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

[AllforaneggeK]

We plant kale in the late fall. We have plenty up until almost Spring. When the Girls see me heading to the garden they all run to the fence, chattering and carrying on. They know a mess of greens are on the way. Was it on BYC or somewhere else I saw someone took one of those round Coca Cola plastic bottles that come out at Christmas. They poked small holes in it and filled it with scratch. Their chickens chase it all over the yard. I want to give that a try.

 

[FrogEggs]

I throw out scraps and occasionally some mealworms...

As for the heat, it's been below zero here at night (Colorado), and I have no insulation or heat in my coop (though it is sturdy, and blocks the wind). No supplemental light either (though our plan is to add some in the mornings, next year). My chickens have been just fine. Still laying like gangbusters, and happy as can be.

Chickens feather out as needed. If you provide heat, and suddenly the power is cut off, they will be dangerously unprepared. Have you worn a down coat? It's the same thing. They fuff their feathers to trap air between them, which their bodies then warm. At night, they snuggle together to stay warm (10 degrees per chicken of body heat radiated... so ten chickens can generate up to 100 degrees of heat).

I put the 2x4s flat side up, so they have 4 inches of roost to sit on; their toes are covered when they perch. The only other thing they need, is vaseline on the leghorns' combs, to prevent frostbite.

 

[Serrin]

If there's no snow on the ground, I'll rake their yard, putting everything into a nice tidy pile: leaves, pine needles, feathers....whatever is on the ground goes into the pile. And there I leave it. Chickens LOVE to scratch around. A pile of anything is irresistible to them and keeps them occupied for hours on end. This also helps to keep their nails short by wearing them down on the ground.

 

[Mybackyardgirls]

This is my first winter with my girls. They love yogurt, bean sprouts, scratch, and spinach leaves. I'm thinking of trying the treat that Lisa has on this blog site - Flock Block Knock Off. I'm not sure about adding the eggs she adds to the treat, so I'll try it without.

I usually keep the chickens out of the patio and only in the backyard, but they have found a way to fly over the 6 foot wall. So when they make a targeted dash to the patio to dig in my plants, eat the pot of parsley, and poop all over the place, I let them for a short while - just as a treat.

Any other ideas?

 

[gilcamp4]

I have to say, weird as it may seem, my chickens hate cabbage! They hate all cruciferous vegetables so that whole cabbage tether ball thing is not an option for us.

What they do love, though, are peanuts. I will throw a section of straw down for them and then throw a cup of peanuts into it where they will have fun for hours scratching through it looking for goodies. I just let the straw get nasty over a couple days and then toss it in the compost pile. I make sure, also, that they get plenty of out of the run time to play in the yard which makes it so that when they are confined, they are not all that miserable.

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 did the cabbage on a string, god they had a ball with that, as soon as i can get more i will do it again.

 

[nab58]

Grow some fodder for your chickens. It's a fun indoor activity for those long winter evenings (for us humans) and the chickens go nuts for it.


I gave mine a mixture of kefir (I just started making my own and I'm in the pre-stage that get discarded), ricotta cheese and layer pellets. They LOVED it. They all looked like they had been eating ice cream.

 

[Kath657]

Hello,
I live in Wisconsin and this year so far has been cold, freezing rain and snowy, so the fallowing is what I do. For my chickens I made my own Flock Block. They spend hours pecking at it and seem to enjoy the block. I found a basic recipe on line then changed it up because I know what my chickens like best. Several try's and I have a great recipe. I also have a fenced in yard facing east and I use 4 mil plastic on the roof and sides. Inside I have straw so there feet won't freeze. So when the sun comes up it heats it to 40 degrees and my chickens are able to get out for 5 hours. On days that the sun doesn't come out the yard gets around 32 degrees so they aren't out very long as it dips to around zero in a short order. I also give them romaine lettuce, I sprout sunflower seeds in dirt and give the greens to them. I also have a large rubber pan full of sand so they can dust bathe, which helps. I am always wanting more things I can do. Love my chickens.

 

[The Yakima Kid]

My chcken run is covered and even with temperatures falling below freezing, they seem to spend their days dust bathing and hanging out. At night they still compete to see who gets to stay in the doorway of the chicken house. Because of the cold I toss about a cup or so of scratch out in the late afternoon so they have something digesting to keep them warm overnight. Our six ladies are outrageous - the five Dominiques will come out and enjoy a midnight snack if the motion detector lights in the backyard come on. The Black Star prefers to remain in the shelter of the coop doorway. She started growing spurs, quit laying after her first molt at nearly age two, and now stands and goes "errrrrr" to warn of potential aerial threats. She'll be three at the end of January/early February. Still hen-feathered, though.

The Dominiques aren't particularly enthusiastic about scratch in warm weather; it only works as Danegeld to call them back to the run in winter. Of course, the girls aren't particularly enthused about leaving the run in cold weather, even though it is open sided and the metal mesh roof covered with canvas tops - which is why our chicken yard is known as the Cirque des Poulets, and the Dominiques as the Unite Clown while the Black Star is the Ringmaster - or Ringmistress.

 

[The Yakima Kid]

I throw out scraps and occasionally some mealworms...

As for the heat, it's been below zero here at night (Colorado), and I have no insulation or heat in my coop (though it is sturdy, and blocks the wind). No supplemental light either (though our plan is to add some in the mornings, next year). My chickens have been just fine. Still laying like gangbusters, and happy as can be.

Chickens feather out as needed. If you provide heat, and suddenly the power is cut off, they will be dangerously unprepared. Have you worn a down coat? It's the same thing. They fuff their feathers to trap air between them, which their bodies then warm. At night, they snuggle together to stay warm (10 degrees per chicken of body heat radiated... so ten chickens can generate up to 100 degrees of heat).

I put the 2x4s flat side up, so they have 4 inches of roost to sit on; their toes are covered when they perch. The only other thing they need, is vaseline on the leghorns' combs, to prevent frostbite.

Back in the 1910s, during the "Little Ice Age", Oregon Agricultural College kept chickens in open front coops on range year around with winter temperatures in the 20s. The Columbia River used to freeze over in the 19th C. Professor Dryden noted that one of his record setting layers preferred to be as close to the open front of the coop as she could get. These were Leghorns, Barred Rocks, and Leghorn X Barred Rock.

 

[marvun22]

Oh how I would love if we were 50-ish at nights. We're generally around -20 wind chill. This isn't very helpful for you, so I apologize. My birds use time by cuddling together to stay warm.