Chicks are Bored - tips?

[Cyneswith]

My chicks are getting bored, and are at least a week from feathering out (only one has any inkling of head feathers). If I don't put something new in their brooder every day or so, they start fighting (not to a dangerous degree, but I don't want it to progress.) They are presently testing escape routes, and one found one... and got stuck (then hopped right back in once I got her out.) I've done weeds, the best roosts I can do in a brooder, stuck in a litter box for them to perch on, oats and zucchini treats... Any other things I can do to keep them occupied? I can't hang anything in my brooder, so swings are out.

 

[azygous]

If your chicks are over two weeks old, they can be going outside for playtime during the warm part of the day. Chicks that age and older can handle a few hours away from a heat source at temps 50F and above.

Your chicks appear bored and restless because they need to exercise their developing legs and wings. Give them a roomy safe pen in the run and let them show you what they can do with some real space to move around in.

This will also serve to acclimate them to cooler temperatures, making it a lot easier on them when you move them into their coop to live.

 

[R1V3R20NG]

Put a small bouncy ball, like one of those ones you get in one of those quarter machine things at stores and pizza places, in the area they live in. one that isn't bigger than them. See if you can teach them to play soccer!

 

[Cyneswith]

If your chicks are over two weeks old, they can be going outside for playtime during the warm part of the day. Chicks that age and older can handle a few hours away from a heat source at temps 50F and above.

Your chicks appear bored and restless because they need to exercise their developing legs and wings. Give them a roomy safe pen in the run and let them show you what they can do with some real space to move around in.

This will also serve to acclimate them to cooler temperatures, making it a lot easier on them when you move them into their coop to live.

I guess I kind of got stuck in a rut - it's been cold lately, but it would've been warm enough today (too close to dusk now.) But I SHOULD be able to let them out in their run this weekend.

Edit: that's cold for chicks/local weather, not general humanity cold.