When we moved from our 2-acre lifestyle block to a small suburban property near the middle of town, I knew there was a no way I could let my chickens free-range there – not only is it against the town bylaws, in no time at all they would be squished on the road, attacked by a roaming dog, or end up in someone’s dinner pot. But I still wanted my chickens to enjoy scratching for bugs, eating fresh greenery, and having the choice of leafy shade when they wanted it.
I’ve tried various ways of providing my chickens with a substitute for free range. My initial idea was that I could use their 60 square metre "range" area like ‘break-feeding’ stock – giving the chickens access to one part of it for a while, then closing that area off and allowing the vegetation to regrow before circling the chickens back there again. But I found that even though the greenery had been well-established before the chickens got access, within days of letting chickens into a lushly planted area they had munched the lot, while it takes weeks or months to regenerate the plants. The chickens pecked and scratched and completely cleared the ground much faster than anything could re-grow.
What I found successful was fencing off the edges of the chickens' open-air area and planting those edges with leafy greens and edible flowers. The chickens can peck the leaves without scratching up the roots. It's kind of like a variation of my first small pecking garden as described here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5JrR2_x0-DI&t=261s
But the fences do need to be strong, or a heavy chicken will push them over. And also vertical rather than sloped, or the chickens will use the fence like a ladder.
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