what do you do to entertain your cooped up hens?

We are experincing hawk issues while all the foliag is off the trees, so I am forced to keep our girls cooped up until spring. I am having issues with a few of them getting picked on pretty bad. They are missing most of their feathers from thri tails to about half way up their backs. I put blue coat on them regularly, but every few days it starts back up and they peck the dyed area away again. I have tried rooster boosters no peck stuff, it doesnt seem to help.

I have noticed on days when I give them som intertaining treats the pecking is not as bad. I bought them one of the larger suit cages and put stuff in it that is difficult to get out, and even wild bird seed blocks occationally when the bank account is flush, but the factory seed blocks are a bit expensive.

I have toyed with the idea of making my own flock block sort of things and putting them in the suit cage, and may yet do so. I toss random objects in the coop with them to give them "toys". I have been meaning to hang some things from twine in the coop to give them more toys.


Any other ideas?

How many birds in how much space are we talking about?

Does your coop have adequate ventilation and sufficient natural light?

I drop in all sorts of veggies, winter squash, cabbages, dark leafy greens, etc. all year around to keep my penned birds occupied. I also toss in some straw/hay or fallen leaves, and they love sorting through the bits.

However, no amount of entertainment will make up for exceedingly crowded birds who have no access to fresh air and sunlight. Can you put together some sort of covered run? Even a small one would help.

Good luck with your birds! Please keep us posted on how things go. We are feeling hawk pressures here too.


[Ed. to add - - there are some cool recipes for home-made flock blocks on the forum. You might do a quick search . . .]

"Tether Cabbage" works for me. I use an apple corer to make a hole through the core of the cabbage, string some twine through it, and hang the cabbage so they can peck at it. My 9 chickens will demolish a whole head of cabbage in a day. I posted a whole thread with pictures earlier this week.

Here are some suit cake recipes I've gathered off this forum:
BEST RECIPE FOR SUET CAKES FOR BIRDS:

1 cup lard
1 cup crunch peanut butter
1/3 cup sugar
1 cup whole wheat flour, or Cream of Wheat or Oatmeal
2 cups cornmeal

Optional: raisins, BOSS, dried fruit, or eggshells ground fine.

Mix, pour into 9 x 9 pan, or since I double this recipe, I use a 9 x 13 pan.

(recipe from "Birds and Blooms" magazine)

Wintertime Suet
3 c rendered lard, I prefer pork, but beef works too
1 c peanut butter
2 c misc. scratch grains (mine are BOSS, corn, millet, safflower)
1 c dried fruit like raisins, cranberries, chopped apricots, whatever

Soften lard until stir-able, but not liquid. Mix with peanut butter, scratch and dried fruit. Pack mixture into a cake tin (or ice cube trays if you have multiple available). Put in freezer (or just on the porch if you’re in the Midwest like me...) until solid. Let it thaw SLIGHTLY until it can be removed from the pan and sliced (no need to slice if ice-cube size). Transfer slices to a Tupperware or ziplock baggie and store in the freezer. Thaw a slice on the counter before feeding to the chooks. You could probably feed it frozen, but that seems un-fun to me. Mine eat it quickly, so I don’t even bother with a wire suet feeder - I just put it on a plate and let them have it. They get one or two slices a week while it’s cold outside. BTW, my ding dong laborador thinks this is the bees knees. I guess she thinks that the chooks are getting special treatment and doesn’t want to be left out.

Home-made Chicken Muffins

3 cups scratch (mine consists of: 1½ c BOSS, 1 c red and white millet, ¼ cup Cracked Corn and ¼ cup Safflower)
½ cup Winter Wheat Berries
½ cup Ground Flax Seed
1 cup Blanched Peanuts, coarsely chopped
1 cup Raw Pumpkin Seeds
½ cup Wheat Germ
½ cup Oatmeal
½ cup Raisins
4 Eggs
3 Tablespoons real Maple Syrup
Lard or Shortening

Preheat oven to 300F. In a large bowl, combine all dry ingredients and toss by hand. In a smaller bowl, beat eggs. Stir beaten eggs into the seed mixture and add syrup. Lastly, add raisins and stir mixture gently until all is evenly combined. Generously grease a muffin tin (I used a regular tin and a mini-muffin tin) with lard or shortening. Using an ice cream scoop, fill the muffin cups to level and tamp down with the back of a spoon until firm. Bake for 1½ hours. Let cool and remove from muffin tins. Store a few on the counter for the coming days and put the rest in the freezer in a tupperware.

Another Recipe:
Bread slices, wild bird seed,Black sun flower seeds, (you can also use scratch, oatmeal, wheat germ, grits, whatever you want to use!..)

In a large mixing bowl..wet the bread slices..add the seed and scratch..(whatever you choose to add)...mix all the ingredients together(with your hands)..the wet bread is the binder..it makes a kind of dough....grease a microwave safe baking pan...add the bread/seed mixture to the pan...press down tightly with a spatula...put in microwave oven for 5 minutes..keep testing hardness with finger(it will take about 20 minutes total...)...when you feel it is hard enough..take out and let cool...it will harden even more...if you greased the pan enough..it will pop right out of the pan in one solid block..they love it!

Oatmeal Omelet Pancake
Boil water. Add enough rolled oats to make a very watery oatmeal. Crack 3 or 4 eggs right into the mixture and work them in. Add pancake mix to the mixture and mix until you end up with an "Oatmeal, Omelet Pancake". Spread it out on a flat plate and let it cool until it's warm to the touch but not too hot.

I like to start the day with some crossword puzzles for them...usually by mid morning we play a little tennis or shuffle board. Afternoon depending on the time of year we either have some reading time or tag...occasionally we play football or dodge ball. The nighttime is when we really get down to entertainment...singing, dancing, talent shows always go over great...


Yes...I am giving tests and the kids said I had to stop bothering them...

Try a few different toys or games; an empty cat litter pan(new & unused) fill it with potting soil or sand. The birds LOVE to have a dirt-bath!

Got a step ladder? set it up out there, those birds will climb & roost all over it.


Here'a an unusual treat; cabbage- tether ball. Drill a hole through the center of a head of cabbage, tie a rope through it, and hang it just at chicken's eye-level.

Have any fishing bait shops near you? get some worms, then hide them all over the run. The birds get so excited when they find the surprise.

I have 14 hens in an 8x8x8 coop that has multiple rows of roosts at all different levels. They have a 250w heat lamp that I leave on 24x7. they have 2 large screened vents at the top of their coop. They have one 2x2 window. I give them a pint of cat food in the morning as a treat. they get a pint of cat food and a pint of bos when I get home from work when I clean out their water and give them fresh water. They have 5 externally mounted nest boxes as well.

here are some pic before the coop was completed

Nice coop!! I just started raking leaves into my run for my flock and they love it. They scatter the leaves every where and pick out who knows what but it is fun to watch them. I have yet to let my chickens free range but think next week maybe is the time. They have a 20x20 run for the nine of them. They are almost 6 months old so hopefull they are big enough to protect themselves against the cats!

i was going to suggest cabbage -ball, but i see thats quite popular already! since mine have been cooped up to to several feet of snow they find alot of entertainment in finding cool stuff burried under the couple of inches of snow in the run.....but since one corner of the ladies dormitory separated from the fence , those chickens enjoy huddleing in the opposite corner because they are afraid of the scary new peice of yellow plastic hanging on the corner.

OMG!!! I am having the exact same issue with hawks at the moment..with no foliage on the trees..so I am having to keep them in all day until I can be with them in the yard.

I gave them a big sand box, some climbing equipment, and lots of treats..I also give mine some ground meat to try and stop them picking out feathers of the 'lower order' girls and eating them...mine alos have access to a good sized covered run and coop.

Thanks for this though I am going to try the teathered cabbage ect.

Cutlass, that's a sweet coop!

I think if it was me, I'd add a covered run to the coop. This way, it doens't matter if there are hawks out - they won't be able to get to your chooks.

Sounds like they've got major major pecking issues going on, and you can only do so much - lots of good suggestions here. Short of getting them back out, sounds like you're doing all you can, really. Do you have a rooster? If not, find & buy a mean one! The mean ones are often the VERY best flock protection!!