Bantam enrichment

[TheCookyChickenLady]

Hello all,
Not sure if this is the right topic selection but I have a Serama bantam hen that is currently hanging out in the enclosed run part of the coop and gets quite bored. The coop is quite large and she is a quite small bird so space isn’t an issue. I got her from a friend a month ago. She isn’t out with the others as I haven’t fully introduced and she is molting currently so she has tiny baby flight feathers that I can’t clip and I don’t want her flying into our neighbors yards as they have dogs. Anyways, she gets quite bored in the later day and has started pacing around the run. I spend time with her, at least 30mins and she has food+scratch available. I give her some chopped up baby spring mix and some of our grass( no pesticides in our yard, grass is St. Augustines) but she gets bored. I have looked at giving her hay to scratch around as I have big bail of Timothy for my rabbits but I worry about her chocking on the leaves if she attempted to eat them. She did start chocking on a full blade of grass that I missed chopping up and I had to open her mouth and pry out. Any other ideas, she has a quite small beak, thanks!

 

[NatJ]

Maybe give her a few shovels of dirt to scratch through--she can get some grit, maybe some bugs or worms, maybe have a dust bath.

Maybe rake up some fallen leaves for her to scratch through, too.

Does she have a perch to sit on? That might help a little.

For the hay--if you're worried about her choking on it, maybe shake the bale a bit and just give her the little bits that fall out the bottom.

You could give her things like watermelon rinds, apple cores, and similar things to peck at.

Can you put one or more of the others in with her for part of the day? Maybe she's lonely. (I see that she's not fully introduced to the others, but putting just one other chicken into her space might be a good step in the introduction process anyway. Just supervise at first to see how it goes.)

 

[TheCookyChickenLady]

Maybe give her a few shovels of dirt to scratch through--she can get some grit, maybe some bugs or worms, maybe have a dust bath.

Maybe rake up some fallen leaves for her to scratch through, too.

Does she have a perch to sit on? That might help a little.

For the hay--if you're worried about her choking on it, maybe shake the bale a bit and just give her the little bits that fall out the bottom.

You could give her things like watermelon rinds, apple cores, and similar things to peck at.

Can you put one or more of the others in with her for part of the day? Maybe she's lonely. (I see that she's not fully introduced to the others, but putting just one other chicken into her space might be a good step in the introduction process anyway. Just supervise at first to see how it goes.)

Thank you for your response! I have sand in the run but I will put in some piles of dirt, I think she would enjoy that. I have pecan trees dropping leaves currently, I assume that would work. They are edible but the chickens never seem to attempt to eat them. I was going to make some mini perches this weekend for the run, what size for the Dowell would be optimal? I have perches in the actual roost bar in the roost box but it’s kinda large in diameter, thinking of changing that too. She sleeps in the roost box but in a medium pet carrier FYI. She has small feet, she’s on the smaller size of Serama(not sure where she is on the letter scale they have though). My others are Seramas as well but a little larger. I have seen some use natural wood, like thick fallen sticks as perches, is this a good idea? I will try that with the hay! For the apple core, she wouldn’t be able to get at the seeds right? I haven’t given apple cores before. I will try to see if one would like to be in there with her, they are a pretty tight flock so they may freak out, not sure though. Thanks!

 

[NatJ]

Apple core--chickens do eat the seeds, and I've never seen a problem yet.

Dowels for perches-- chickens will perch on just about any size, but I think about as thick as a person's thumb, or as thick as a broom handle, are usually good. Chickens seem to prefer relatively thick perches (one they can wrap their toes partway around but the toes do not meet on the underside.)

Natural wood can make fine perches.
If you see them perching on specific sizes, then you might use that as a guide to what they like.