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

[Angelray]

Just put a turkey in the oven for the chickens. Been in there since Thanksgiving & the family says "Please no more turkey!". You would think they had eaten 4 turkeys in the last 6 weeks...lol. These chicks are spoiled!

 

[Jipus5]

Decided to grab some of the after New year sale cabbages. Chopped them up, put them through the blender, stirred in some after market diced tomatoes, cayenne pepper, garlic, sunflower seeds, boiled black-eyed peas and diced small pieces of the leftover ham I had frozen after the holidays.
I let a few get a taste from the platter before I put it down, then they began squawking to alert the others (all 100% free ranged on 11 acres) and when they came a running, I was ATTACKED! They love me... what can I say.

 

[Bocrates]

"Featherball", aka cabbage tetherball, never gets old in our run. Chickens love jumping.

 

[zion11]

Sounds yummy jipus5! I just dumpster dived a couple cases of fresh mozzarella balls. Our hens are just too excited, while friends have commented that they are eating quite the gourmet treats these days

 

[Jipus5]

Sounds yummy jipus5! I just dumpster dived a couple cases of fresh mozzarella balls. Our hens are just too excited, while friends have commented that they are eating quite the gourmet treats these days

You haven't found the cheese causes any constipation? I may just be remembering my human kids, and what too much cheese does to them! Course, I'm trying to convince our local grocer to give ME their unsold veggies... instead of throwing them away... We will have to wait and see...but I am so hopeful! Could you imagine what all I could get and how much money I would save?

 

[zion11]

I haven't noticed any, but I also have only been giving it to them as a treat, and maybe every other day. If it was a more prominent part of their diet, I'd probably be more concerned I have one grocery store that will give me their old produce before tossing it, but mostly I have a few groceries that I can pull stuff out of their dumpsters (there are only a few left that don't use the big compacting dumpsters).

 

[Jipus5]

I haven't noticed any, but I also have only been giving it to them as a treat, and maybe every other day. If it was a more prominent part of their diet, I'd probably be more concerned I have one grocery store that will give me their old produce before tossing it, but mostly I have a few groceries that I can pull stuff out of their dumpsters (there are only a few left that don't use the big compacting dumpsters).

Sounds awesome!

 

[Angelray]

The kids made chicken treats/toys last night! We had saved those coke bottles from Xmas that look like balls & we put a few holes in them, then in went scratch grains & voila...a chicken ball! We also put PB on pine cones & rolled them in scratch. The cabbage tether from yesterday is GONE! The dino-birds are very happy!

 

[granthamkk]

The kids made chicken treats/toys last night! We had saved those coke bottles from Xmas that look like balls & we put a few holes in them, then in went scratch grains & voila...a chicken ball! We also put PB on pine cones & rolled them in scratch. The cabbage tether from yesterday is GONE! The dino-birds are very happy!

The treats all sound great. I need to find a way to hang up a cabbage for my girls. After reading the chicken of the week photo story I don't want to use any string - it can get caught around their tongues and cause severe damage.

How do y'all give/hang/affix the treats?

 

[MaPa26]

The treats all sound great. I need to find a way to hang up a cabbage for my girls. After reading the chicken of the week photo story I don't want to use any string - it can get caught around their tongues and cause severe damage.

How do y'all give/hang/affix the treats?

I haven't done this, yet, as I don't like cabbage and don't know if my chickens will. They definitely didn't go for lettuce. lol! Anyway, I saw a post, somewhere, of how one person drills a hole through the cabbage head and puts a rope through it- as I recall. I can't remember all the details. At the right side of the forum, you will see pictures: "Recent images in this thread". Just click on "view all". I am sure you will find what you are looking for. I'd look for it for you, but I am falling too far behind on my research for fodder.