Even more earthy tasting eggs

I should think it very unlikely that the grass will grow in the original run area if it's moved now unless it is re seeded as your birds have probably eaten the entire grass plants.

If you have a great deal of Hemcore give it away on Freecycle. There will be allotment keepers and gardeners who will just love it.

Hopefully others will be able to advise you on wood chip there has been a great deal of discussion on the subject on this forum.

As for the earthy eggs it sounds very strange but you seem to be giving your hens a mixed and good diet. I think that static runs can prove a problem. Have you thought of a movable ark and run that can be moved around your plot so the birds have fresh ground every few days and the used ground has time to recover from the hens onslaught before they return after a cycle? It can be rather heavy work and needs two people to move it and be regular about the moves to.

Nothing much left to eat in run and don't think there was ever ferns in it. I only moved there in August and don't thinkthe garden had been looked after let alone had anything growing in it for years so maybe there are a lot of tiny insects that the girls are enjoying?!