not even started....

Hello everyone! I'm completely new to keeping chickens- as in I haven't even got them yet! But its turning into an obsession, I wake up thinking of chickens!  :blink:
Anyhow, I'm thinking of getting 3 Rhode island reds and giving over the back garden to them. I have a coop on order too. But what I need to know is.... Will the chooks eat my entire lawn? It's about 15 X 20 ft grass. Oh, and any advice for starting out is most welcome!    xx

 :)Hello Jennyhen - we are just starting too!  Welcome to the "chicken club".  Glad to hear someone else is living and breathing chickens at the moment too!  I go to bed thinking, plotting and planning, dream about them and they are my first thought in the morning (oh dear - maybe I shouldn't have admitted that online)  Sure you will get loads of advice from the experts here as I have.  Our coop is half built and the digging is about to start for installing the run.  We are looking for bog standard chucks at the moment till we get used to what we are doing.  Hope to hear more from you. 

Welcome JH to the madness that is chook keeping. A lawn your size should be trashed completely by the end of the first day. By the end of the second day the holes they've dug will be deep enough to trap elephants
From my limited experience the grass will cope in summer when growing well, but winter could be a problem. There are some 'poultry grasses' in the Grass Seed Store (Google) so I've ordered some. Unfortunately I won't be able to tell you how efficacious they are until 2011!
Enjoy the chooks.

The hens WILL destroy your lawn and pretty much anything else that's green but, chicken keeping will turn in to an obsession... be warned! lol

hi there! you can tell your husband that they will soon be paying their way in eggs - i havent had to buy any for 4 weeks now, so thats saved us  £3 per week, so far £12 which is going towards their set up costs (£650 approx!) how many weeks will that take seriously though, they are such great fun and even my husband agrees and he didnt want them in the beginning!

Chickens will make a mess of anything!  My hubby was not keen on the idea of them at first because of the mess they might cause but having eaten the eggs he has agreed the mud is worth it.  Still havent managed to get him to poo pick yet but I am now known as a mad chicken mummy and I wouldnt have it any other way.  Working on him letting me have some more and he has gradually giving way.  Hopefully by easter he will have been worn down!

Hi They will wreck any thing green really quickly so My hubby had to fence off a corner of the garden as I didn't like them cooped up ,there are only 2!  I let them out as a treat if I am out ther as they cause havoc but I love them to bits!