Does anybody have chicken toys?

[jimz1]

I was wondering if there is anything out there that the chickens would like other than treats. I heard about hanging heads of cabbage, but I'm trying to save that for the long winter months. I need to keep them occupied somehow so they will want to stay in a specific area, anywhere away from the front yard would be good.

 

[Erin K]

My sons are obsessed with finding toys for our chickens. I will tell you they have no interest in those things you get for cats and dangle at them, they don't care about tennis balls...

I think they may be entirely food motivated.

I could be wrong and will look forward to seeing if there are any toys.

 

[Kaeta44]

I agree with Erin K, they do seem to be food motivated. My lot have never shown the least interest in non-food toys I've put in the run. However, I have put an old log in the run and a home made perch and they enjoy sitting on both of them - gives them a different perspective on their world I expect. You can also get blocks of seeds stuck together which you can hang up. They seem to enjoy pecking away at those, summer or winter.

http://muckycluckers.blogspot.com/

 

[Amethyste]

The ONLY thing I have seen my girls "play" with <if you can even call it that> is one of the cat toys that you roll around and it drops treats. Again, food motivated. They are really not playing-type of critters. As long as they have something to keep them busy <food oriented> they are usually content. Mine are happiest when scratching up the lawn looking for bugs, or jumping for hanging veggies, or even playing chicken rugby with dried mealworms. They were not impressed with mirrors and other bird toys I tried...but anything for them to possibly eat they were over that like mad.

 

[dbounds10]

They dont really "play" but they love to jump up on things, we have several roosts inside coop and out in run they like to jump up and walk around on those. I also to hang cabbage. Not only for the winter months, as cabbage is a good supplement and it keeps them occupied.

 

[RedDrgn]

Very shiny objects that are easily moved and/or glitter and/or anything they consider tasty.

 

[off-grid hen]

In the run we put a 3-ft tree log, a big rock for them to jump on, and a "swing". It's a 2 x 4 with a rope that is stapled to either end, tied to the top of the run. They don't swing like a caged house bird would, but they do sway from side to side and catch mosquitos from up there. I'd say it's about 3 ft off the ground. They have a food and water station that is an old pallet that my husband put some legs on. It's about 2 ft high. The run is 10 x 30 ft.

While they do climb on stuff, they mostly just sit under the edge of the coop and dustbathe/sunbathe all day, til we let them out of the run in the afterrnoon. Lazy birds don't like their playground, they'd rather play in the woods.

 

[Auscal]

I bought a hanging "holder" for whole corn cobs. It is a length of chain, then a foot or so of "bungy" with a screw at the end to go into a whole fresh corn cob, it came from a pet store, in the small animal/bird section, I don't remember what type of critter it was marketed too - but, I hang it in my run, about 18" off the ground, and it keeps them amused. One jumps up and pecks, cob swings, chickens jump back, come back in for another peck - you get the picture LOL>

Edited to add - I actually bought this a few years ago for a squirrel - just repurposed it for the chickens. I'm not in the "buying toys for my chickens" camp.

 

[BrattishTaz]

My birds have a large door mirror attached to their fenced run. My BO roo probably spends a couple of hours a day in front of it. He crows to it, dances, and flaps while watching himself (reminds me of my ex-husband

).

 

[honda_DT]

The only time I've ever seen my chickens interested in something other than food is when they were free ranging and and threw a baseball across the yard and they all chased it faster than I've ever seen them run. Other that that I just put 1 or 2 old tires in the run and miscellaneous other things for them to run around on.