How to Keep Chickens From being Bored

[centrarchid]

Oh. I see that grapes left in their intact round shape could be a choking hazard, but I still don't see how the seeds could choke a chicken. Seeds are one of the things they're engineered to eat, what with their marvelous little crops and all.

I have had a hen choke on a cherry tomato once, about the size of a grape, as a matter of fact, and she might have died if I hadn't been present when she fell over from lack of oxygen to her brain. Unless a seed is the same size as a chicken's airway, it shouldn't present a problem. Has anyone ever had a chicken choke on a seed?

I have had them consume indigo buntings and 14" long snakes with no problems. Grapes, even with seeds are usually consumed intact.

 

[7 Biddies]

Go to the bait store and buy some crickets or live minnows and toss a few of those in the coop every day. That should absolutely shatter any boredom that your chickens may be experiencing.

Crickets are the best. They bounce all over trying to escape and the chickens are hilarious bouncing while trying to catch them.

 

[7 Biddies]

My chickens LOVE the stumps and big tree roots I put in the chicken pen and they spend a lot of there day in the stumps and logs...they like to roost and be up high as they can to sleep and feel safe and just to look around.EVERYONE should do this as long as they have enough room

I put trimmed up tree branches in the corners of my pen, with a nail in each end to put through the holes in the hardware cloth. The nails make them secure, and the girls love sitting up there.

 

[Emma Smith]

What can a baby chick play with??? I had chickens when I was about 5, I hadn't have them since.

 

[chicken farmer]

What can a baby chick play with??? I had chickens when I was about 5, I hadn't have them since.

You can put little logs or tiny stumps in with them or make some roost bars and give them a small cardboard box with sandy soil in it for dustbathing and give them treats and at most feedstores to can buy chick blocks and hold them,let them freerange in a crate with no bottom,and chicks love bugs and if its cold where you are now with no bugs you can go to a petstore and buy some crickets they feed to lizards and they will have fun chasing each other for it.

 

[chicken farmer]

What can a baby chick play with??? I had chickens when I was about 5, I hadn't have them since.

And if you have only 1 chick then you need/really should get a second or few more chicks because sometime chicks if alone can die or wont be as socialized with chickens when older so its a great idea to get more chicks if you have only 1

 

[ChickenMan300]

i have 17 chickens. 3 bantams, 1 ruen duck and a mixed breed of chickens. with my hens i occasionally toss pieces of bread or crust or even yokes from hard-boiled eggs! (They really like the yokes) I have apple trees in my yards so sometimes ill pick the apples and toss them out among them. i have a big bush that i let grow out for shade and protection. they use that to wallow in and keep cool. Sometimes they go under the porch on really hot days and wallow.

For the duck though i have a small pool for him to swim in and he'll spend most of his days in there otherwise he'll mingle with the birds.

 

[3chickchicks]

I have a forage cake hung in their run so that it can swing in every direction. Mine free range but they get up much earlier than I do and need something to do before I get out there. They peck at the forage cake and dislodge a seed. Then they have to search the ground for it. One forage cake lasts my 4 chickens 2 weeks or so. While locked in their run, unless they're dust bathing or eating/drinking, they're at that forage cake.

 

[Reurra]

I keep hearing about black oil sunflower seeds, can those be fed to the birds whole? I can get them here, but I dont want to give them something that might upset the stomach or clog a crop.

I also found suet here. Is it safe to give to chickens?

 

[azygous]

BOSS , the entire seed, good for chickens. Suet, not so much. Fat doesn't have the kind of nutrition chickens need.