The Backyard Flock: Experimenting with grass

I wrote in an earlier post about feeding grass clippings from the lawnmower to my chickens. In the article, I expressed my pleasure at having solved two problems with one process. I could provide my chickens with grass without letting them out of the chicken run and I had found a convenient way of disposing of the clippings. Since then, there have been two new developments; one positive and one on which the jury is still out, but is likely to temper my elation once the verdict is in.

One fine Saturday morning a couple weeks ago, I was faced with a choice; the lawn needed mowing and the coops needed cleaning. Which to do first? I was planning on giving the clippings to the chickens, so it seemed reasonable to clean the coops first. Then it hit me. Why not use grass for litter in the coops instead of straw?

As it turned out, the chickens love it and it has made the coops easier to clean. As a bonus, the grass has provided soft bedding for the nesting boxes.

Now for the down side: In my enthusiasm for disposing of the grass clippings by depositing them in Chickenland, it seems that I was dumping too much of the stuff. The practice seemed harmless enough for the first two weeks until it started to rain and rain and rain. After a week of rain, Chickenland had become a sucking mud hole that didn’t want to dry up as did the land around it. It seems the grass soaked up and retained the water like a sponge. I have taken to letting the chickens out in the evenings, the very thing I was trying to avoid, in order to give them some relief from the mud hole the chicken run has become. After three days of baking sun, the place is still like something you might find in the bayous of Louisiana. The lesson learned here is restraint. A little grass goes a long way.

The Groundhog Report: Two days ago, Allen Street Al moved back into his old digs next to the foundation under our back deck. He is having his way with the chicken feed and the vegetation in our backyard. To make matters worse, there is a mother with two babies living close by. She brings them into our yard at will. I keep hearing pleas of “Do something!” from Amy. Today, I stopped by Lowes and picked up an electronic gadget that supposedly drives ground boring rodents away for a radius of 95 feet. It’s called a “Mole & Gopher Sonic Spike.” It is solar powered. I have just finished installing it and am waiting with baited breath. Unfortunately, it is supposed to take from one to two weeks to work. Stay tuned…

Photo: Al with one of the chickens in a very muddy chicken run.