Grazing Frames for Pampered Poultry

I'll be the first to admit it - our chickens are spoiled. We love them just as much as we love our other pets, and try hard to make their lives enriched and happy. It's a much different task to make a chicken happy than, say, a dog or cat. They are much more focused on staying busy by way of foraging.

Over the years, our yard has taken the abuse of living at the base of a mountain (and the rocky soil that comes with that), the harsh winters and ever blaring summers of Colorado weather, and this last year, we've been blessed with the thundering paws of a greyhound forming her new track in the backyard. Needless to say, it's taking a beating on it's own. There is almost no grass back there to speak of, and what does come up, the chickens gobble up right away and scratch out the roots, preventing any regrowth.

Enter, the Chicken Grazing Frame. I found this on Home Farm Ideas Facebook page, and quickly watched the video to find out more information. Basically, you can build these simple frames that allow grass to grow up through the hardware cloth so that the chickens can eat the tops of the grass (getting the nutrition), but are unable to scratch up the roots and destroying the plant. For such an easy project, I think these are definitely worth a try. Here's the video's that Home Farm Ideas has posted on Youtube:

And here's some free grazing plans that I found online as well if you'd like some numbers and material lists to start off with: Free Grazing Frame Plans

As you can see from the videos, the chickens go nuts for the grass that grows from these grazing frames! Let us know if you've given one of these frames a try and how it's worked for you!