Holiday Treats & Entertainment "for the Flock"

[MemesChicks]

I love the holidays--all the family and fun. This is my first one with my girls, and as I was shopping for Thanksgiving dinner, I was thinking about what to do for the girls. The weather is wet and cold, and even though most of their run is covered, they don't get to range much now because it's too cr***y and wet. I've found tons of recipes for flock block on this site, and I give them treats, but I want to change things up a bit for "them" over the holidays. I thought it might be fun to share some ideas about fun holiday treats and activities to brighten up our flocks' winter days.

Here's what I've been thinking of doing:

• I have a flock block in the oven right now. It has bread, their layer food, some birdseed and sunflower seeds, as well as some raisins and a little molasses.
• I have collected some pine cones. I'm going to make some thin suet to coat the cones, and then I'll roll them in a mix of their layer food, some fruit bits, bird seed, crushed shells, and BOSS. These I'll hang at varying levels in the run for them to feast on.
• I thought about baking them some "cookies". Use the flock block mix, and add fruit bit to the outside.
• Maybe make holes in a head of cabbage and stuff them with suet. Hang the cabbage in the usual fashion.

I know it sound silly, but I don't want them (or me) to get bored over the winter. What are you doing for holidays with the flock?

 

[Sandyd]

That sounds wonderful what you are doing. I will have to search further and see how to make a flock block for my girls. Buying it in the store is very expensive.

 

[MemesChicks]

It's so much fun to make it. There are great recipes on this site. For the batch I just made, I used bread (4-5 slices), added some hot water and mixed to the consistency of wet biscuit dough, added about a cup of oatmeal, a good cup to cup and a half of their layer mix, sunflower seeds, raisins (they love raisins), a couple of tablespoons of molasses, 1/2 - 3/4 cup of birdseed, a few crushed eggshells, and more hot water just to wet everything (all told, about 2cups total hot water). Mixed it all well, popped it into an oven-safe dish and baked it at 350 for about an hour. I checked it after 30 minutes, and again after 45--it was still soft in the middle, so I let it go a little longer. I wanted it "spongy" in the middle, as my girls don't like it brick hard.

I add apples bits sometimes, a spoon of peanut butter other times. You'll find tons of recipes on here.

I have so much fun with the girls. My DH teases me, but why should he get all the cookies!

 

[Sandyd]

It's so much fun to make it. There are great recipes on this site. For the batch I just made, I used bread (4-5 slices), added some hot water and mixed to the consistency of wet biscuit dough, added about a cup of oatmeal, a good cup to cup and a half of their layer mix, sunflower seeds, raisins (they love raisins), a couple of tablespoons of molasses, 1/2 - 3/4 cup of birdseed, a few crushed eggshells, and more hot water just to wet everything (all told, about 2cups total hot water). Mixed it all well, popped it into an oven-safe dish and baked it at 350 for about an hour. I checked it after 30 minutes, and again after 45--it was still soft in the middle, so I let it go a little longer. I wanted it "spongy" in the middle, as my girls don't like it brick hard.
I add apples bits sometimes, a spoon of peanut butter other times. You'll find tons of recipes on here.
I have so much fun with the girls. My DH teases me, but why should he get all the cookies!

Thank you. I will try this and my DH is starting to roll his eyes at me also my grown boys and their wives think I am a little off where the chickens are concerned..

 

[MemesChicks]

Spring is here, and it's Easter just around the orner. The girls did great through our first winter together. It fun watching them and caring for them. I was putting together some items to take out to them, and I remembered I had some whiffle golf balls (practice golf balls with little holes in them). We can have an egg hunt for chickens! I put a mix of layer feed, cracked corn, bird seed, and sunflower seeds in a ziplock and then put the little balls through it until they were full of the mix. I let the girls out for some free range time when I'm outside, so I snuck...yes, snuck...back into their run and placed the "egg" balls around the run. I called them back when it was time to come in and watched to see if they would discover the "eggs". They did! It fun to watch them roll the balls around to get the treats out. I'll keep the balls and treat mix in the food can and put them out once in a while. It's fun to give them different activities to keep them happy. Okay, and it gives me activities and keeps me happy, too....