What else can i put in my run....

[nuttyredhead]

I have 11 girls and 1 roo (15 week old Amberlinks). The run is dirt, when they first got put in it they were content to scratch around forever..now i find them in there coop more often scratching around. other than the grass clippings what else can i put in there for them to scratch in?? I dont want bored chickens!!!

THanks!

 

[Dingleberry]

leaf piles. hay, sand

 

[MrChicken207]

vegetable scraps. throw a bit of mealworms or scratch over the otehr things as well, because those tasty tidbits will fall through the cracks and teh birds will go crazy looking for them

 

[elmo]

I can't remember where I read this, but it made sense to me. If you feed your chickens crumbles rather than pellets, it takes them longer to eat their fill picking through the pieces and thus occupies their time more. Let's face it: eating is a chicken's primary pastime.

 

[sydney13]

i pile of sand or a sand box would be good for dust baths. i also throw in fruit coars for them to eat

 

[jrudolph305]

I put a few old logs, some firewood length logs in a pile and a roost in the outside run. Not real exciting but they do like to get a little highter than the next girl.

 

[bywaterdog]

Turn over the soil in their run, this brings all sorts of interesting items up (seeds, insects etc,) also lay down some planks- turn them over every week or so the expose grubs and snails.this should give your girls something to do outside of their coop.

 

[SGM]

I use to leave a few scrap boards in the run floor so that after a few days I could turn them over and they could feast on the buggies that were underneath. We had a massive problem with grubs and those are yummy treats for chickens. Boards are a great way to get the grubs to surface and stay so you can collect them.

 

[abooth]

perches

 

[SandyK]

I'm constantly throwing everything I can find in the run for the girls. They get all the weeds I pick from the garden and flower beds, all the over ripe veggies and too big stuff out of the garden, clippings from the grass being mowed, and then all the old plants from the garden will be given to them also. They always have plenty to dig around in to keep them busy.