Weed suppressant fabric?

[happyhens1972]

I am currently converting what was a large rabbit pen, into a chicken pen.

In this pic, it is the area from the right hand side of the picture, up to where the wooden divider and the house is. Beyond that, it is still in use by the rabbits.

And this is the internal area....

As you can see, the floor is covered with coarse wood chippings. Underneath this, is heavy duty weed suppressing fabric, made from a sort of plastic hessian effect material. The fabric is secured with metal U-pins so is fairly well pinned down. The fabric was put there because we had a lot of hemlock growing in the area and some of it self-seeded into the rabbit pen, without me noticing, and we lost one of the buns to hemlock poisoning :-(

Do you think it is safe to leave the fabric in place for the chickens? We have pretty much got the hemlock under control now, at least in the area near the pen, but I'd rather have the security of the fabric being in place, however, am concerned the chickens will scratch at/through it and either injest threads from it or get caught up in it.

Does anyone else use this fabric in their pen? Has anyone had issues with it?

Any other comments on the suitability of the pen/flooring/whatever?

I have left the rabbit house (6ft x 4ft) in there for shelter but they will also have a traditional style 12-bird hen house in there with automatic pophole (though the pen itself is fox proofed and padlocked). I have also added a six foot long swing perch and various logs and branches for interest. The pen is about 35 foot long by 16 foot wide and will eventually house 6 to 8 birds.

 

[chickencheeper]

It is not necessary, the chickens will LOVE all the weeds and dig and scratch and forage. It is probably best to remove it

 

[chickencheeper]

Also that is more than enough space for 6-8 chickens

 

[happyhens1972]

Even of those weeds are HEMLOCK???? That is my concern. if it was general weeds, I'd never have put it in in the first place but hemlock is a killer.

 

[chickencheeper]

You could comfortably house 30-40 chickens in the run. The general rule is 1 chicken per 10 square feet of run space and 4 square feet per bird for coop

 

[chickencheeper]

I take that back, after checking the poisonous list for chickens http://www.dummies.com/home-garden/...ickens/plants-that-are-poisonous-to-chickens/ are any of these present?

 

[happyhens1972]

Wow! Wait til I tell my husband that! (in response to the 30-40 chickens comment, that is!!)

The breeds I am getting are Brahma, Cochin and Orpingtons, all BIG girls, and some CCLs for their blue eggs

 

[Percheron chick]

I would leave it in place. They might dig it up overtime but the material will not kill them. They will pick at it but they won't make a meal out of it.
Cover the run with more organic material to keep them busy with the top layer.

 

[Folly's place]

Your chickens may dig it up, which will be a mess. You will then want to either cover it MUCH deeper, or remove it. Chickens dig! At least six to eight inches of bedding over the fabric will be needed.
Beautiful setup!
I've never dealt with hemlock, and have no idea if chickens will eat it, or be harmed. Generally free ranging birds avoid nasty stuff, but in a pen, they might eat things they shouldn't. I'd look up hemlock toxicity in birds anyway.
Mary

 

[happyhens1972]

Nothing at all is present in the pen itself now, not a blade or leaf of green to be seen, and I now regularly check and pluck out ANYTHING green, just in case. Hemlock kills through respiratory paralysis, a terrible, terrible way to see an animal die I shall never forgive myself for killing my beautiful bunny boy with ignorance....

We also obliterate all weeds that grow within about three feet of the pen but there is still the chance of self-seeding, hence why I would prefer to keep the suppressant as long as it is not a threat in itself.