Nearly got to agree to some chickens but he wants to know about the grass they peck at.....

[ladytophamhatt]

Does it eventually grow back or is it gone forever once they've pecked it to death??

I'm sure it grows back, why wouldn;t it?

Title should say nearly got DH to agree...

Obv, we'd move the house thing, but woudl they peck teh grass to teh root at it be killed?

You would really have to keep shifting the run on to new grass regularly because eventually if they stayed on the same bit they would strip it bare.
The Eglu looks like you could keep moving it, though?
We keep our hen runs on a rotation system whereby the little runs on the lawn are moved every third day and the bigger runs are closed off so the hens have access to a fresh bit of the field every second week.That way it is more hygenic for them plus the grass gets a chance to thrive.
One plus is that all the nitrogen in the hen poo eventually gives you a lovely lush lawn!

Dh just asked if there were any replies as we were talking about it, I;d said moving 2.3 times wek would make sure the grass didn't get stripped bare and it seems I'm right]

Thanks GentleOtter.

(BTw, are you our MN otter -the original otter or a new otter?....just being nosey)

Lots of people have been asking that! No, I am a new otter, not NotanOtter!
We live beside a stream where otters live and we see them regularly or can hear them calling to each other at night.

You need quite a big lawn if you want to rotate them round I think. If you want chicken damage more confined you can put the run down on paving slabs, put a layer of something like aubiose/hemcore/easibed/woodchips for them to scratch in, and they're really happy. It has a few advantages - your grass isn't destroyed, foxes can't dig in, MUCH easier to clean as you just hose it down, and it trims their nails as they scratch!

The eglu cube is very popular on the Omlet forum (which is kind of obvious, as it's made by Omlet, but they all seem happy with it) - my only reservations are the price - it is VERY expensive as far as chicken houses go!

ohhhh a new otter

it look nice though tortoise

It does LTH, but am hard and fast wood girl here! You can get some lovely wooden houses/runs!

rotation is definately the way to go - they also tend to eat your flower bordered - we had 4 Pekins (LOVELY with flares!!) that decimated our borders - re Eglu, they dont get much space to run around though do they? Our had free run of the garden but then thst meant shutting them up every night and opening them up in the (vvv early) morning...they were great though

Show me some wood runs and I might be converted Tortoise....

Hiya! I keep 6 hens, we free range them in the garden, and they roost in a ridiculously huge coop I bought because I thought they would live in it, but they only go in to sleep in it, and take up about 3% of its capacity. My mum has two in an Eglu.

Hens will strip grass in a couple of days tbh. When we put ours in a run to start with where the grass was waist high... they scoffed it by the end of the week (and weirdly it's never grown back!)

I recommend Black Rocks, as a breed, they are bomb proof and real characters, as well as being great layers. Try not to get too sentimental about them though, as they do tend to drop dead quite regularly. (Maybe that's just a reflection on my nuturing skills).

Rachel

This is ours which is homebuilt but based on ones I found on the web.

This page has lots of designs.

Lots of wooden ones here.

Also here

they do ruin the grass if you confine them to one bit but if you let them free (or mainly) they won't. we used to do this and it was ok. during the avian flu we confined them and the grass grew back quite quickly afterwards

ohh the wooden one do look nice, all very pretty.

still like the eglu though....

then try ebay herefor loads but they are not cheaop even secondhand

we were look ing atthe eglu cubes and it says they can house up to 10 chickens

wouldn't they be awfully squshed in if we had 10?

Or would it mean that they would keep each otehr nice and cosy all squashed in?

I still think that Eglus are small and overpriced. Honestly, you could get a good solid henhouse for the same money and then there would be more room.
The only thing that concerns me about the squashing in is that they generate a fair bit of heat at night so it might get a bit hot and uncomfortable.....

PrincessPeaHead has got new chicks...
Broody Old Otter now

cute

sweet

i've got the dozen

LTH, just to help convert you

DH has just said to me 'Wait until the canaries die, and then get hens.'

Want hens NOW.

We let our 4 free range in the garden (not huge: about 10metres square ish). They pretty much leave the grass alone: its the bare earth in the flowerbeds they love! Scratching away for worms etc, and dustbathing, destroying my tulips and pretty much all other plants (heather seems to be left alone...). Have just bought willow trellis to use as fencing round the main flower beds as it seems to have worked on the trial beds I surrounded the other week.

You can buy a 2nd hand eglu on the eglu site. We had a pink eglu and 2 chickens - Thelma and Louise. I was dead set against them, but once we had them I fell in love with them. Lovely fresh eggs every day, hubby cleaned the eglu, and 2 lovely chicks who became so tame they would let me pick them up and cuddle them.

They did wreck the garden though!!!