I would recommend using this since it is region specific.this is perfect. Ive been looking for good grass to plant for my chickens. It says that takes a few days to sprout and two weeks to be ready. That's great news if I have them on an acre at a time and rotate acres month to month. I could cover any dead spots or holes with extra mix and viola! its grassy again before the get rotate back in!
thanks!
It is incredibly rainy (generally speaking) in western wa, and the grass grows at an uncanny fast pace. Ive found that it holds up pretty well to chickens, so as long as I have healthy grass, I am confident it will work pretty well. Also turns out on our heavier rains, it washes away a lot of that chicken poop, or washes it into the soil itself, so the cleaning is minimal. The sunlight is fairly minimal around here, year round mostly, but something must get through, as the grass sure doesn't mind
looks like im going strong with my # of chickens to acre ratio. Im curious to see how much grass they manage to kill off, if any. that would be ideal!
) and I would like to fence off an area for them to scratch, peck and do general chicken stuff in. This area will be separate from their existing 400 ft2 pen, meaning they will not have 24/7 access to it, just "every now and then". I need to fence them in mainly to keep them from wandering into the dog's area, which is defined by an invisible fence. And unfortunately they don't make any collars sized for poultry.
Soo many variables, it's impossible to estimate, you'll just have to play it by eye.
I have 10 acres and my son has ten acres next door. Otherwise i am surrounded by grain fields and woods. 12 chickens seem to stay around 2 acres near the coop. They like to go to the corral with the cows and will pick at flys on the cows. They mostly stay in shorter grass. However coyotes run through around noon and cause problems. Last kill was twenty feet from den window running past 2 large noisy penned hounds to attack. Ur dog may or may not help. I had another neighbor who thought his dogs wouldnt attack chickens. Chickens naturally run and dogs naturally chase even just to play. Chickens dont survive well with playful dogs. Be ready to adapt any plan you come up with. Maybe someone else has a method to test or train your dog to do what you hope for. Good luck and enjoy the chickens.All-
Love the conversation! Yeah, I had the feeling that the "standard" would be loose, at best. I get that, just wasn't sure if there would be any opinions on what might "work best". I do want to maximize the foraging for sure, I understand that I would need to still supplement their diet, which I intend on. My goals are to own an organic free range chicken and turkey farm, but I wouldn't have a ridiculously large number of poultry. Was thinking of 20 dual purpose (orpington) chickens to start off with, would sell the eggs, and eventually meat when they aren't laying anymore, and maybe expand from there. Then about 50 turkeys per season, with room for expansion.
My ideas are to look at around 10 acres, with the chickens and turkeys on various runs in the 5 (protected in the barn at night), and use the other 5 as living space and small organic farm space (veggies). I would fence off separate runs on the 5 acre, maybe an acre a run, and have them on an acre for a month (or so...depending on how well the grass does), then rotate to the next acre next month, so on and so forth. I have a dog who is used to being around chickens who I plan on using as a livestock protection dog (shes loud) and she has NO prey drive whatsoever, so I have confidence she would not attack the poultry. They would not be left outside after dark, and I have a lot of predator defense measures I plan on implementing. Hmmm, I think that pretty much covers it.
My overall intent, I think, is that if I plan on expanding my chicken and turkey numbers at any point, I do want the ability to do so, without having to purchase another property.....
thanks all!
~M
