Second chicken yard

New chicken yard

We finally finished the second chicken yard a few days ago. The one-year-old chickens have completely eaten down the original yard and by moving the birds now I think the grass will come back. It’s trying, but with the chickens there it doesn’t stand a chance.

The new yard is about the same area or perhaps slightly larger. It is the area where I drove the little earth mover that I rented to excavate for the coop foundation so it is full of ruts. I tried to even out the ground a bit, but it is still quite lumpy. The chickens take advantage of exposed or loose dirt and ruts to scratch around in and take dirt baths, but sure makes it tough to cut the tall grass. The birds seem to largely ignore tall grass, so I want to cut it down to make it more appealing and give them some greens to eat. As it is they really just look for the dirt patches and scratch for bugs. I am hoping that the two yards will be sustainable – that is until we introduce more chickens. I can let them out of the yards to graze on the rest of the property, but we are refraining from doing that until the garden get more established. We don’t want them scratching up our tender little plants.