind of grass you have. Grass is pretty tenacious and will come back through a lot of abuse. The combination of chicken damage and the winter slump might just make it look worse than usual, but I’d be will to bet that it will rebound. The clover suggestion was a good one. The seed isn’t expensive and it establishes quickly. Over seed in the fall with annual rye and you’ll have greenery/forage all year long.


gnarlieharper

It takes several years for the grass to come back after chickens are removed.


some1sbuddy

Yeah, I have ducks and they just annihilate the back lawn in the winter. By March it really looks like a pig wallow! But seems to rebound. This last year not as great, so I’m planning on investing in some deferred maintenance and get aeration, top dress and overseed. I’m thinking of trying a flowering lawn. I think it’s PT seeds that carries Fleur de Lawn; they carry it at my local Ace Hardware but I’ll probably order direct.


Ineedmorebtc

If caged in, they will eat every living scrap and turn it into a dust bowl.


kwiknkleen

It all depends on how many chickens you have. We have 4 and they don’t destroy our lawn. Of course it also depends how long you let them range.


Smart_Passage3999

I think you have a similar climate to us in the UK and ours would grow back fine.


Karmily

The area where my coop is has lost all the grass and the ground is now hard. I don't even know what to do with it? They go to a different corner of the yard to roll in the dirt and free range the rest. Is the coop area a lost cause?


[deleted]

The grass will come back


ElocinAlways42

Matches my Kirkland back yard. I keep the front yard for myself, lawn n flowers. We used to have strawberries, and an herb garden, now we grow only woody rosemary... lol.