keeping the chickens happy

My chickens have turned their space into a barren dirt wasteland.  So I decided to use bits and bobs from around the house to make them an on tap gourmet green pick area for the days when I don't let them out into the yard (when I am at work, or out, or lazy, or have just mulched the garden and do not want it kicked everywhere).

I started with some spare bricks and made them into a little square.

I also had an old bath and a wheelbarrow full of dirt and chook poop.

I put some chicken wire over the top and planted some grass seed.  After about a week (in which it fortunately rained quite a lot), the seeds sprouted, letting the chickens peck the top of the grass without being able to pull out the roots or kick the dirt around.

Design features I might change in the future are using 'stiff' wire rather than chicken wire so the chooks can't walk across it and trample all over the growing grass.

But they seem pretty happy with their new green area in their enclosure.

Happy chooks.  Four eggs a day.  Yum.