Post your favorite boredom busters and such for your chicken run/enclosed yard

[CaliforniaMountainChicks]

Post your favorite boredom busters and things that you do/add to your chicken run to keep your chickens entertained! Lots of people don’t free range for many reasons, so here we can get some ideas on keeping chickens entertained in a run/enclosed yard set up! I don’t free range due to way too many daytime predators which include hawks, coyotes, dogs, stray cats (I have tiny bantams too), and the road.

My favorite boredom busters are lots of roosts of varying heights made from branches, decorations/furniture to play on, mulch in the run (all kinds of organic materials such as straw, leaves, & wood chips), and large shrubs and fruit trees pruned to 6ft. Go ahead and post your favorite boredom busters, and include pictures too!

 

[Blue Raptor]

Post your favorite boredom busters and things that you do/add to your chicken run to keep your chickens entertained! Lots of people don’t free range for many reasons, so here we can get some ideas on keeping chickens entertained in a run/enclosed yard set up! I don’t free range due to way too many daytime predators which include hawks, coyotes, dogs, stray cats (I have tiny bantams too), and the road.

My favorite boredom busters are lots of roosts of varying heights made from branches, decorations/furniture to play on, mulch in the run (all kinds of organic materials such as straw, leaves, & wood chips), and large shrubs and fruit trees pruned to 6ft. Go ahead and post your favorite boredom busters, and include pictures too!

Frozen fruit and veggies in the summer!

 

[Folara]

Mine is definitely new organic materials in the run! I'm still working through last fall's leaves so around once a week they get a trash can full of new material to scratch, peck, and sort through. I also just bought them a bale of alfalfa to provide tasty green leaves for eating and hardy stems for scratching around. Side note: I found out my feed store will let me sweep up the loose hay on the ground for free, so no more buying hay for them!

Also, rearranging the furniture always gets them all excited. Move their favorite perch or fill in their favorite hole (always right in front of the door) and suddenly they have to rethink their whole lives!

 

[3KillerBs]

https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/a-cluttered-run.1323792/

Chickens will not be bored as long as you create an environment that fosters natural chicken behaviors -- perching, scratching, foraging, dust bathing, sun bathing, etc.

 

[CaliforniaMountainChicks]

https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/a-cluttered-run.1323792/

Chickens will not be bored as long as you create an environment that fosters natural chicken behaviors -- perching, scratching, foraging, dust bathing, sun bathing, etc.

I completely agree! That's why I love adding organic materials like leaves, straw, wood chips etc. to promote scratching. They love that much more than a bare dirt floor (which is bound to happen with chickens, or in the high desert mountains like me where grass is basically non-existent). They love my furniture and branches as their perches too!

 

[CaliforniaMountainChicks]

Mine is definitely new organic materials in the run! I'm still working through last fall's leaves so around once a week they get a trash can full of new material to scratch, peck, and sort through. I also just bought them a bale of alfalfa to provide tasty green leaves for eating and hardy stems for scratching around. Side note: I found out my feed store will let me sweep up the loose hay on the ground for free, so no more buying hay for them!

Also, rearranging the furniture always gets them all excited. Move their favorite perch or fill in their favorite hole (always right in front of the door) and suddenly they have to rethink their whole lives!

Yes, one of my favorites too! I didn't think about alfalfa bales! I have to look into that! That's also a great tip about the feed store!!

 

[CaliforniaMountainChicks]

Frozen fruit and veggies in the summer!

The perfect thing for the hot summer days! Mine personally love frozen grapes, watermelon, and berries!

 

[TooCheep]

Mine is definitely new organic materials in the run! I'm still working through last fall's leaves so around once a week they get a trash can full of new material to scratch, peck, and sort through.

I like how you didn't spread the leaves. That's chicken work! They are quite happy to peck/scratch at it and break it down for you.

I just put 20 wheelbarrows worth of wood chips/leaves/etc in my mini-orchard. I left them in piles. My girls will get plenty of exercise, entertainment and some bugs out of scratching them down. Plus they'll be spending plenty of time in the shade from the fruit trees which is quite useful right now with the heat.

 

[kittyvamp1884]

We buried an old fire pit (with a trash can lid to line it) in the run as a dust bath. Our ladies free range, but they'll spend hours in the run bathing, napping, and bathing some more in that pit.

Video: https://photos.app.goo.gl/CNEnTjmjJn6gGbCb7

 

[TooCheep]

A good dust bath area is one of the best things you can do for chickens. Not only beneficial for minimizing bug/mite problems, but it is "spa time" for chickens.