Chicken damaged land

[Pasty]

With the best will in the world, going to SA spacing standards and using pull along tractors etc. with our weather, I usually end up with some patches of land which the birds have just trashed. That is, eaten all the grass and turned it to mud. Can happen quite quickly in a bad spell of weather.

My usual response is to not use that bit again and just mow and mow until it returns to something resembling grass.

But I'm wondering if there is a more practical approach, given the amount of manure that has been deposited. Like green manure over winter and then grow something next year? Or should I just rotavate and go straight for brassicas or something? Or spuds?

What would you do with a small area (say 50m x 50m) of pretty much decimated grass land?

 

[pine_guy]

Pull a rake over it in a dry spell to make done till and scatter some grass seed on

 

[Nearly]

harrows and fiddle drill some grass seed on.

Are chickens like rabbits and cause a lot of compaction?

 

[Wild Carrot]

If it were me, I would separate the plot into 2-4 different fenced sections and put the chickens (and transportable chicken house) in one section. Then, after the chickens had eventually turned the section to muck, I would move them onto the next section and plant a crop in the one they were just on (and so on and so forth). This way, rotating the chooks around, the highly fertile manure and weed-free zone the chickens have created could be taken advantage of.

I have also heard of people having chickens in traditional orchards (using the chooks to help keep weeds & pests to a minimum and fertilize the soil while the tree's grow and provide fruit).

Old or damaged fruits and veg can also be fed to chickens as a cheap feed on top of their regular diet.

 

[MrKip]

I once read somewhere that you can use chickens and pig breed that roots to kill rushes. The pigs turn over the ground and then the chickens are run intensively on the same patch. They pick the weeds and rush seeds out of the ground and stop the rushes establishing again. After that you reseed it.
Don't know if that's of any use to you, but it's just an idea.
I don't actually know anyone who's tried this. I'd research it before you consider it.

 

[glasshouse]

With the best will in the world, going to SA spacing standards and using pull along tractors etc. with our weather, I usually end up with some patches of land which the birds have just trashed. That is, eaten all the grass and turned it to mud. Can happen quite quickly in a bad spell of weather.

My usual response is to not use that bit again and just mow and mow until it returns to something resembling grass.

But I'm wondering if there is a more practical approach, given the amount of manure that has been deposited. Like green manure over winter and then grow something next year? Or should I just rotavate and go straight for brassicas or something? Or spuds?

What would you do with a small area (say 50m x 50m) of pretty much decimated grass land?

sow corn

 

[Pasty]

sow corn

I've grown a fair bit where they've missed the off grain from their feed. Does come up quite well. Only issue is harvesting small amounts economically. Could just let them do it themselves I suppose.

 

[glasshouse]

I've grown a fair bit where they've missed the off grain from their feed. Does come up quite well. Only issue is harvesting small amounts economically. Could just let them do it themselves I suppose.

Mow it and bale it, then give a bale now and then.
I do that for sheep

 

[Pasty]

Mow it and bale it, then give a bale now and then.
I do that for sheep

Good idea. Feed and bedding in 1 go.

 

[suffolksmallholder]

We sprinkle residual hay on poor patches. The grass soon appears. Muscovy ducks are worse! Takes half a year to bring the ground back into good shape.
SS

 

[Pasty]

That's sort of the thing though. Rather than waiting for grass to recover, why not bite the bullet. You've removed the grass and put on a ton of manure, why not use it for an annual crop? That will use the manure, probably clean it up and the grass will recover after harvesting? Was sort of my thinking.

Baled wheat or barley would be ideal as the chooks would do the spreading out job of their new bedding looking for the grain and I could run chicken tractors over the stubble to give the grass a boost up.

 

[clbarclay]

What is the cycle time before chickens go on the damaged patches again?

I have turkeys let out of barns every day onto a paddock and by mid december the ground nearest the barns is often a sea of mud (soil type and lie of the land doesn't help), but it greens up well every spring, not much of the green is grasses right next to the barns though.

 

[Netherfield]

What is the cycle time before chickens go on the damaged patches again?

I have turkeys let out of barns every day onto a paddock and by mid december the ground nearest the barns is often a sea of mud (soil type and lie of the land doesn't help), but it greens up well every spring, not much of the green is grasses right next to the barns though.

Done that, although many years ago.

 

[Chasingmytail]

We try to move ours every 2 weeks and on occasion it goes over and the weather has trashed the area. With the manure fallen through the slates the area recovers very easily. The holes are a pain but a bucket full of soil and some grass seed sorts this out. The areas manured are very green within a few weeks and hasnt been an issue for us.