PoultryTalk.com

Hi, we are totally new to all this and are hoping to get some chickens (4) in a few weeks!! We have identified an area of soft ground in the garden for the coop and run, but I've heard that you are supposed to move it around. Is this right?? Is there anything we can do if we can't move the coop, because most of our garden is hard lanscaped, with only small areas of soft ground???

We have our run in a permanent part of the garden and put down a thick mulch of hay which we rake up every few weeks and take the resulting hay and manure down to our allotment for the compost heap. This works well, although you have to worm the hens regularly, 4 times a year. We do this as the season changes.

We also have a landscaped garden but as we have 10 girls and they do like to get out for a run, and I mean a run, so to protect the pretty parts of out garden we have rigged up moveable netting fences which we move round the garden so the girls come out and eat the grass. We then hose down the area at the end of the week and then move the fence to a new part of the garden. The girls put paid to any chafer grubs in the grass and the grass doesn't need any fertilizer.

Good luck with your girls. We have never laughed so much since we had chickens and the eggs taste so much better. It is not a myth as I got caught out when I used up some frozen shop eggs I had in the freezer to make a quiche. My hubby took one mouthful, looked accusingly at me and said that these eggs were not from our girls! So the difference is evident even in a heavily cheesed quiche!
Mrs Tweedy

Hi Wendy, there's an excellant post in the thread 'preventing chicken-sick ground' it's a great idea from Meg and she explains how to prevent your ground getting all churned up etc. It's a good read hun, good luck with your hens.
JubesX