[Julia1521]

Hi guys,

Looking for some advice about improving the grass in one of my chicken pens.

I've neglected it for a number of years it's had chickens and ducks on for most of that time but is now empty. There is now almost no grass left it's covered in weeds. I can't identify what type of weed it is, there is quite a lot of plantain but the majority of it is a stalky weed that doesn't grow very tall. The chickens don't eat it and it dosen't look very attractive. I'd love to plant some 'poultry grass seed' so that they have more to forage and it would look much nicer. However, I don't know what to do about these weeds.

It's only a small space so wouldn't be very cost effective to get a contractor out. Anyone have an advice? Have I left it too late to do anything about this year?

Thanks!

[Fleecewife]

Grass under hens is always going to be eaten and scratched down.  Can you rotate the areas they use?  For the weeds, post a pic on here and we can try to identify them, which will help with eradication advice.  If it is only  a small area, then digging it over and weeding it as you go could be the best way.  You could use a rotavator (you can hire one by the day) but you would need to weed it first. As well as getting rid of the weeds, this would help drainage if you dig deeply. Once cleared and dug/rotavated then get your grass mix sown.  Depending on where you live, you might be OK to sow grass seed now, but here we would wait until March when all grass is growing to plant fresh seed.  Let the grass get properly established before letting hens back on, then remove them before the grass is killed off again so it has time to establish properly.  Chicken droppings are very strong so will burn the grass, as well as the scratching bringing the roots up.

[chrismahon]

We were in the same position a few years back. Used a rotavator, added fertiliser, then used a tiller, seeded it with 'play' grass (hard wearing supposedly) and rolled it. Took a year to establish. Here we can only seed in October, as soon as the ground is soft enough, giving enough time for the roots to establish before the dry summer. Unfortunately by the time we got chickens on it the moss had taken over, which they are now scratching up. We'll see how much grass comes up in a few weeks. Ours have 35m2 each, but at the last place 15m2 was enough to stop the grass being ripped up and we poo picked it to keep the grass from burning.