Krislee Johnson,
Story and photos
After a long snowy winter, spring is the season for getting your lawn back in order. Some wouldn’t give it a second thought as they dutifully apply fertilizer or weed killer. Their only desire is to make their lawn a lush, blemish-free, carpet of green. However, those of us who have free ranging chickens must stop to consider the danger this may pose to our flock.
My husband is a lawn guy…the greener the better. When we first moved into our new house the lawn had long been ignored. To him, the dandelions and scraggly weeds had to go.
I on the other hand was not as concerned with a rogue dandelion or two. Don’t get me wrong, I love a green lawn but not at the expense of my feathered friends. Due to the fact we free range our birds they have freedom to go just about everywhere on the property.
When treating our lawn we had to consider what the chickens may ingest. If we wouldn’t want to eat from a bag of herbicide laced lawn treatment, we shouldn’t want our birds ingesting it either.
Many slow-release products out there look like tasty seed scratch to a foraging bird. Ingested chemicals can effect bird health directly and toxins can easily pass from their bodies into the very eggs you eat! Who wants that for breakfast?! Not me.
FERTILIZER
Fertilizers ingested in small amounts aren’t likely to result in permanent damage. Your chickens, ducks and geese are likely to poo out the chemicals rather quickly. Unfortunately, any absorption could still prevent you from eating their eggs for a few weeks – especially if you value organic eggs.
Rather than fertilizing with conventional fertilizers, put your chickens to work. There is no better fertilizer for your lawn than what your birds are already producing. In fact, their poo is high in nitrogen and it also contains potassium and phosphorus.
You can either allow your birds to free range over your lawn space or collect the poo directly from the coop. Most garden centers also carry chicken poo if your large space requires a greater volume. Either way, this method of fertilizing is not dangerous to your flock.
HERBICIDES
The real threat comes into play when weed killers are used. Plants are essentially poisoned by easily absorbable weed killers. Because it is so easily absorbed, this means anything your chickens eat, breathe or their feet touch has the potential to do organ damage.
If at all possible, avoid weed killers. When experiencing an overgrowth of stubborn weeds this may not be an option for you.
Try opting for safer forms of herbicide other than pelleted versions. Sprays are easily applied and have a slightly higher degree of safety. Just allow them to dry 24-48 hours before letting your birds back into the area.
The best case scenario is to keep the birds completely off a treated area until after a couple of hard rains. You could do this by fencing off the area or keeping the birds in their pen. With larger spaces, consider spraying one section at a time.
If you don’t mind spot treating your weeds you can make safe treatments at home. The general Gallon Cup Tablespoon recipe is easy to make and much safer around animals. Just remember, this type of weed killer isn’t selective. It will kill anything in the area where it is applied.
Gallon Cup Tablespoon Weed Killer
1 Gallon White Vinegar
1 Cup Salt
1 Tablespoon Liquid Dish Soap
Spray liberally on the foliage and roots of the weeds. Once the weeds have died, turn soil, discard roots and water the soil well. Because Vinegar acidified the soil, you can treat it with Lime and continue to replant the area.
OTHER CONTROLS
Only a few weeds? Skip herbicidal treatments of any kind. I use my grandmother’s old dandelion puller. A longer handled version of the one shown below. Her puller can be used for various types of weeds, removing them by the root. There is zero chemical impact with this method of weed control.
Lastly, if you have a little patience, chickens are great foragers. They rejoice in eating dandelions and other pesky weeds. It can be a little time consuming but it’s well worth keeping your birds happy and healthy. Not to mention, it cuts down on feed costs!
20 Comments
New chicken owners! We let them free range in our yard. My husband not thinking put a weed killing fertilizer on our lawn. After he was done he realized what he had just done. The 8 week old chickens got grounded to the run. I feel like I took them out of the garden of Eden and sent them to the desert. It’s a great coop and run but they loved roaming my yard. How long do I need to keep them off the lawn before it is safe again ? He used a pellet and watered well.
Most contemporary weed killers are designed to evaporate after 72 hours. Our best recommendation is to keep the chicks off the area for at least a week. Water the area well a couple of time to help with evaporation. We do love the awkward teenagers!
Hi there.
Thanks for all the informative knowledge everyone is contributing.
I saw a post about Scott’s weed and feed that the lawn can’t be used for 1 year.
I am a new proud mother duck and, by rote, I weed and feeded my lawn the other day forgetting that my ducks are going to do the best job at containing my weeds.
Did anyone use their lawn before 1 year ( after using weed and feed)?
Would greatly appreciate any suggestions…
Thanks!
Most weed killers are designed to evaporate after 48-72 hours and the majority of residentially sold week killers are required to break down within 14 days. Keep your ducks off the lawn for at least a week. Water the fertilized area a couple of times to spur on evaporation.
I want to seed a lawn that my young chickens will eventually free range in. I wanted to put organic top soil on the sandy soil the landscapers hauled in, but it will take 138 bags making it pretty pricey. Are there any alternatives you can suggest?
Hi there I’m just wondering if Yates weed and feed will kill my chickens we sprayed the lawn yesterday but the chooks got out today So I need to know will it kill them
So do you think if my lawn contractor sprayed a weed and feed that we can eat the eggs again after about three weeks? We kept them off for two full weeks then let them back to forage and have had several hard rains. I’m leery to eat anything that might be dangerous to us. My girls are pretty old and hadn’t been laying but now this week their egg production is up. I hate to keep throwing them but want to be safe.
Hi Jen,
This is complex. It will depend on what your lawn company is using to spray. You’ll need to talk to them about the chemicals they use and how long they are toxic to animals. Let us know what you find out from them.
Unfortunately these are wild chickens that run around through all yards so I cannot keep them off my yard long enough for two hard rains to occur I was really hoping that I could find a solution to kill all the weeds without happen to lock up chickens that can’t be locked up so this was definitely not helpful unfortunately♀️
Thankyou for this great information have bindi weed and chickens. So I will try the natural remedy and try to handpull them out.
Free ranging birds pooping directly on the lawn will burn your grass right up. It has to be composted from what I’ve found out. My neighbors let their chickens go in everyone’s yard and my our lawns have been ruined.
That is false. Their poo will not burn your lawn at all, it’s too small of an amount. Your lawns are in poor shape for another reason.
I have raised cornish cross chickens which go about 100x more and in a concentrated area each day (I move their chicken tractor at night). The lawn the are moved on becomes the greenest and lushest in a month or so.
Wish I would have read this sooner, my husband put down Scott’s weed and feed then called the number on the bag to ask how long to keep chickens off the treated area. We were informed a year. I’m like what? Yes any grazing animal 1 year because it has not been tested yet for these animals!! Why is it not on the bag ? We never would have used this product!
Thanks for the tips. I was thinking, the herbicide must damage the worms and grubs in the area. Then the birds come through and eat them. That couldn’t be good
This post is every thing I needed! Thanks for sharing your advice
I hate to tell you this ,but I sprayed for weeds with the vinegar mixture & it did not kill the first weed that I could tell. I wondered if I was supposed to use the farm strength 35% or something. I will not waste my money or time trying that again any time soon.
I think you’d have to really douse the root with the vinegar mixture. I personally don’t use this method as I pull my weeds where possible. Thank you for letting myself and the readers know what you experienced.
We have used this method for years to keep weeds off our path. It does totally burn up the grass on the edges but we don’t mind. We use a hand pump sprayer and soak it, so you do have to exercise some patience….
I CAN HONESTLY SAY, I HAND PULL WEEDS–AND IT’S A LOT OF WEEDS AND GRASSES, BUT I’M OUT THERE WITH “OUR GIRLS”–AND WHILE THEY PATROL FOR BUGS, QUITE OFTEN THEY ALL COME OVER TO CHECK ON WHAT I’M DOING–SO BETWEEN OUR DOGS AND CHICKENS I’M NEVER ALONE IN THE GARDEN!!!!
Same here! I pull weeds. The chickens and turkeys come in with me, always supervised. They like the lambs quarters and the bugs.