No Mowing Needed?

As you've gathered if you've read any of my other entries-- my feathered friends are now over a year old and are allowed to free range throughout my yard during the day. It's pretty easy for both of us-- they get to eat their fill of bugs; cicadas, bees, mosquitoes, and also as much as grass as they'd like and I get a break in needing to fill their 7 lb. feeder every day.

There's just one problem with an all-you-can-eat-grass buffet-- the grass is now slowly disappearing.

Last year at this time the lawn was lush and very green and I was contemplating mowing early. I waited though, knowing that I had small chicks indoors who would soon be moved outside and would thoroughly enjoy the fresh blades as they learned about their new world. When I brought them out to live in the coop that I had built, the new chicks hungrily gobbled up the green-- making it so that I only had to mow once a month or so. This was great with me then, not so much now.

Now, the yard is dotted with dirt/dust pits and little tufts of grass that futilely attempt to grow. I noticed this evening that the peonies, that I was given from a friend who moved last year, have been dug up in spots with hungry appetites wanting to find those new earthworms and grubs that have survived the freezing of winter and are now starting to make their way back to the surface to eat, but also risk being eaten.

I knew this stage was coming, but didn't realize it would happen so quickly. In curiosity this evening, I peeked through the slats of my 6ft privacy fence at the neighbor's yard and noticed nice, green, lush grass. I was jealous for just a moment, but then I remembered-- I got the chickens because I liked the chickens and liking the chickens means that I take them with everything they give; both good (eggs, insect eaters and comedy) and bad (a yard that is slowly resembling barren wasteland). I'll take that, even though my mind says "what the cluck?"