Are Grass Clippings Good For Your Chickens?

It is natural to find your chickens feeding on the grass throughout your lawn. Their omnivorous nature makes them able to see insects in the eat grass them. Grass clippings can provide an array of benefits for your chickens, providing them with vitamins that help build organs, muscles, and tissue. However, excessive amounts of this can prove disastrous and result in overgrazing.

A chicken’s mowing skills are next-level, but they won’t do it uniformly, so you better watch out! Grass clipping is also an exercise to ensure they don’t stay stagnant in their coop. They will also be able to take their regular baths in the sand in an open environment, which helps energize them.

This begs the question: Are grass clippings good for your chickens?

Read out to learn more about the ins and outs of grass clippings for your chickens.

Benefits Of Grass Clippings For Chickens

1. Eggs Become More Nutritious

Chicken tends to feast on any green material that they find on its way. By allowing your chicken to roam around freely and eat green clippings or plants, their eggs tend to be more nutritious. The eggs will have less cholesterol, less saturated fat, and more vitamin A, Omega, and Vitamin E (win-win!)

Foraging also helps to increase the number of nutrients the chicken can receive. You can also make your forage with a blend of grass and legumes that are packed with nutrients.

2. Fertilize Your Lawn

Another advantage of your chicken feeding on grass is that it will fertilize your lawn with its waste. When feeding, they will scatter around your lawn and eating the grass all over, spreading their wastes uniformly. Even when searching for insects, chickens will help your lawn be more presentable.

Thus, when you decide to clean the whole area and plant new grass varieties, you will be assured of proper growth. However, as the growth continues, creates a barrier for the chicken to ensure they do not interfere with the young plants.

3. Easy Disposal Of Grass Clippings

The fact that grass clippings can be used as chicken beddings makes them easier to dispose of. That being said, you will need to ensure that it dries fast. Regardless, when chickens feed on your lawn, they help reduce the size of the grass, while ensuring it looks neat and presentable.

However, if you have a large number of chickens, it might turn into a disaster, leaving your compound looking unpleasant.

4. Keeping The Chicken Busy

Chickens love to loiter around looking for insects to feed on, and this helps keep them occupied. If you cut your lawn and leave the grass clippings around, it can keep them busy as long as they aren’t too long.

This can easily choke the chicken, as they love swallowing things whole.

5. A Fun Activity For The Chicken

You don’t necessarily have to allow your chickens on the lawn all the time. You can also cut the grass and provide the chickens with piles as you go. They will scratch it apart, and feast on the grass clippings and insects in a pile – this is a fun activity that chickens love!

Note: Although you can feed your chickens with grass clippings, it is advisable to follow the recommended commercial mash to promote a well-balanced diet for them.

Can I Use Grass Clippings For Chicken Bedding?

The kind of bedding you choose for your chicken depends on the particular situation.

Beddings make a secure foundation for the chickens’ legs and feet. This provides a soft landing for the eggs and simultaneously gathers droppings. You can choose to use wood shavings, grass clippings, sand, dry grass, leaves, hay, and shredded paper. However, with minimal knowledge, it’s easy to go wrong in finding the most suitable bedding.

Before deciding on the best bedding for your chicken, consider the stage of the chicken, the number of chickens, weather conditions, and maintenance budget.

How To Use Grass Clippings For Chicken Bedding?

Have you recently mowed your lawn and looking for a place to dispose of it?

Here’s a solution: Use it as bedding in your chicken’s coop!

You can be assured that this will make proper bedding for your chickens. However, before using grass clippings as bedding, ensure it has first dried off, under direct sunlight. At the same time, flip it a couple of times during the day to ensure it dries off all over. Besides, you can use it together with other beddings – it can also be used with the Deep Litter Method.

Remember, before you use the grass clippings, ensure it isn’t from a farm that has recently been sprayed with any pesticide or other chemicals.

Why Should You Use Grass Clipping As Bedding?

• It is easy to access and is averagely absorbent.
• It is cheap to acquire.
• Your chickens won’t be prone to any kind of disease and provided with comfort.
• They are also readily available, and you won’t have to outsource.

The Downsides Of Using Grass Clippings For Bedding

• They tend to dry, shrink, and smell if they haven’t dried well – this calls for high maintenance to ensure they don’t affect your chicken’s health and productivity.
• It also is high in nitrogen, and because it doesn’t provide a carbon-nitrogen mix, it won’t foster beneficial bacteria and composting.
• The coop can become stinky too – A smelly environment will also make the overall area unpleasant to live in.

Conclusion

Even though grass clippings are healthy to give to chickens, ensure they are not that large! However, grass clippings can be used as bedding and can also be eaten by the chicken. Remember that they eat the grass from the lawn a small amount at a time.

If they eat long ones at once, they might overeat, and the long fibrous stands can get into the digestive system and cause a blockage.