Could use some lawn help/advice

[Dirty Farmer]

This year the dandelions are taking over our yard. (three acres of lawn) Our chickens are free rangers, so they have access to any part of our property. I want to treat the yard with dandelion/weed killer, to get out lawn back in order. I have not treated the lawn, since we started raising chickens. But with the chickens running around, and I see them eat the grass and peck at the dandelions when they bloom to the white seed heads, I don’t know if putting weed killer on the lawn will have any effect on the chickens, poison wise.

Any help, advice or suggestions?

 

[Oregon Blues]

Dandelions are the favorite of my ducks and geese. I'm always happy to see them growing. Duck food!

You can get rid of dandelions by routinely picking off all the flower heads, if you get all the flowers right when they open, there will be no seeds and no dandelions next year.

Other than that, fence the birds off the lawn and use a broadleaf weed killer. It should say on the package how long you must keep your animals off after you've applied it.

 

[dlc]

Better yet, don't use anything on your lawn and just pull by hand. All parts of dandelion are edible - even the roots. The young greens are great in salads. We rely on weed killers way to much in our country. Even if your chickens get a trace of herbicide which is probably labeled as non-toxic to animals, you will eventually be on the receiving end in the eggs and/or meat.

 

[Daisy8s]

Rabbits LOVE dandelions. I got two rabbits at the beginning of the summer and put them in a tractor to "mow" my lawn. Now I have free mowing and fertilizing, besides the fun of two friendly little guys who sit up watching me from inside their fence to beg for goodies as I weed my garden.

 

[SweetSilver]

I vote to keep the dandelions and skip the weed killer. Dandelions in the lawn are an aesthetic problem and nothing more. (And some of us think they are quite beautiful there!) The chickens will love the dandelions. I wouldn't do any work whatsoever (well, mow), and leave it all for the chickens. Also, I would not free-range my girls where there is pesticide, not run my dog or cats, who lick their paws, nor my kids who roll in the grass.

 

[Daisy8s]

There is also some thought out there that dandelions, as one of the deep tap root plants, bring nutrients from down deep up to the surface. When the leaves naturally die back in the fall the nutrients brought up via the tap root to the foliage are added to the surface.

I have a piece of nearly bare ground where a tree trunk was ground up. The poor, rocky earth and heavy layer of sawdust means nothing is growing. I finally got some black-eyed susan wildflowers started since they do well on poor ground. The only other plants are dandelions. I now think of them as helpful plants who will help that piece of soil regain fertility over time.

 

[dlc]

If you are still not convinced that you want to keep your dandelions and want to kill them, here is a non-toxic alternative to try - Vinegar.
http://zduckman.hubpages.com/hub/Non-Toxic-Weed-Killer