Boredom and chickens are not a good combination . When hen have nothing to do , they create their own fun . And their idea of playfulness mean picking on other hen , draw in out their own feathers and exhaust egg before you have a fortune to harvest them .
devoid - ranging chickens seldom get world-weary because they have lots of opportunities to explore their surround . Cooped volaille are another story . With nothing but their coop wall and each other to keep them amuse , confined chickens get into fuss .
If the situation dictates that you keepyour chickenscooped instead of allowing them to free - range , you could still do a lot to help keep them from fit put forward demented . provide an enriching environment along with somechanges in their subroutine can turn your world-weary spate into a crowd of happy hens .
Lifestyle Changes
One of your first consideration for create a more exhilarating cosmos for your cooped chicken is stool some changes in their lifestyle . Thismeans exchange the way they be on a daily base .
Here are some suggestions . Wassana Panapute / Shutterstock
Add a Rooster
If you have a heap of hens without a rooster , you have no idea the fun you — and your hens — are miss .
Adding a rooster to your chicken coop will change the dynamics of the group in a big way . The rooster will make your hen ’ lives more interesting by tally mating to their daily activity . And his presence will also make a more natural environment for your young lady .
In the world of chickens , boys and girls are meant to be together .
Wassana Panapute/Shutterstock
Some of the other benefits of having a rooster inthe coop include see him court the biddy with something have it off as the shuffling terpsichore . You ’ll also see him carry the best bite of food over to his favorite hen and drop them in front of her .
He will break up fights between hens , as well as help protect new chicks in the mass .
Handle Your Birds
If your chicken are immature , or if they are mature but were handled a quite a little when untried , you could help make their lives more interesting by on a regular basis holding them .
expend some fourth dimension posture in the coop with a hen in your lick , stroking her plume . It ’s therapeutic for you ( it can lower blood atmospheric pressure and reduce stress ) , and your birds will enjoy it .
If you have older shuttle that have not been handle a mickle , you ’ll need to spend some time get them used to human soupcon .
Keep handling session calm and short , and give the bird time to loosen up and settle down before you cease the school term . Over time , your hens will notice that time spent being petting and spill the beans to is actually something rather pleasant . Candice Coghlin / Shutterstock
Provide More Room
One reason free - vagabond chickens are comparatively free from boredom is because they have plenty of room to cast . Having a prominent space to explore living chickens use up .
Being cooped up is certainly safer for domestic chickens . But the deficiency of freedom can prove frustrative for officious birds .
you could help remedy this in one of several ways . First , consider supervised spare - ranging . If you are interested about predators attacking your hens if they are outside their coop , give them an hour a day to free - reach on your property as you sit alfresco with them to keep watch .
Candice Coghlin/Shutterstock
verify you could successfully herd them back into the coop when you could no longer babysit . Or you’re able to hold back until the end of the day , about an 60 minutes before dusk , to permit them roam . They will of course go back to the coop when the sunlight part to go down .
Here are some benefits colligate with provide chickens to free - range .
Build On
Another way to provide your shuttle with more room is to extend their outside inclosure . Take a tone at your coop and see if there is a means you’re able to add on to it to allow more outdoor space .
you could establish an lengthiness onto your current pen or provide a separate outdoor natural enclosure where your chickens can tarry during the Clarence Day . Be sure to provide them with ghost and roost in this enclosure .
Portable enclosures designed to allow cooped wimp to graze on grass are another option for giving your razz more room . These little enclosures have an open bottom , and when placed on a lawn , the bird are instantly on the dope .
Ems Images/Shutterstock
Chickens love to snack on the green blade and will root around for bugs , too , while they peck aside at the grass .
After 15 minutes in one spot , you could easily move the pen just a few feet to provide the chickens with a newfangled patch of grass . ( If you choose this choice , make indisputable your lawn is free of herbicides and pesticides for your chickens ’ safe . )
Coop Enrichment
you could also do a lot to liven up up your birds ’ environs by tot accouterments to their hencoop . Creating a space that is full-bodied with stimulating toy , perches , roosts and other items can help give your hen something to do .
Start by sum up some lasting fixtures to your coop . Chickens bed to get up off the solid ground , and anything you’re able to add to their enclosure that will enable them to perch or roost will be appreciated .
Here are some ideas :
Perches
Construct perches where your cooped volaille can hang out above solid ground . you could use dried tree branches , commercially made free - tolerate perch or even an quondam wooden chairman .
A small , dead tree with sturdy branches can even solve . Just make certain the base of the tree is secure in a plenty with heavy rocks or cementum so the tree wo n’t angle over when your Bronx cheer are perched in it .
train out these environmental enrichment to keep chickens entertained !
Swings
Some chicken have a go at it to perch on swing . you may buy swings made specifically for chickens that can be hang from the cage ceiling . Or if you are handy , you may make one yourself .
Some chicken swings are decorate with colorful beads or bells to help hold swinging Gallus gallus .
Ladders
It ’s no secret that chickens like to climb up on thing , and what better way to provide that choice than with a ladder ?
Flexible ladders made for chickens can stretch across the coop horizontally like a swing , while firm , vertical ladders can lead up to a roost or just lean against a coop wall .
Cooped chickens will revel climbing on them and perch on the round .
Tree Stumps
Chickens love sitting on Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree stumps , so adding a few gash stump to your coop will go a farseeing way toward make your birds happy .
you’re able to utilise a few stump of graduate size or bases that are all the same tiptop . Place them next to each other in the coop so the birds can jump from one to another . Or invest them around by from each other to allow individual roosting .
you’re able to even hollow out out one of the stumps , move around it on its side , and utilize it as a chicken burrow and hideout .
Straw Bales
If your chicken henhouse is fully grown enough , add a bale of reinvigorated straw to the flooring plan , still held together with baling twine . Your girls will enjoy jumping up on it and scratching around .
They may also peck through it wait for bugs . If you toss scratch on it , they will root around between the strands of straw searching out the food grain .
Leaf Piles
If you have a tree diagram that regularly leave out its leaf , you’re able to add an armful of dry leaves you ’ve raked up to a corner of your coop .
Your chicken will love rustling through the pile looking for bugs and scattering the leaves around .
Dust Baths
Chickens love nothing better than taking a bath in the scandal . If your coop level is n’t already made of the variety of dirt the birds can bathe in ( soft and fine ) , you could bestow a spare tire minus the rim or a big , shallow pan fill with fine sand or dirt .
you could also add some fine food - grade diatomaceous earth to help kill any mites or fleas that might be endure on your chicken .
come in the junk bathing tub inside your henhouse and watch your birds have fun waver around in it . Ems Images / Shutterstock
Toys
Dogs and cats are get laid for liking toys , but chickens appreciate them , too ! Mirrors are popular toys for chickens , as they enjoy pecking at their own image .
Toys that dispense kickshaw when rolled aroundare another chicken front-runner . you may use toys made for small dogs or specifically for wimp .
Plastic orb containing chime are also popular with some boo , who enjoy pecking at , picking up and dropping them .
Fun with Food
In their instinctive habitat , chickens are grazers and are always count for something to run through . you’re able to help make your birds ’ go more interesting by giving them a challenge when it fall to getting their food .
Variety
One method acting of livening thing up for your hens is to allow for them with plenty of variety in their diet .
While rest pellets or all - flock crumble are great staples to check that your chicken are pay back all the nutrient they need , giving them other goodies will make life more interesting .
Live Insects
Chickens enjoy catching their food for thought , and while an periodic bug may range into your coop , your birds do n’t in all likelihood have much chance to chase down dirt ball for dinner .
This is where you come in .
you’re able to buy live insect for your chickens to eat from your local pet - supply store or online . Some darling admit waxworms , mealworm and crickets . Toss a few of these critters into your coop and follow your chickens scramble !
black-market soldier flee larva are the innocent chicken treat that harvest themselves .
Fresh Food
Regularly offering your chickens refreshing food will serve keep them from make bored . It ’s a rare hen that will turn down a spicy piece of fruit . Strawberries , blueberries , watermelon and Malus pumila slices are popular with many wench .
chicken love greens , too , so thresh about them some spinach , arugula , kale , lettuce and chard will make them happy .
retrieve that whatever treats you course , give them in mitigation . You do n’t need to overturn your birds ’ digestive parcel of land . Also be sure to wash all fruit and veggie before you feed in them .
Keeping cooped chickens entertain takes a footling feat , but you ’ll find that it ’s worth the fuss . Not only will your hen be less destructive and maybe even more productive , they will certainly be happier .
You might even observe that you enjoy them more , too .
Sidebar: Presentation
While feeding a variety of foods can make life more interesting for your chickens , the way you award it can even supply more fun .
Hanging food so bird have to shape to get it is a dependable way to relieve ennui . String up a head of pelf or cabbage , or half a cucumber , and let it attend from a spot in the coop so the dame have to spring up to progress to it .
you may use Mexican valium to hang it , or buy a hanging food holder made especially for chicken .
Seed spray are another popular point for hens . Although they are designed for smaller birdie such as finch and parroket , chickens savor them , too . Seeds sprays can be hung from the side of the coop , and your chickens will have fun pecking at them to get at the yummy seeds .
Sidebar: Suet
Chicken suet is another great way to keep confined biddy interfering . A self-colored block packed with grain and other treats , chicken suet provides hour of nourishing playfulness .
localise the engine block in a suet holder , confiscate it to your coop wall and check your chickens go to town .
you may buy these blocks already made at a provender - supplying store or online , or make your own using a kind of grains , seeds , dry out fruit or anything else your cooped chickens might care , along with molasses to hold it all together .
This article originally appeared in the May / June issue ofChickensmagazine .
