Enrichment for isolated hen?

[Deltain]

Sorry if this is the wrong topics page for this!

One of my hens was attacked by a coyote about 2 weeks ago and while it definitely could have been worse she did end up with a pretty gnarly back wound that required her be isolated while it heals. The person taking care of her moved her into a pen in my backroom.

She's got the food/water/nest/space she needs, but now that I'm back in the state and can take care of her myself I'm wondering about enrichment, since she's inside and completely separated from her flock and her wound is healed up enough for her to be active again. Any ideas for toys for a single hen in a pen?

 

[azygous]

The best thing you can do for her sense of well being and to encourage healing is to crate her in the run during the day so she can be around her mates. Bring her back inside at night.

This will also expedite re-integration when it comes time to return her to her flock.

 

[2000096904]

Right now if the injury is really bad then I wouldn't recommend much active toys but something for enrichment that would be easy is hanging up a ball of cabbage and she can pack at that or maybe even I do this for squirrels birds and even baby chicks when they're younger but you take a pinecone or a ball or something and you roll it around and peanut butter and then cover that and seeds it's pretty easy bandit provides a treat which helps the hen associate the cage with positive things. But other than that I wouldn't really recommend anything else as of right now

 

[Deltain]

The best thing you can do for her sense of well being and to encourage healing is to crate her in the run during the day so she can be around her mates. Bring her back inside at night.

This will also expedite re-integration when it comes time to return her to her flock.

Ah, gotcha that makes sense. My one concern with that is that in Arizona right now it is monsoon season, so the weather fluctuates wildly. I'm worried that I'd let her outside for the day, go to work (or an errand, or anything else that takes me out of the house) and a day that was 100° and sunny suddenly turns to torrential downpour. My healthy hens have escape routes back into shelter, but if she is penned separately she might not be able to escape the weather.

I'm wondering what to do for her enrichment for the times I'm not there for safety.

 

[azygous]

My suggestion hinged on this hen being placed in a crate in the safety of a run. When you are at work, are your chickens in a secure run? If not, this wouldn't work. But if you have a secure run, it shouldn't be that hard to rig a rain canopy over her crate with a water proof tarp or 6 mil plastic.