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

[24279102]

It took mine a while to start on the cabbage. I do remove the big loose leaves but they do the rest. Don't give up! Once one figures it out the rest will jump on the wagon .

 

[Chemguy]

On the suggestion of a zookeeper, I started laying scraps of untreated wood (plywood, about 1 ft. square) on the ground, and placing a favorite treat of black oil seed just underneath the edges. This seems to keep them busy and foraging but it took a little while for them to get the hang of it. Like others, I can't keep my flock in cabbage but they do get some once in a while.

As for treats, we've found that folk to whom we give eggs are more than willing to save chicken-friendly scraps that would otherwise go onto a compost pile. It's a neat form of payment, and our egg recipients feel part of the process. So, our chickens get strawberry tops, carrot peels, lettuce and other fruits and greens all winter long.

 

[SweetSilver]

My girls go mad for Swiss chard leaves - they're like pirahnas when I hang a bunch up - but show them cabbage or cauliflower leaves and they look at me as if I'm trying to poison them! They will jump up to get chard leaves out of my hands, but don't even have a single peck at the other stuff.

That's chickens for you

Funny. Mine hate chard and beet leaves (but beet roots ground up in the food processor--yum!) They love collard greens and brussels sprouts leaves best of all.

This time of year for treats: hulled sunflower seeds and raisins. And the collard greens look pretty bug eaten and unappetizing to me, so I'm throwing big handfuls of those in every day.

They also love the wet mash I give them every couple of days--expensive, organic, lovely feed that I soak so they get all the powdery bits while cherry picking the grain.

I let them out of the coop for 2-3 hours in the afternoon.

 

[TheSpiceGirls]

My hens won't go near things that move. So swinging cabbage is out. As is a treadle feeder and a treat ball.

So in the fall, I rake up bags full of leaves. I'll dump out a whole bag for them and spike it with seeds, scratch, oatmeal, raisins or meal worms and let them work at that.

I'll also pull something out of the veggie garden, maybe the bottom part of broccoli or cabbage and chuck that into their run and they will work at that for a few days.

 

[Beckaberry]

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!

 

[mesz5]

Add a mirror!! My girls LOVE looking at themselves... They stare and chatter!!!

 

[Angelray]

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 have to agree about heat for adult birds. I don't use it & we have lows in the 20's...last night was 16 I think and the girls were awesome!

 

[kschicks2013]

I dig an area for them without snow and I bury treats for them in it. I hang treats from their enclosure as well.

 

[CountryGeorge]

I hang just about anything that you can hang. I poke a hole in an apple or head of lettuce and they will play tether ball for hours. Corn on the cob is great for you can pull the husks back but not off and tie them up as well. Last thing at night I give them a feed of scratch so their crops are nicely full for the night time hours.

 

[Alden Chickens]

I can't really hang anything for our girls as it is usually frozen in a few hours but they love me to clean the coop/pen and put in a fresh bale of straw. Within a few hours they have it spread all out in the indoor area and have found every piece of oat or wheat that might be in the bale as well as any bugs that thought straw bales were a good place to spend the winter. They have access outside but don't like the snow when it gets too deep but love when we bring in a few handfuls. They attack it like it is chicken candy.They get a mix of cracked corn, oats, wheat and sunflower seeds on a regular basis thrown into the bedding so they get lots of digging and scratching.