Ideas and Routines to Make any Flock Happy.

[_Moon_]

So I have been doing some research on nesting herbs and other natural things to feed your birds. I have also saw some really cool ideas for remodeling or building a coop. I have seen a dust bath made from a used tire to a vegetable and fruit kabob, and while all that is cool and interesting, it got me thinking: Are my chickens happy with their routine I set up? Or do they expect more? Turns out I'm not the only person out there who asks themselves out there.

So I decided to create a thread that will get everyone to share their ideas and concerns about their coop, flock, feeding routines ect, me and everyone else who joins.
And I hope all the ideas on here help anyone maintain their flock better...

 

[_Moon_]

https://piwakawakavalley.co.nz/the-ultimate-chicken-dust-bath-recipe/

 

[_Moon_]

https://abundantpermaculture.com/how-to-herbify-your-chickens-like-lisa-steele/

 

[_Moon_]

You can add garlic to your routine. Garlic is supposed to be good for strengthening your bird's immune system.

 

[3KillerBs]

My philosophy is to enable my chickens to do chicken things -- to scratch, to forage, to perch, to dust bathe -- as naturally as I can given that I have to confine them to a run.

I give them plenty of deep litter to scratch in. There is nothing they like more than a cartfull of leaves and pine straw just raked off the lawn.

I don't give a lot of treats, but when I do I through them into the run so that they can forage and scratch for them. I also give them all the garden weeds -- tossing them into separated piles in the run.

I give them lots of space with plenty of clutter to get on top of, underneath, behind, etc.

I let them dig their own dust baths according to their personal preference.

They know how to be chickens better than I know how to be a chicken so I set up their area so that they can be chickens.

 

[WIchickMama]

My philosophy is to enable my chickens to do chicken things -- to scratch, to forage, to perch, to dust bathe -- as naturally as I can given that I have to confine them to a run.

I give them plenty of deep litter to scratch in. There is nothing they like more than a cartfull of leaves and pine straw just raked off the lawn.

I don't give a lot of treats, but when I do I through them into the run so that they can forage and scratch for them. I also give them all the garden weeds -- tossing them into separated piles in the run.

I give them lots of space with plenty of clutter to get on top of, underneath, behind, etc.

I let them dig their own dust baths according to their personal preference.

They know how to be chickens better than I know how to be a chicken so I set up their area so that they can be chickens.

Sounds a lot like our place. Lots if things to dog and scratch. They have made 3 dust baths and I add some ash and sand sometimes to fill it up and add a little different material. I recently added wood chips and they seem to love to dig holes to lay and scratch for the grass underneath.

I just let them be chickens. I think of them like kids, old school is best. (I learned the hard way by adding toys to the run and then they never came out!)

 

[aart]

Save the herbs and garlic for when you cook them.

 

[3KillerBs]

Save the herbs and garlic for when you cook them.

Well, I was taking flowering tops off my basil last night and just tossed them into the chicken run since I didn't have enough to make setting up the drier worth it and didn't have an immediate use for fresh basil.

They don't really like it.

Fresh weeds are their green of choice.

 

[SilkySilkie]

ive only once given them garlic thats when i was really desperate but i have a nice big area for dust bathing perches and quite a lot of worms and i use a pickaxe and dig from time to time and thats their little treat and some times they get bread i try to treat them like chickens not dogs

 

[_Moon_]

My philosophy is to enable my chickens to do chicken things -- to scratch, to forage, to perch, to dust bathe -- as naturally as I can given that I have to confine them to a run.

I give them plenty of deep litter to scratch in. There is nothing they like more than a cartfull of leaves and pine straw just raked off the lawn.

I don't give a lot of treats, but when I do I through them into the run so that they can forage and scratch for them. I also give them all the garden weeds -- tossing them into separated piles in the run.

I give them lots of space with plenty of clutter to get on top of, underneath, behind, etc.

I let them dig their own dust baths according to their personal preference.

They know how to be chickens better than I know how to be a chicken so I set up their area so that they can be chickens.

its harder for me to do a routine like that, i raise silkies and they get sick so easily that i have to keep them in a coop. It is a really open coop and they are able to sun bathe but its kinda difficult for them to dust bathe. They just dust bathe in their shavings and i'm starting to think that its unhealthy. because there is dust from their feathers just going right back onto them and that is where their poop goes....
I also raise bantam rhode island reds to, they have a coop and run. but i havent seen them take dust bathes. Years before we got our german shephered (main reason why we cant free range no more) we used to free range. We had leghorns then and they would take dustbathes in between the roots of a pine tree. That was the most natural we could get. We also gave them scratch and we would throw that on the ground, so then they could forage naturaly.