Please tell me im not mad

[OneJollyPinkEagle]

We rent a field adjacent to our house. Also rented same landlord.

We have chickens and ducks in the field
Big coop, huge run but they free range. They did pop through the fence into the garden.

However they have been handy in de weeding our beds!

The field is sussex clay and is very boggy in the one area they have turned up.

We rented the field solely for livestock of chickens and sheep with the landlords permission

They are now complaing about the mud.... in the field. And that the chickens go through the fence to the garden.

I understand them not wanting them in the garden and I will find a solution for this.

However mud in one corner of the field.... im not understanding what they want me to do.

They said we should rotate where the coop and run is so grass can grow back.... but in my opinion that rotates the issue rather than leaving in one corner where the grass will grow back in spring....

Am I mad or do they have a point?

Why rent it for poultry if you cant accept there will be mud....

Or am I being an idiot?

When chickens scratch they remove all the grass roots so the mud is every lasting. When a sheep/cow/horse field gets muddy the grass will still grow back the next year. A lot of small holdings/farmers limit the chickens roaming because of this. Chickens also attract a lot of rats, so he may be worried about that. I love chickens and do not mind the mud/smell etc but they are a menace compared to the lovely well behaved and nicely mannered sheep 😂😂😂

Well rhe cats keep the rats away. Haven't seen a single one.

Hence why im saying rotating the chicken patch would be worse for the field 🤣 keep it in one corner and i will happily fence it off so they are limited to the corner!

I will re seed the area when the day comes we leave!

I wasn't suggesting you were infested with rats or a bad tenant! I was just saying what I thought he might be concerned about - if you address this with him he might chill out. We have had up to 50 chickens at various points and they do make a much bigger mess and small than any other livestock imo, but they are worth it.

Oh no I understand! The landlords are owners of large rural estates so I dont think they are bothered. Its the estate agents nitpicking!

Oh no I understand! The landlords are owners of large rural estates so I dont think they are bothered. Its the estate agents nitpicking!

We used to move our chicken run to let the grass recover and give them fresh grass when they were in run and not free ranging if we were away otherwise it does get boggy. If you are saying they are going in the landlords’ garden I can understand objection but surely ok in your own garden if you don’t mind as long as you leave same as you found it (replace any plants).

It's my understanding that it's recommended to move the run quite often, before they scalp it all down to mud. While it's still quite green.

That way it doesn't take long to bounce back, and by the time you've moved it to the last position the first one is ready to go again.

Yes our own garden. No plants. They dug up the weeds beautifully.

Well my problem is when I took the field license they told me where I was allowed to put the coop and they wanted a fixed structure. So that we did. Now they want it rotating but it's not one that can be moved as they wanted it on a concrete base.... glad we didnt do that now!

I think they dont know what they are on about. We accepted the terms. And now they have changed their minds because of mud
Its sussex clay so.pretty boggy even without animals.