what do you all do to keep your birds from being too bored all winter?what do you feed for treats?

[Popcorn]

They have chunks of flock block, a couple treat balls to roll around, and they get chucked out for snow adventures every once in a while. I've been thinking of adding a swing too. The inside of my coop has a heat sensor that will turn on the heat lamp if it gets too cold, but with 22 warm chickens it has yet to turn on.

 

[buchfan]

I have to chime in on one last thing, though, and that is the heat in your coop. I feel as though 50 is too warm for all winter. We live on the Atlantic coast where we get wind, rain, sleet, and freezing rain and I have never heated there coop. I understand from a human perspective we like to be toasty warm, but your birds are actually naturally equipped to withstand cold cold temperatures. If they are going to be outside birds forever than they had better beef it up to be outside birds even when that means temps in the 20s or lower. You can mess with there molting and natural ability to withstand cold temps by keeping them heated. 

All of this is just my opinion from my own experience, and you don't have to listen, but I think I have some of the happiest chickeroos this side of the Mississippi. 

Happy chickening!

I agree with you. 50 degrees is far too warm. Last winter was our first winter without chickens, and after lots of research on BYC I decide not to heat my coop at all. I read that if you have a power outage, and your heat lamps turn off in the middle of the night, your chickens won't be used to the cold and they could die. I live in Wisconsin, where it gets close to zero at night, and I have a lamp to heat the water and some insulation on the roof of the coop. My chickens had very little frostbite, and they went into their run in the snow and they didn't seem to mind the cold.

 

[coop-er]

mine are the same - no interest whatsoever :cd

Same here, mine were annoyed-they never touched it. What is up with that?

 

[MaPa26]

They REALLY enjoyed the Thanksgiving turkey carcass, it was delightfully wrong watching them peck it clean (wrong as in the whole chickens eating turkey thing).

Also, try putting down cardboard, plywood or plastic on bare soil, then remove it after a few days.. you'd be amazed at all the creepy crawlies that pop up, they have a field day 'hunting'.

My girls also have a compost pile perch.. contraption. They enjoy kicking out all the leafs and they slowly shred them into lovely little pieces. The soil in their run has got to be *amazing* considering all the manure and shredded leafs they've scratched through it.





Mine still get bored, especially when it's raining and the run gets super mucky, as it has been the past week... they end up eating twice as much food and race for the door when I open it (trying to escape to free-range).

They didn't care one bit for cabbage. Kale or collards is a bit better to their liking. They like chasing an apple, it's like chicken soccer.

After seeing this, I decided to make my next compost pile like yours (I usually use wire fencing to make them). I like your idea of using "Cheep Labor" to stir the compost!

 

[mmeyer]

I take whatever I can get for free from the local veg market. But I think the favorite is grapes or better still cantaloupes. I got a whole case of cantaloupes that were unsellable. I would toss one up in the air and it would go splat and break apart on the ground. The hen and the guineas would eat it down to the skin. A neighbor had pumpkins they were throwing away and i did the same thing. I also fill the run with leaves just to keep them busy.

 

[welliesnbucket]

I use peanut feeders stuffed with all manner of fruit and veg and hang them around the run, my chooks love this and it means I can ring the changes, I use apples, plums, kale, cabbage, carrots and anything else I have hanging around!

 

[18mbantam]

Try some pumpkins or watermelons for your girls. Those kept my flock of 26 occupied for 2 days!!!

 

[Jipus5]

I take any leftovers, fruit & veges, and grains...anything really, even the skins from baked white and sweet potatoes... celery, carrots, birdseed, anything...and chop it all up.
Then put pine straw and leaves from the yard in my wheel barrow, almost a full load, usually some dirt as well if I can find some dry, and use a stick to stir the foods around, blend it all up good. Then take it all and dump it in a pile!
They like the ability to forage and find treats which are actually just other types of food, and it helps fill their belly, and teaches my young ones to forage as well so when the springtime gets here they are ready!
But I have done this throughout the year as well to help teach my chicks to forage since I incubater hatch most of mine each year but in the winter, when bugs are scarce, it helps keep them from fighting on what little IS available in the yard/woods.

 

[18mbantam]

I gave mine pumpkins and watermelon and that occupied my flock of 26!!!!

 

[tammyfarms]

This past weekend mine got a cabbage teatherball in each run. They loved it and it kept them occupied. I also use plastic drink bottles with holes in them to make treat dispensers. They move the bottle and the scratch comes out a little at at time. Of course, they get leaves to scratch in and later in the winter they will get straw.