Fun Run

[wolfandfinch]

Do chickens play? Should I make and sort of jungle gym thing in their run? Things to climb/jump on? things to peck at besides grit and food?

 

[darkmatter]

Quote:
I have a large run and I piled some tree branches up-----they used it to hide from hawks and hide their eggs.

 

[MamaChic21]

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My chicks love to play, espcially chasing one another

. I would say tree branches. Jungle gym sounds fun, why not, what do you have to loose ? I've tried flock blocks, at first they just looked at it and looked at me like "what the ? " I laughed so hard

so I took a shovel and got few pieces of and they just pecked at it for a while then lost intrest

. Sometimes I hide treats for them in their run and it is so funny when they discover it

it looks like they've found a GOLD

. They are very lucky to have someone like you to think of them and care for them. Good luck

 

[wolfandfinch]

Quote:
My chicks love to play, espcially chasing one another

. I would say tree branches. Jungle gym sounds fun, why not, what do you have to loose ? I've tried flock blocks, at first they just looked at it and looked at me like "what the ? " I laughed so hard

so I took a shovel and got few pieces of and they just pecked at it for a while then lost intrest

. Sometimes I hide treats for them in their run and it is so funny when they discover it

it looks like they've found a GOLD

. They are very luck to have someone like you to think of them and care for them. Good luck

What are flock blocks?


tree branches would be easy, since we need to remove a tree in the back yard. I'm using most of it to build nonsense logs (to grow our own mushrooms!) but I'll have lots of branches left over. Brilliant!

 

[MamaChic21]

I heard of flock blocks here in BYC, didn't know what it was so I went to my local store where I but them their food. It's a hard block with dried corns and grains in it and they just pick on it. I was told that wild birds love them, no wonder, mine didn't

. They should of named it "wild block" !!!

 

[wolfandfinch]

Quote:
Ha! Sounds like something I could make... would be worth a shot then I bet...

 

[gryeyes]

My birds just LOVE the "park bench" in my yard because they can perch up on the back of it in a row of at least six chickens, and look over the whole run. The bench is outside the run; my chickens range freely. They also love to play in the raised garden beds, but that play is actually chicken behavior: scratching for bugs, dust-bathing, perching on the retaining boards.

 

[NellaBean]

 

[MamaChic21]

ofcourse you can

Since we have had a lot of snow here, I let them free range. Well to say the least it was limited, every where was 2 ft of snow (the rest is slowly melting, thank God). So they went to this corner that is close to the house and it has little grass shown and dirt. I saw 1 rooster and 2 hens take a dusk bath in 1 ft lengh of dirt

. The only reason I knew there were 3 of them there because of their different color of feathers. One's butt was at his face, oh I wish I had a camera with me. Some people make a sand box for chicks. If I was to make one, I would probably put worms in it for them to find it. But than we'll they get use to it

 

[wolfandfinch]

thanks everyone! I love all the ideas