How do you make your run fun for your chickens?

[The Confused Chicken]

I tried to give mine some climbing branches, ended up scaring them. Apparently they don't like change, they spent a few hours huddled in the henhouse. I took the branches out.

 

[DLA]

Do they like the xylophone? I was thinking of one but wasn't sure they'd actually use it

I've got two in particular that are quite fond of it, the others peck at it sometimes. I expected it to be a bigger hit than it was but it's the favorite toy of the two top hens in the pecking order so that might be why the others don't mess with it as much.

 

[TaylorGlade]

I've got two in particular that are quite fond of it, the others peck at it sometimes. I expected it to be a bigger hit than it was but it's the favorite toy of the two top hens in the pecking order so that might be why the others don't mess with it as much.

So you have one you recommend? I never know what to expect with stuff from Amazon and their reviews aren't always reliable

 

[TaylorGlade]

I tried to give mine some climbing branches, ended up scaring them. Apparently they don't like change, they spent a few hours huddled in the henhouse. I took the branches out.

I had a similar incident this summer. The temperature was over 100° and I saw so many people offering their chickens kiddie pools with a couple of inches of water. When they saw us come in with a swimming pool they literally flew face first into the fence in a shear panic. I felt terrible for them.

 

[The Confused Chicken]

I had a similar incident this summer. The temperature was over 100° and I saw so many people offering their chickens kiddie pools with a couple of inches of water. When they saw us come in with a swimming pool they literally flew face first into the fence in a shear panic. I felt terrible for them.

It's so strange. To be fair, mine are in a small run, so they couldn't really move away from the branches and get used to them from a distance.

 

[TaylorGlade]

It's so strange. To be fair, mine are in a small run, so they couldn't really move away from the branches and get used to them from a distance.

Ours are in a fairly large run, but they hate anything new - edit: unless we say "banana chicks" as we are bringing it in. Hence my signature line

 

[RedwoodCoastChick]

My 8 pullets are VERY curious about anything new in the run, especially the 2 youngest (Easter Eggers, not laying yet). They're thrilled when I toss in clumps of weeds and sod from my garden projects, and enjoy hanging out in the shady "twig huts" I've wired together using small branches, twigs, woody prunings and (thornless) blackberry canes. They love hopping up on a straw bale using random stumps I put next to it as "steps". This summer I discovered they love a mud puddle when water spilled into the run from a rose I was watering and filled up a dust-bathing wallow near the run fence; they had such a grand time playing in it, then "bathing" in the damp soil after the water seeped down, that I make a point of filling the wallow whenever I water that plant. They come running and prattling with excitement when they see the garden hose!

I need to try the big mirror idea; they loved the little hand mirror I put in the brooder when they were chicks. And the seesaw! Fun for them AND for me, coming up with ideas to entertain them!

 

[rosemarythyme]

My 8 pullets are VERY curious about anything new in the run, especially the 2 youngest (Easter Eggers, not laying yet).

I think if you regularly introduce new things (or loud things or weird things), they get over the fear of "new" much easier.

I was just reminding hubby of the time I was in the run, on a ladder with a running drill, and I turned around to climb back down and there was a chicken sitting on the rung. I've also dragged brooms and rakes into the coop for the annual cleanout while 2 hens were laying and neither one vacated, they stayed and laid their eggs while I worked around them, no issue.

Probably the one thing that really upset them were some stumps I rolled in, and they avoided those for weeks for some reason, even with me putting treats around them. I would manually place calmer birds on top to show them they weren't going to die by touching them. At some point they got over their fear and then I started seeing hens on top of them or dust bathing next to them.

 

[TaylorGlade]

My 8 pullets are VERY curious about anything new in the run, especially the 2 youngest (Easter Eggers, not laying yet). They're thrilled when I toss in clumps of weeds and sod from my garden projects, and enjoy hanging out in the shady "twig huts" I've wired together using small branches, twigs, woody prunings and (thornless) blackberry canes. They love hopping up on a straw bale using random stumps I put next to it as "steps". This summer I discovered they love a mud puddle when water spilled into the run from a rose I was watering and filled up a dust-bathing wallow near the run fence; they had such a grand time playing in it, then "bathing" in the damp soil after the water seeped down, that I make a point of filling the wallow whenever I water that plant. They come running and prattling with excitement when they see the garden hose!

I need to try the big mirror idea; they loved the little hand mirror I put in the brooder when they were chicks. And the seesaw! Fun for them AND for me, coming up with ideas to entertain them!

Those twig huts sound adorable. And I know what you mean? It's so much fun to watch them check out something new. Mine get excited if I just move something from one place to another

 

[TaylorGlade]

I think if you regularly introduce new things (or loud things or weird things), they get over the fear of "new" much easier.

I was just reminding hubby of the time I was in the run, on a ladder with a running drill, and I turned around to climb back down and there was a chicken sitting on the rung. I've also dragged brooms and rakes into the coop for the annual cleanout while 2 hens were laying and neither one vacated, they stayed and laid their eggs while I worked around them, no issue.

Probably the one thing that really upset them were some stumps I rolled in, and they avoided those for weeks for some reason, even with me putting treats around them. I would manually place calmer birds on top to show them they weren't going to die by touching them. At some point they got over their fear and then I started seeing hens on top of them or dust bathing next to them.

Yes. Anytime we might do something that may frighten the chickens, we say "banana chicks!". It's silly, I know. But we've done it since they were in the brooder. It seems to prevent them from freaking out (except for the aforementioned kiddie pool).

We were in the coop working on new poop boards and David was running a skill saw. We had to close the coop because they kept trying to get on the table to see what we were doing - just feet from the saw.