- May 3, 2015
- 30
- 41
- 112
Hi all,
I have seven glorious 6-week-old chickens (all different breeds) in my garage, at the moments, while their coop apartment is currently being built in my backyard. My backyard was redone recently - all hardscaped - since I have three Great Danes who turned my once-had-grass backyard into a mud pit. Because I knew I'd have no yard to free range my girls, I built a very large coop/run combo. While the girls are in the garage, they get front yard (grass time) every day that it's not raining and they love it. When they move to the backyard coop, their grass scratching days will be over because there is no grass and no room for them to free range safely. What type of enrichment activities can I give them when they're in their new home? It looks like, for not too much money, I can buy pieces of sod, which might be something I could do in the summer/fall for them to scratch and play in (it won't be getting watered and wouldn't be intended to root - just something new for them that I would lay on top of their wood chip litter in the run).
Anyway - I know that in a perfect world - and this is what I had many years ago - I'd have them free ranging on grass and destroying flower beds and using a raised garden as a dust bath - but I'm at a new house, with a different yard, and a different set up. They have 8x12' of run and an oversized henhouse and are getting an obnoxious amount of love. They're also getting a swing and tree stumps and a variety of other perch options, plus an old tire dust bath in their run. But, they'll be enclosed. Oh, and someone told me that their friend takes a small straw bale and sprinkles scratch and meal worms over it and lets the chickens go to town ripping it apart. Have any of you done that and do you recommend it?
Thank you.
Alissa
I have seven glorious 6-week-old chickens (all different breeds) in my garage, at the moments, while their coop apartment is currently being built in my backyard. My backyard was redone recently - all hardscaped - since I have three Great Danes who turned my once-had-grass backyard into a mud pit. Because I knew I'd have no yard to free range my girls, I built a very large coop/run combo. While the girls are in the garage, they get front yard (grass time) every day that it's not raining and they love it. When they move to the backyard coop, their grass scratching days will be over because there is no grass and no room for them to free range safely. What type of enrichment activities can I give them when they're in their new home? It looks like, for not too much money, I can buy pieces of sod, which might be something I could do in the summer/fall for them to scratch and play in (it won't be getting watered and wouldn't be intended to root - just something new for them that I would lay on top of their wood chip litter in the run).
Anyway - I know that in a perfect world - and this is what I had many years ago - I'd have them free ranging on grass and destroying flower beds and using a raised garden as a dust bath - but I'm at a new house, with a different yard, and a different set up. They have 8x12' of run and an oversized henhouse and are getting an obnoxious amount of love. They're also getting a swing and tree stumps and a variety of other perch options, plus an old tire dust bath in their run. But, they'll be enclosed. Oh, and someone told me that their friend takes a small straw bale and sprinkles scratch and meal worms over it and lets the chickens go to town ripping it apart. Have any of you done that and do you recommend it?
Thank you.
Alissa
