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

[Chickencame1st]

So our chickies are enjoying popcorn using our hot air popper. Kids love watching too. Also decided that just boiling up some pintos that have been soaking is a nice warm treat high in protein on these single digit cold winter days.
Sadly our roo Legolas a handsome Crested Cream Legbar sustained some frost bite when temps were as low as 6 a few days last week and never got above 25. The tips of his comb are black and it looks like a burn just below. I had coated it with bagbalm but not enough. Putting the Vetrx and antibiotic ointment on him now. Maybe looking better. None of the girls had any issues. He is the only one I put bag balm on to help protect so I wonder if it made it worse??

 

[CSWolffe]

When it's really cold and the silly things don't even want to poke their head out of the coop, I use a Flock Block, located just outside the door. Inside and that's all they eat, ignoring their food, but a little treat outside the door, and that seems to keep them occupied enough they don't peck each other. for days when it's warm enough for them to venture out, a handfull of just about anything tossed in the straw of their pen keeps them occupied. Rolled oats, flax seeds, squash seeds from last night's dinner. If they see me toss a handful of something into the straw, they scratch at that all day, determined not to miss a single treat.

 

[Bella Blue]

Ohh they aren't all adults. I have five adults and (had)three four month olds in there w out enough down feathers to keep from getting too cold. (We lost one blown out in a storm at night and she just sat inches from the door back in and got hypothermic...struggled for wks w the vet to save her but finally had to put her down.) and I also have a challenge as each hen is a different breed and one being an english bantam ..she gets badly chilled probbaly because her tiny body.she started getting ill the moment the temps dropped but around here we don't get snow often its rare and doesn't stay. Usual temps for winter run early 30's to mid 40's.

We have a cross or scissor beaked hen as well who has enough of a time getting water and food we were glad we didnt have to deal w the times this winter we had frozen water outside the heat lamps kept the water and my eggs from freezing, she also bas a hard time grooming her self and w the heat lamps its the only time she gets dry. (We have half the run covered but she likes the rain i guess.)The joys of living in the n.w.we can have different weather every hr..snow rain sunny warm..freezing and all at once too!

Lots of good ideas for next yr to keep them from being quite so miserable when they are forced to have more time in the run! I also started raising live meal worms and night crawlers n composting worms for the girls in the winter while thers isn't much crawling around...and occasionally bought large crickets from the petstore and let em loose incthe coop.they didn't last long but the girls loved it.

If my vet handnt warned me chickens eat mice I would have fainted the other day...we were moving a compost heap and happened on a nest of baby mice.the chickens ate them faster then we could comprehend what we just uncovered. They made "raptor" like noises and all ran off with a baby mouse.I also saw the top hen today catch a female mouse adult and just gulp it down like a snake...we have descendents of dinasours in our midsts! Needless to say the girls get a wk of diatomacious earth on their food as a natural dewormer! Bleh!

Has anyone else had luck with or heard of giving chickens unfiltered apple cider vinager (like a half tsp per gallon of water)..in their drinking water for a respiratory infection preventative?

 

[gilcamp4]

Ohh they aren't all adults. I have five adults and (had)three four month olds in there w out enough down feathers to keep from getting too cold. (We lost one blown out in a storm at night and she just sat inches from the door back in and got hypothermic...struggled for wks w the vet to save her but finally had to put her down.) and I also have a challenge as each hen is a different breed and one being an english bantam ..she gets badly chilled probbaly because her tiny body.she started getting ill the moment the temps dropped but around here we don't get snow often its rare and doesn't stay. Usual temps for winter run early 30's to mid 40's.

We have a cross or scissor beaked hen as well who has enough of a time getting water and food we were glad we didnt have to deal w the times this winter we had frozen water outside the heat lamps kept the water and my eggs from freezing, she also bas a hard time grooming her self and w the heat lamps its the only time she gets dry. (We have half the run covered but she likes the rain i guess.)The joys of living in the n.w.we can have different weather every hr..snow rain sunny warm..freezing and all at once too!

Lots of good ideas for next yr to keep them from being quite so miserable when they are forced to have more time in the run! I also started raising live meal worms and night crawlers n composting worms for the girls in the winter while thers isn't much crawling around...and occasionally bought large crickets from the petstore and let em loose incthe coop.they didn't last long but the girls loved it.

If my vet handnt warned me chickens eat mice I would have fainted the other day...we were moving a compost heap and happened on a nest of baby mice.the chickens ate them faster then we could comprehend what we just uncovered. They made "raptor" like noises and all ran off with a baby mouse.I also saw the top hen today catch a female mouse adult and just gulp it down like a snake...we have descendents of dinasours in our midsts! Needless to say the girls get a wk of diatomacious earth on their food as a natural dewormer! Bleh!

Has anyone else had luck with or heard of giving chickens unfiltered apple cider vinager (like a half tsp per gallon of water)..in their drinking water for a respiratory infection preventative?

we have kept the coop doors big and little closed, moved the roost to other end of coop so they are away form the doors, I feed them oats, like the breakfast oats for kids, got a lg bag from our groc, store, plus I give them crushed corn and I had some wild bird seed left over so I gave that to them and they loved it, I just put it around on the floor and some in the feeder, we have 2 feeders and they go crazy love the sunflower seeds too; I have not tried the vinager in water.

 

[Ladydane]

About every 10th or so water jug they get has got those soluble vitamins in it. As far as boredom, since I'm still in a learning curve, I'll throw a head of cabbage or lettuce, few sticks of celery and radishes and watch what happens, or if I get real amorous, I chop it all up for them, pitch about 12 in. of straw in the big run (finally got that set up) and throw the mixture in the straw. I ain't started singin' yet. I don't know...maybe it's me that's bored.

 

[MaPa26]

Here is KS, we're having another major cold spell, just like much of the country. We threw some more flakes of straw into their pen about 4:30pm, yesterday. My six hens had them all scattered out by 8:30. Our "high" temperatures are in the single digits (Fahrenheit) with winds of 25 to 35 mph, making a wind chill of -20 to -30. We have about eight inches of snow since Monday, so they do not want to leave their pen. The pen is covered, so only a little snow sifted into it. Their water froze, even inside the coop. With two heat lamps, it is barely 40 degrees in there. I am going out every two hours to check on them and make sure they have water. I gave them more cracked corn and BOSS in their pen to keep them busy. Well, it's been two hours, so it's time do get "layered" up and go out to check on them, again.

I haven't tried vinegar in the water, but I have heard, over and over, that it is beneficial--and NOT to put it in a galvanized container.
I have managed to ferment the layer pellets. My kitchen counters are very chilly and my efforts to ferment seed or grow fodder have not been successful. I'd have to set up a heated area just for sprouting and fodder. At least soaking seeds would be good, but I am currently out. All I have is BOSS, cracked corn and layer pellets. My girls get some plain yogurt with their morning meal.

 

[Bella Blue]

When it's really cold and the silly things don't even want to poke their head out of the coop, I use a Flock Block, located just outside the door. Inside and that's all they eat, ignoring their food, but a little treat outside the door, and that seems to keep them occupied enough they don't peck each other. for days when it's warm enough for them to venture out, a handfull of just about anything tossed in the straw of their pen keeps them occupied. Rolled oats, flax seeds, squash seeds from last night's dinner. If they see me toss a handful of something into the straw, they scratch at that all day, determined not to miss a single treat.

Odd my girls are outside the moment its dawn.they stay outside all day and until its past dark which I think is really strange..vampire chickens! They are only in the coop to sleep, lay eggs or make sure there are no treats in there that may have been missed.summer or winter they are hardly in their coop at all. The bantam runs in to thaw under the heat lamp often through out the day. The scissor beaked bird is in there pretty often as she mainly eats feed and freze dried meal worms. Their coop hasn't been warmer than 36-37 f in some time..still about ten regrees warmer than it is outside. When it hits around the 40's we shut off the heat lamps. There are days with really bad winds..freezing rain and I wish the dumb girls would stay inside!

 

[KayTee]

Odd my girls are outside the moment its dawn.they stay outside all day and until its past dark which I think is really strange..vampire chickens! They are only in the coop to sleep, lay eggs or make sure there are no treats in there that may have been missed.summer or winter they are hardly in their coop at all. The bantam runs in to thaw under the heat lamp often through out the day. The scissor beaked bird is in there pretty often as she mainly eats feed and freze dried meal worms. Their coop hasn't been warmer than 36-37 f in some time..still about ten regrees warmer than it is outside. When it hits around the 40's we shut off the heat lamps. There are days with really bad winds..freezing rain and I wish the dumb girls would stay inside!

If it's not a stupid question, what have you got on the floor of your coop, Bella Blue?

Just asking because I built a new coop this spring, and put a few inches of sand on the floor. It was great all summer - so easy to keep clean. However, this winter, even in cold temperatures and rain, I noticed that my girls didn't want to stay inside in the shelter of the coop, but would huddle under any shelter they could find outdoors. (I have 5 girls who free range in a 1000m² garden)
The same as your girls - they only went in to sleep or lay.

I realised that it was because the sand is actually extremely cold for their feet in the winter - standing on it for any length of time is not nice - for chickens or humans. I solved the problem by buying a bale of wood shavings, and putting a 2 inch layer on top of the sand. It's now toasty warm for their feet, and they spend more time inside the coop on really bad weather days. I don't really clean the shavings - I'm kind of going the deep litter route, and plan to just rake off the shavings to compost in the spring, leaving the sand underneath for the summer again. (The two don't seem to have mixed too much).

 

[CSWolffe]

Odd my girls are outside the moment its dawn.they stay outside all day and until its past dark which I think is really strange..vampire chickens! They are only in the coop to sleep, lay eggs or make sure there are no treats in there that may have been missed.summer or winter they are hardly in their coop at all. The bantam runs in to thaw under the heat lamp often through out the day. The scissor beaked bird is in there pretty often as she mainly eats feed and freze dried meal worms. Their coop hasn't been warmer than 36-37 f in some time..still about ten regrees warmer than it is outside. When it hits around the 40's we shut off the heat lamps. There are days with really bad winds..freezing rain and I wish the dumb girls would stay inside!

I don't use a heat lamp at all, the coop is warmed solely by their body heat, and I have straw substrate. Once the snow melted a bit, and was trampled down by the dogs, I managed to lure them out of the covered pen across the yard with some oats. There was a lot of flapping and squawking and running, but once they reached a dry spot, they were quit happy to dirt bath the rest of the day. Since then they've realized that walking in snow wont kill them, and they venture out every day. If it's snowing though, they dont even stick their head out of the coop.

 

[azygous]

Redecorate. Any sort of rearrangement of the coop or run will result in renewed excitement. I just moved a flock block to a different part of the run this morning, and you'd have thought I had just made it appear.