How to Keep Chickens From being Bored

[1hotmoma]

I give my chickens fruit, yogurt, corn cobs, melons etc. I will have to try the noodles with them.

 

[UmmmLetMeThink]

(this was a dare) PEEK-A-BOO!!

 

[Smoosh]

Frozen blocks of veggies.
Since its pretty hot here and I have my own garden, I take veggies that are on the way out or gone to seed, cut them up into chunks, add water and freeze. Then during the hottest part of the day I take it out and give it to them. They love it. Not only do they get cold fresh water but cold veggies to snack on too.

One treat I didn't expect was when I let them out to free range the yard and they found a tomato plant that was still producing and they would jump up to get the juiciest ones. Don't tell my hubby but after watching them, I left the ripe ones on that one plant just for them.

I am definitely going to have to try this!

 

[mystic0222]

These are great ideas. I was just thinking about this today. I can't let ours out of their run and I feel bad they might get bored. I will def be trying some of these ideas. One thing we do for inside the coop is mix scratch into their pine shavings, so at least in the morning before I have let them out into their run they have a little something to do.

 

[PossumLiving]

Cooked noodles - that's awesome! I have one question though. After I cook my noodles, I throw a bit of olive oil in there to keep it from clumping. Would it be a problem to give them the noodles w/ oil on it?

 

[CGinJCMO]

If yours don't like cabbage, try romaine lettuce. My girls love romaine lettuce.

My chickens don't seem to like any leafy greens. I bought a head of cabbage just for them, and I give them all the outer leaves of my lettuce and they ignore it. I still give them the lettuce, and either it'll be eaten by a chicken or by a wild rabbit.

CG

 

[CGinJCMO]

When our lawn gets mowed I dump all the grass clippings in with the chickens.

Mowing???? What's that??? LOL

We haven't had enough grass growing in this drought to mow. There's a few weeds that have grown but at least we aren't having to gas up the lawn mower.

Because of this heat, my chickens do a lot of laying under the shady coop. I try not to go out much because they come running as soon as they see me and I don't want to excite them and overheat them. I go out in the middle of the day to put ice in some water for them to wade in and drink but otherwise I try to wait until it's cooler in the evening or early morning for giving them treats and scratch time.

CG

 

[Lacy Blues]

Cooked noodles - that's awesome! I have one question though. After I cook my noodles, I throw a bit of olive oil in there to keep it from clumping. Would it be a problem to give them the noodles w/ oil on it?

olive oil is fine. In fact, when I have a crop-bound bird, olive oil is the life saver.

 

[Time-Out]

Cabbage doesn't work for me. A whole cabbage lasts all of two hours. Then what? Greedy things. Perches are good for the run, areas of dirt, areas of grass... but other than that, I'm interested what others have to say too.

 

[Reurra]

My birds wont touch broccoli or cabbage. Watermelon is a huge favorite, they jump all over us to get at it. They love romane hearts, those go like hotcakes. Corn cobs too. They love to eat spinach and dandilions. We get really big dandys here so I just sever the root at the base with a shovel and carry the whole plant in for them to eat. I throw in about 5 or 6 and leave them for the day. In the morning I clean up the dead plants and get more. Dandilions get slugs and bugs in them that the hens love to snack on. Earwigs too.