Green stuff & chooks.
Lovely photos Mel - they look as if they are playing "follow the leader".
I think the secret is to have a big enough area of grass in ratio to the number of hens you keep. We are lucky enough to have just over half an acre, and although my hens are in a run now and only allowed access to the main garden (and grass) grass when we are around (due to fox making an earth too close for comfort!) - in the past we used to have ducks and chickens free ranging and it never really harmed the grass. They did most of their scratching around and dust bathing in my borders. Here's some pics of when we had ducks and hens together a few years back. Yes Lou, mine did. I used a chicken ark as a house for both. The hens would go up the ramp to the sleeping quarters to roost, and the ducks had the lower area with plenty of straw to sleep on. We boarded in the back and half of the front of the lower half (which is usually wire netting) so the ducks had shelter. We never used it as a run, which is what it's designed to be, as we had a large pen for them.
Word of caution - unless you have a stream or a really huge garden pond more the size of a small lake, they will trash a pond in no time. We used to fill an old children's sand pit for them to bath in. This was plastic and easy to flush out with the hose and refill when necessary - usually about once a week. Thanks Sunny. We fell in love with the garden when we came to view the property. The house was much smaller than our previous one, but we all squashed in and saved up for a loft conversion, so now we have 3 bedrooms again instead of 2. The outside space makes up for the lack of rooms inside in the summer, and the cottage is cosy in the winter months.
I found it better not to have a pond - we did make one for them, but they trashed it in a very short space of time. The plastic pool (which was actually an Early Learning Centre sandpit) was brilliant for them.
To see a photo of 4 wild ducks swimming in it (very long story!) see Other Breeds of Poultry under this section, and the thread "What to keep with hens?". Great pics Mel! I think it is probably down to the size of the garden. We had quite a small garden when we kept chickens before and they soon made it into a mud bath, but now that we have such a big garden, there grass is wonderful! If I could fathom how to post a pic I'd show you!! In fact, we cut the grass for the first time last week because they keep the grass down so well! We DO have a few craters under hedges but I can cope with that!!
Yes there is a training video as well. Ive just opened my account (its very easy) ready to post pictures when my chickens arrive. Ive been taking pictures as Ive been going along to show how the area the chickens will live in has changd from somewhere I stored/dumped rubbish down the side of our house to a chicken run. Thanks.
Jerry I'm not sure this will work. I have no idea at all how you uploaded your pics. I've joined photobucket as you suggest but that's as far as I have got! I have no patience I'm afraid! I will paste the link below and hopefully you will see the green green grass and a couple of chooks.. they ARE in all the pics, just in the darker areas and cannot be seen.
http://s307.photobucket.com/albums/nn294/lynne888
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