More Details on the Coop

We were warned that the hens would destroy whatever green thing existed in the coop within 2 weeks of moving out there. I never imagined that this would actually happen, but it’s true! After about a week, when we had noticed that what little grass and weeds we had there was now just about completely destroyed we decided to take action.

You’ll notice a ladder like contraption on the ground of the coop with plastic hardware cloth over it. This is a clever little contraption for growing grass. It allows grass to grow up through the plastic hardware cloth so that the chickens can eat it without destroying it with their scratching talons.

Underneath the ladder is grass seed covered with woodchips and manure from the chicken coop. It germinated in about 4 days and because of our steady Autumn rains, it grew quite quickly. The chickens continue to fertilize the grass patch each time they poop over the hardware cloth. I have never seen such happy grass!

Here is a picture of the grass in its first days (and Alice and Francis having an encounter!).




We’ve since removed this contraption from its first location and have moved it to the other side of the coop to grow more grass. In the meantime the chickens have managed to destroy the previous locations grass in about three days!

This is a picture of the grass after day one of the device being removed!




I also wanted to point out that even though I was worried that the girls would never learn how to get up on their “big girl” roosts, they have successfully gotten up their and I’ve even found them all sleeping up there at night. Success!