Chicken “Toys” - So Fun

[micstrachan]

Just had to share. My girls get lots of free range time on weekends, but only an hour or so on weekdays when I get home from work (lots of predators here, on the ground and airborne, so supervision is a must). On nights when I have board meetings, they get NONE. Tomorrow is one of those nights. I also have a bully in the flock. I’ll isolate her tomorrow so the girls can have a peaceful day.
Anyway, because of minimal freerange time weekdays and the bully, I’m trying to step up my game with regard to entertainment for the girls. Yesterday, I hauled a California Live Oak branch into the pen, since I was tree trimming. Figured they could pick off bugs and hide underneath. They love it! It’s temporary, since it takes so much space, but should keep them entertained a bit this week. Today I also added a swing! I’m so excited! They haven’t tried it yet, but check it out! It won’t be so crowded once I take the branch out, and this is only half of the pen (the other side is very plain with just a couple roosts, and good dirt (wouldn’t even call it soil) for dust bathing. I love BYC, because I know you al can relate to my excitement over a little thing like this. Thanks for letting me share! Oh, and the heavy branch down low is always in the pen. They love that thing. The branch that has leaves is the temporary toy.

 

[Rubysword]

Other chicken "toys" they might like:
Leafy cabbage hung in the run
This thing, which can be bought for around 3$ ant TSC:

Our chickens come flying when they see us carrying it! You fill it with treats, ant they kick it around to make them fall out. I use mealworms.

 

[chickendreams24]

Wow looks great! That should really help keep your birds occupied.

What breed is your bully? Just because I'm curious.

You could also release some crickets or worms into their enclosure(I'd give the worms time to hide before releasing the hounds lol), small grass clippings, melons, pumpkins, tomatoes, squash, zucchini, hang a cabbage(green only as red/purple makes their outrageous colors- I believe it's blue but idr), apples-make sure they can't pull down eat or get tangled in what you use to hang it

Hanging smaller items are great bc they move so take longer to consume and are more engaging. If you have a bully and want to hang an apple I would recommend hanging two apples so the other birds have another one if she doesn't want to share.

You'll find many many ways to keep them busy and happy on days off of free ranging. Just make sure any treats or produce they don't eat isn't left in there to rot as it could make them sick. Then again from our own experiences chickens don't really understand the concept of leftovers unless they don't like something.

Bananas, ears of sweet corn that were shriveled, weeds that have been pulled, tomatoes, carrot shavings, bell pepper insides, strawberry tops, old dry bread, home made and boughten flock blocks. There's loads of ideas.
Most things can be offered to them as long as they're not moldy or rotten. Ours love bbq and fat pieces out of the slow cooker. Lol


Just make sure it doesn't make up too much of their diets and they don't put on too much weight.

We give our flock lots of treats during yucky days they can't go outside in especially in the winter. Wisconsin winter's can be brutal. Bored birds leads to all kinds of problems including egg eating, feather pecking, and cannibalism. Besides keeping them entertained is so much fun.

We generally stick to the first list I made for days we're worried they'll be really bored. As they tend to last the longest. Of course if you have to buy the items it can get expensive. Pumpkins are usually pretty cheap and if you break it in half they'll love it.

 

[chickendreams24]

Cool idea with the treat ball! We might have to get one this winter ...or like 5 lol

Bc we have about 60 birds we're overwintering.

 

[Rubysword]

Woah! We have five birds...

 

[chickendreams24]

Yeah lol we started with ordering 5

It grows. Chickens are addicting.
We have about 100 right now. Spare boys will go to freezer camp before snow flies.

 

[micstrachan]

OMG!!! Seriously? You went from 5 to 100? Thst’s AWESOME! Mine are very much pets and get individual attention. One of their favorite tewars to keep them busy is fresh corn on the cob. There are old cobs everywhere. LOL.

 

[micstrachan]

Other chicken "toys" they might like:
Leafy cabbage hung in the run
This thing, which can be bought for around 3$ ant TSC:View attachment 1167219 Our chickens come flying when they see us carrying it! You fill it with treats, ant they kick it around to make them fall out. I use mealworms.

Wow looks great! That should really help keep your birds occupied.

What breed is your bully? Just because I'm curious.

You could also release some crickets or worms into their enclosure(I'd give the worms time to hide before releasing the hounds lol), small grass clippings, melons, pumpkins, tomatoes, squash, zucchini, hang a cabbage(green only as red/purple makes their outrageous colors- I believe it's blue but idr), apples-make sure they can't pull down eat or get tangled in what you use to hang it

Hanging smaller items are great bc they move so take longer to consume and are more engaging. If you have a bully and want to hang an apple I would recommend hanging two apples so the other birds have another one if she doesn't want to share.

You'll find many many ways to keep them busy and happy on days off of free ranging. Just make sure any treats or produce they don't eat isn't left in there to rot as it could make them sick. Then again from our own experiences chickens don't really understand the concept of leftovers unless they don't like something.

Bananas, ears of sweet corn that were shriveled, weeds that have been pulled, tomatoes, carrot shavings, bell pepper insides, strawberry tops, old dry bread, home made and boughten flock blocks. There's loads of ideas.
Most things can be offered to them as long as they're not moldy or rotten. Ours love bbq and fat pieces out of the slow cooker. Lol


Just make sure it doesn't make up too much of their diets and they don't put on too much weight.

We give our flock lots of treats during yucky days they can't go outside in especially in the winter. Wisconsin winter's can be brutal. Bored birds leads to all kinds of problems including egg eating, feather pecking, and cannibalism. Besides keeping them entertained is so much fun.

We generally stick to the first list I made for days we're worried they'll be really bored. As they tend to last the longest. Of course if you have to buy the items it can get expensive. Pumpkins are usually pretty cheap and if you break it in half they'll love it.

Yeah lol we started with ordering 5

It grows. Chickens are addicting.
We have about 100 right now. Spare boys will go to freezer camp before snow flies.

Thanks for all your fun ideas. I do have cabbage in the fridge and have been meaning to try that. They also love corn on the cob.
To answer your question, my bully, Bagheera, is a Black Australorp. She’s GREAT with humans, but quite the boss and a bit mean with the flock. What’s awesome is thst my Barred Rock, Bridgette, is having NO PART of her bullying ways. She has no problem putting Bagheera in her place.

 

[chickendreams24]

Wow I was actually expecting you to say it was a barred rock lol.

Glad Bagheera has someone to stand up to her.

Yes, well actually in the first year, some before we even received the five we had ordered, we were up to 34 for our first winter.

That being said we live in the country in a house with a big yard, an old two room milk house(now coop) and the house is surrounded by fields. So lots of space. We did actually add another coop and built a grow out run inside an out building.

Tons and tons of space. We raise all of our spare cockerals and roos for meat but they all have wonderful lives and then only a few bad moments. The ladies and roos we keep for breeding are really quite spoiled and loved. They all get the same care mind you but we do have our favorites. Though I love them all. They're so sweet and each has their own way. Right now a bunch of them look like heck bc of molting and so those ones are withdrawn but they'll get through it.

My DH2B's family grows canning crops among mint seed corn and field corn and a few soybeans.

So we get as much of those as we want. This year we blanched and cut 248 ears of sweet corn off the cob to freeze. The flock got to pick all the ears clean. They were some very very happy chickens! Lol

They also get all of our garden scraps that aren't moldy, free range in the field for missed or knocked down corn and now that the ground is worked when it rains they're all out foraging for bugs/worms. Cores of tomatoes, tomatoes damaged by bugs and gophers, insides of peppers, the tops off 4-5 flats of strawberries we picked at a u-pick place this year(made jam and froze a bunch), the peelings and cores of apples we use for making applesauce.


You name it they get it. We also hardboil any eggs we get that happen to be dirty and feed them back to the flock. I won't say we're making money on them yet but we'll get there. They cost us a ton in feed but process
processing the spare boys helps a lot. We hatch most of our own chicks.

We have a compost pile the chickens can get to and one fenced off for the stuff they can't have including the moldy stuff and coffee grounds.

 

[micstrachan]

Your set up sounds amazing! I live in California. Mild weather, which is nice, but space is limited. We’re on about an acre, but we rent it. Several truckloads of dirt were brought in to level the yard. I CANNOT WAIT for rainy season so I can grow greens for the girls to forage!
I am happy your boys have a good life before they get eaten. I have gone semi-vegan (I eat fish and eggs from my own happy chickens), because I haven’t spent the time finding meat that has been treated well and killed humanely.