Scratching up the grass

[janeyo]

can someone please tell me why this is?

Our chickens pretty much decimated their grassed area (25 square feet approx) within 3 weeks. I only have 3 chickens.

I have been to several animal petting places with the children where there are lots of chickens and the grass is always still there. No scrapping signs at all. Eveb in places where they have similar sized runs and same amount of chickens.

I do not understand why my chickens are so obsessed with it! Is it a breed thing? They are hybrid layers. Would pure breeds do it less?

It's a mystery to me how there is always grass for them everywhere else we see chickens but not here!

Any thoughts? Do I just have crazy ones?!

[chicken slave]

All chickens destroy the grass in there run.
The activity farms etc normal have moveable runs which they move on a weekly basis they also normally have a wired bottom which stop the chickens getting there claws into the dirt (and stops the rats getting in) it is not normally to noticeable unless you go really close to the pens.
My Pure Breeds are worse for digging than the hybrids.

[frias]

My ex-batts (hybrids) have reduced most of my lawn to bare earth. First they eat the grass and then they scratch it up to get to the worms and grubs underneath. I have started to give them a fenced area and move it around. The grass has started to grow in the areas where they were the week before. The enclosed run has no hope of ever growing grass again though.

[Alice]

I don't keep ckickens Janeyo, but I believe some breeds are better tractors than others.
And I'm sure the commercial organisations do what they have to do (? new turf every week) to keep the place looking good.

[RedThorn]

lol we seed on a regular basis and are slowly losing the battle to keep the grass What helps is they have access to the virtually the whole back garden. (about 100ft long)

If you can afford it, Try putting roll on lawn down every few weeks or if you can move the run, seed where the run was, let it recover and keep moving it about.

[Bephlam]

or astro-turf!

[Glutton4...]

or astro-turf!

Now that's just plain cruel LOL

[HayleyB]

Mine don't go in the garden, that's dog territory but in the yard there's a large area that would normally grass up a bit as there's a load of mud and muck under a load of trailer/wood/landie axel and the laydees love it no chance of grass there this year

[Hilary B]

I suspect display places have different quarters for the chooks when there are no visitors around.....

[gazh]

or astro-turf!

lol, had a giggle at someone sitting down to a chooky egg and soldiers only to find strands of astro turf on their soldier! i know it wouldn't happen, but made me giggle anyway.

i had 3 ex-bat hens with a similar run until basil brush made a visit. the ground inside the run went from grass to soil and eventually they started to dig tree roots up! they love it and i didnt mind.

[Pumpkin Becki]

I understand chooks with feathered legs tend to scratch less than clean legged birds, don't know if thats true or not, but I just love the look on their faces when they're having a scratch about - its pure bliss!

[Bephlam]

All my girls have feathered legs and they scratch something awful...so if mine were a measure of the truth of that statement I'd say...FALSE!

Like you though Becki...I love the look on their faces!!

[di]

You can buy proper anti~scratch mat things to lay down...although I suspect normal wire would do the same job & cost far less.We're considering popping something down on just a section of their run as they don't get out to free range as much in the summer due to having crops growing.But there's no way I'd cover the whole run in it...a chook needs to scratch as much as it needs fresh grass available.

[MaureenHall]

When B&Q get the rolls of turf in, I always make a point of going back there 3 or 4 days later - because they don't look after it and if it isn't sold within 3 or 4 days it starts to die. They sell it off at something stupid like 50p a roll (so on Wednesdays I can get it for 45p ) It's still good enough to turf the chicken run (for a day or two!)

[Qwerty]

I had a similar problem with my ducks.

We fenced off an area of the pen & sowed ultra hardy football pitch grade grass seed (Don't worry, you can buy it at B&Q.) And let it grow really strong. you could do this on a rota around the paddock. Or, you could put down bark or rubber chippings, (Bugs should still be able to live amongst the bark, so your chooks can still snatch them up.) but that is a bit of a last resort. either way I hope you win!!