Bored chickens-chicken block?

[max13077]

I was thinking of ways to keep my girls busy today when I thought about making one of those blocks they sell for squirrels. You know with the corn, nuts, seeds, etc all bonded together with molasses or whatever. Has anybody ever made one? I don't even know if chickens would try it or could. Just exploring ideas. Any thoughts would be appreciated.

 

[gritsar]

Purina sells one, so I don't know why you couldn't make a homemade version.
Molasses can have a laxative effect on chickens from what I understand, so maybe brainstorm about other ideas to use as a binder.
I'll do a search on Purina's website and see if I can find you the link. I'll post it here.
ETA: Sorry I couldn't find a link. I know it exists, I've seen it available at Atwoods. I believe it's called a flock block.

 

[jvls1942]

I have an old farming book circa 1907.. they say to take a head of cabbage and hang it on a rope from the rafters so that it is about 2 feet from the floor or so. just high enough so that the chickens will have to stand on tippy toe or even jump a little to peck at it.. I have done this and it works.. I had my chickens accustomed to eating cabbage off the floor first.

I drilled a hole through the heart of the cabbage and snaked the rope through and tied a knot..

it gives them exercise also..

.........jiminwisc.......

 

[rebelcowboysnb]

Ive seen peanut butter used as a binder for home made wild bird seed. How does it effect chickens?

 

[mrsengeseth]

the one purina has does have molasses in it. I wonder if we could make these and substitute the molasses for something else...

could you instead take some of the major ingredients and bake them into a loaf of bread??Like a dense heavy loaf??

for my dogs in the winter i take some of their hard food kibble and freeze it into a block of chicken broth/beef broth or whatever. a block of ice the size of an ice cream bucket... so could something like that basic idea work? Maybe freezing some stuff in a frozen block of vegetable broth? broccoli floretts would stick out etc...

 

[redhen]

i have this treat recipe for wild bunnies...but..i think if you omit the salt it coulld be used for chickens...it makes a very hard treat...i think the birds would like to pick at it....
Bunny/Chicken Treats

Ingredients: Bread slices, Bird seed..(maybe some scratch..oatmeal or wheat germ..what ever you decide!)

Wet the bread slices,.... mix the wet bread and bird seed (and what ever other goodies you want to add)...it should be a "dough" consistancy.
coat a microwave safe glass pan with cooking spray....
Press the bread/seed mixture into the pan....pack it down tightly with a spatula...
Microwave 5 minutes..check..and repeat until it hardens up...(it may take a couple of times)...make sure you cook it enough. so it gets REALLY hard..but, not burnt like. Let it cool down and harden some more.... Hope the chickens like it!..

....

 

[max13077]

We used to make seedbells for my Mom for christmas and used egg whites as a binder. However it wasn't all that good. They'd stand up to chickadees pecking, however I'm not sure about chickens... I guess that's why we need a stronger binder.

 

[Mojo Chick'n]

Try searching SunFresh - then Flock Block, that'll get you to the page on it - has the ingredients and such listed. It is still Purina, but for some reason it doesn't show up on a search for Purina

go figure .

meri

 

[redhen]

heres a pic of the treats i made today..

 

[beakkeeper]

That's cool red hen! YUM!