Chicken toys? & Fun treats?

[SonoranChick]

Your chickens are so cute! Mine really like edible toys, like a head of lettuce or a pumpkin. It will last them all day and they have fun picking away at it. They also LOVE when it's time to get new hay...they play on the bales for weeks. I know what you mean about feeling guilty eating their eggs, but I look at it this way: the chicken would be laying the egg whether I ate it or not. So if I don't eat it, it would just go to waste. If you don't have a rooster, your eggs won't be fertilized anyway and there really isn't anything to feel bad about. They are proud of their eggs and I am proud of them too lol

 

[Crazy for Chickens!]

Any suggestions of what to build? Like some stairs or something? & yeah I guess that true when she laid her egg she just ignored it I still feel guilty but maybe it'll go away

Do your chickens free range, or have access to grass? That is the best thing for them. I built something for my chicks that had a ramp that went up to a spot they could stand. It also had some sticks sticking out for them to sit on.

 

[BrandonMcfly]

I've seen chicken swings for them. Or stairs. Eating your chickens eggs isn't weird. Mine are my pets but I want my natural fesh eggs instead of store bought eggs from birds that probably never see the light of day.. There is Such a differences ill never look at store bought eggs the same. But if you don't like to than give them to someone else. Like said above eggs are meant for eating

Maybe I can buy them stairs do you happen to know if there are more interactive toys? & i actually never thought about that for store eggs it's true & i might change my mind for now I'll give them up someone will still have that pleasure of eating eggs until I feel better about that

 

[lissalischicks]

I use plastic bottle and still small holes in them. In put in it scratch and seeds. Just make sure to not make the hole big because got will come out all at once. They will kick the bottle around to get the treats to come out

 

[SonoranChick]

Thank you & that's a great idea with the pumpkin & lettuce cause they roll so it's kinda like a game . My chickens love changing day also they're hilarious, mhh that is also true she'd lay them anyway & there is no way absolutely to ever have an embryo? I get paranoid but we have no rooster although I'd like one I am very proud of their eggs as well but she kinda shrug it off maybe cause it was her first egg

Yep if you don't have a rooster, you are definitely eating an unfertilized egg. There is no way the egg could ever hatch, even if your hen sits on it all the time. It truly is the most humane way to consume animal products in my opinion. A hen will lay her egg whether it's been fertilized by a rooster or not, so may as well enjoy the eggs I put golf balls in their nest box so they can sit on them when they feel like going broody and trying to hatch something. This way they aren't so fussy when I gather eggs.

 

[AmazingRachel]

Meal worms, they love meal worms. Also seed blocks. Mine love cut/sliced up apple peels.

There's this thing, my chickens love it.

 

[Esjay600]

Thank you for this thread, I was also looking for toys for my hens!

I don't know if it's just my girls, but they absolutely LOVE cucumber! I get a long cucumber, cut it in half lengthways and pop it on the ground. They enjoy pecking the flesh out of it! Not a game, but they certainly love it.

I also lay down bricks in my chicken run on the dirt patches and flood it with water. The next day (or two days), I bring them over and pick up the brick and they go to town on the bugs that were hiding under it! Again, a brick isn't a toy, but they enjoy it .

 

[BrandonMcfly]

You can do what I did and build a "Fake Chicken Bush".

I was studying my chickens as they were free ranging. They had certain bushes that they preferred to hang out in - just stand or lie around in - sometimes for hours at a time. Over time, I noticed those bushes had some things in common:

- foliage dense enough above the chickens heads for predators not to see them from above, and for rain not to reach the ground underneath;
- foliage dense enough at the sides for the chickens to be really hard to spot, but not so dense that the chickens can't see out;
- enough room between the branches inside the bush for the chickens to comfortably move around;
- easy to enter and exit for the chickens, without the entrance and exit areas being so big as to compromise the feeling of safety;
- large enough to accommodate most of the flock at one time;
- preferably some branches to comfortably sit on inside the bush;
- preferably good dust-bathing soil under the bush.

It didn't take much thinking to realize that all of the above could be achieved by by building a small hut. So I did. I put it in a part of the pen that the chickens never visited, and voilà:

Wow you are amazing! I wouldn't have thought of that and your explanation is just brilliant. That is alot of work but I'm willing to do any kind of toy or fun thing for my rsls can you tell what kind of materials you used?? Is the top like water proof even though I bring my girls indoors on rainy days . I've been getting to know my chickens too & they seem to like climbing & stratching alot they love to jump to so maybe I can do the same thing as you but add some like string with fruit for them too try & jump for thank you so much

 

[XanderWiFi]

Someone mentioned it before, but I second leaves. Each animal has its own instinctual drive which we humans tailor to for "fun" activities. Dogs like chewing squeaky things that sound like animals, cats stalk and pounce laser pointers, chickens love to dig and scratch for bugs. Give them treats and things to dig through to get them and they will be happy

 

[GC-Raptor]

The thing my hens enjoy the most is scratching and pecking in straw for the seeds I've scattered throughout, in their pen or under the raised coop in bad weather. . GC