THIS! I found this out by accident. I use straw around their run in winter to help with drainage. I put the bale out and went to do other chores. When I came back, the WHOLE FLOCK was absolutely enamored with the bale. Kept them occupied for days - literally!
Sad for your leghorn, but your nest boxes seem much more secure! Way to problem solve!Yesterday, I wedged the white milk crate in to keep them from playing egg soccer with ground laid eggs...so, of course, they flipped it today and laid 6 eggs on the ground instead of in any of the 3 secured boxes.Back out with my drill, screws, and a few pieces of scrap wood to secure the white box to the wall. Probably need to still add a drop down "hook" piece, but was busy working on this and noticed one of my leghorns has a bloody head! So, now I'm off to do wound care (its totally dry, so just going to clean her up and put some hen healer on it...not looking forward to dying her purple with blukote, want to avoid that since it's on her head, if I can.
She was going to town on the pile of cut straw I dumped for them last night, pretty sure she got into it with my top pullet, Peaches. Peaches is a bit of a well....naughty word.
Ahhhh.... Chicken politics.....She was going to town on the pile of cut straw I dumped for them last night, pretty sure she got into it with my top pullet, Peaches. Peaches is a bit of a well....naughty word.
Nest boxes I'm good with...boredom busters are where I'm drawing a blank. My last flock was only 3 hens and they were kept where they could look in the house and never seemed to be bored. These gals seem to get bored daily and make trouble.
Its hard when they can't go out to play. I don't have any predators where I live, so I can let them out in my fenced yard daily. The only thing I can think of is a place to take a dust bath. I see my chickens playing in the dirt at a certain time each day. This might help.
Yeah, their dust bath ended up being a mud pit in all this rain...I have an idea on an "indoor" version for winter using my BIG (150-gallon?) Rubbermaid tote. It was my brooder for 3 chicks and we used it as the chick holder when I cleaned out this group's brooder and to transport them outside. If I take it in (secure it to the wall with similar pieces of scrap) and fill it partially full with play sand, wood ash, and a little DE...I think that'll help. Next Spring, I want to change the coop to a sand bottom instead of the wood chips. We just had a LOT of wood chips and I wasn't going to toss them out.
They sell these vinyl raise beds at Home Depot or you can put together red wood fence lumber instead.
I keep forgetting I have one of these cedar raised bed kits. I bought it to put in a few years ago, but the lose neighbor cats turn any garden I make into a litter box, so I never set it up.
