Why Do Chickens Scratch the Ground?
Chickens scratch at the ground primarily for one reason, and that’s to find food! There are a few other reasons why they might be scratching around.
Why is My Chicken Scratching the Ground?
Chickens are prolific ground scratchers. Physically, they are perfectly designed for this with their long toes and sharp claws. There are a few reasons why they scratch at the ground.
Looking for Feed
They use their long claws to scratch at grass and vegetation, clearing away the plants to find bugs, or things like layer feed if it has been scattered on the ground. If you want to encourage chickens to scratch up a certain area, say to loosen bedding or to have them dig up a garden bed, you can scatter a mix of grains on the ground to really get them digging!
Dust Baths
Chickens keep themselves clean and free of pests like lice by giving themselves dust baths. They find good, dusty dirt or even soot from fires to scratch up and loosen the dirt. They then sit in the soft earth and sort of ruffle it over and into their feathers, cleaning away dead skin, bugs, and old feathers.
Chickens will create their own dust baths in dirt that they like the texture of, or you can create a dust bath for them. This is a great idea, especially in the winter.
Benefits to Chickens Scratching the Ground
You can put a chicken’s natural instinct of ground scratching to good use! At our farm, at the end of the garden season I open up the garden gate and let the chickens have the run of it. They scratch up the dirt in the garden beds, eating weed seeds, bugs, and helping create a nice loose and fluffy soil for the next year’s garden.
We also allow our hens to be free-range, which helps immensely with keeping down fly populations and spreading manure! Flies lay their eggs in cow pies and horse manure. Chickens will scratch these apart to get at the fly larvae, which spreads out the valuable manure to fertilize pastures and of course gets rid of adult flies when they eat the larvae!
Chicken Scratch
You’ve maybe heard of “chicken scratch” or “scratch grains”. These are, in fact, named for a chicken’s scratching behavior. Farmers often scatter these grains as a treat in the farmyard, or in strategic places like discussed above. While scratch is a great treat for chickens, it isn’t a substitute for a complete chicken ration/feed.
Scratch doesn’t have the same nutritional value, as it is just the straight grains. Mixed rations typically have extra calcium, minerals, sometimes herbs, and so forth, to improve and maintain your chicken’s overall health.
Loose scratch makes a great treat, and you can even get scratch blocks to provide a great enrichment activity for your chickens to keep them busy during winter months.
Can You Prevent Chickens from Scratching?
Nope! Chickens naturally will scratch around their environment. If you don’t want them to scratch up a particular area, you will have to keep the chickens away from it. This is my favorite affordable garden fence that keeps chickens out. You can also use things like chicken wire and other woven plant protectors if you need to keep chickens away from tender seedlings.
