Environmental enrichment for my ladies

[thesunflowergal]

Hi All

My four ladies have a 6x5ft house, and a run which is slightly larger. They have acess to the whole garden when I am at home, but this is soon going to be more limited.
So I am looking to give them as much to do in their run as possible. At the moment they have a dust bath, a wooden perch, a wire ball (which veg gets stuffed into), some other large sticks, a mirror, and a couple of flower pots. Does anyone have any other ideas please? As I would like to be able to swap things around for them.

Thanks Nikki

[battybird]

How about a hot tub??
seriously though, we used to plant an area of comfrey and feverfew as they did not like to eat this and it made some green shady space after they had scratched the rest of the run into oblivion! A bale of straw left undone also went down well and had the advantage that they spread it around the run themselves!! need s quite a big space for this though. I am assuming these are chickens??

[Touchwood]

We throw some of our grass cuttings in as well as any weeds that I pull up, they love scratching around in it and every so often we rake it all up again, it great for the compost with all the added chicken poo.

[Annpan]

We have a cat treat ball - came with some nonsense the in-laws bought for Cat at christmas, but she didn't like it...

Anywaaaaaays....

We fill it with corn and chuck it into the run.

At the moment our 5 chooks have access to our orchard - about 300 square metres with fruit trees, loads of grass, large overgrown hedgerows, lots of dust bathing, twigs and leaves to peck through, lots of scratching, lots of stones and logs to perch on/ play on.... and they still spend most of their time trying to escape.... the veg beds are clearly much more interesting... *sigh*

[thesunflowergal]

I am assuming these are chickens??

How silly am I?? Yes they are chickens. I have loads of feverfew so thats a great idea.

We throw some of our grass cuttings in as well as any weeds that I pull up, they love scratching around in it and every so often we rake it all up again, it great for the compost with all the added chicken poo.

When Mr SFG mows the lawn I will ask him to add the cuttings, thanks.

We have a cat treat ball - came with some nonsense the in-laws bought for Cat at christmas, but she didn't like it...

Anywaaaaaays....

We fill it with corn and chuck it into the run.

At the moment our 5 chooks have access to our orchard - about 300 square metres with fruit trees, loads of grass, large overgrown hedgerows, lots of dust bathing, twigs and leaves to peck through, lots of scratching, lots of stones and logs to perch on/ play on.... and they still spend most of their time trying to escape.... the veg beds are clearly much more interesting... *sigh*

I will look into getting one Anne, thanks. Thats why they are going to have to stay in their run more, as I can not afford for them to eat all the fruit and veg.

[Rosendula]

At the moment our 5 chooks have access to our orchard - about 300 square metres with fruit trees, loads of grass, large overgrown hedgerows, lots of dust bathing, twigs and leaves to peck through, lots of scratching, lots of stones and logs to perch on/ play on.... and they still spend most of their time trying to escape.... the veg beds are clearly much more interesting... *sigh*

Gosh Annpan, you sound right posh

[Thomzo]

I give mine grass clippings and weeds, but they also love hedge prunings which have the added advantage of getting them up off the mud when the weather's wet.

A few large stones, to big for them to move, provide hidey holes for insects to keep them amused and maybe you can give them something to jump up onto, a shelf perhaps or a spare bit of perch out in their run.

Now they're in their outside run, I scatter their food on the ground (when it's not raining) so that they have to search and scratch for it.

Zoe

[sarahkeast]

Argh, I need help on this one too !

I must have rescued 2 particular chooks, Kelly and Vera, at least 4 time EACH today !!! They both have decided that the neighbour's overgrown jungle, particularly the narrow gap between their old sheds and the tumble down fence, is THE place to lay their eggs ! I found a stash of 8 eggs there.

Even when they were let out in the garden they didnt want to peck around, not even on the fruit bushes or dicentra, their normal targets. Noooo, it was all about getting under and between the sheds, all darn day ! various bits of wood, old chicken wire and a holly bush now totally jam up the narrow gap.

I am wondering if I need to do anything to titivate the nesting boxes; just plain wooden boxes with wood shavings, not particularly dark, no curtains or anything but used to be used by offending chooks happily enuf. Thoughts ?

We dont have a massive run, one apple tree, a raised stone wall with soon to be native hedging and donations of weeds and stuff to scratch around. I also tend to feed by broadcasting the pellets.

What else can I do ?

Thanks in advance

[happy place]

sarah
sounds like something happened to put them off the nest box have you checked for red mite cause an investation will make them move out
if no sign of red mite try incouaging them back in to thier nest box by leaving a fake egg in there or leaving thier eggs in there for a day but beware i think this is also a trick for getting a hen to go broody