A bored chicken is a bad chicken! Bored chickens can cause a lot of issues in your coop, but how can you keep your chickens entertained even in the middle of winter? Keep reading to learn these 10 chicken boredom busters to keep your chickens from acting up.
What bored chickens do
When your chickens are bored it can get down right ugly in the chicken coop. Cannibalism, egg eating, and feather picking are a few things that come to mind.
Chickens that don't have anything to do will start to peck at other members of the flock and can leave them with open wounds. Bored chickens will even eat their own eggs leaving you with nothing. It can even get so bad that your chickens eat each other... sigh! As you can see chickens are not the kindest of creatures.
Boredom busters are the answer
If you aren't blessed with acres for your chickens to roam or your chickens are cooped up for the winter you will need to distract them with something.
Here are 5 boredum busters that you can use to distract your chickens with. I even have a few ways you can lay out your chicken coop to keep your chickens entertained.
These methods work and I have proof. I have been keeping chickens since 2018 and I have never had an issue with bored chickens.
10 boredom busters for chickens
Try some of these techniques to keep your chickens occupied.
1. Outside roosts, logs, and straw bales
Chickens love to perch! This is especially great for the winter months because chickens can't stand all that scary white stuff that's covering the ground.
These perches allow them to get off the cold ground while still being outside getting fresh air and sunshine, which is super important for their health.
2. Piles of leaves, dirt, compost, or anything
For some odd reason chickens can't stand to see piles. If you have had chickens for any amount of time, then you know how they love to level every pile that they see by scratching at them.
Mulch, leaves, dirt, and grass clipping piles all get leveled when the chickens come along. Just put a big pile of leaves in your chicken coop and they will be entertained for hours.
Along with the exercise your chickens will be getting protein from the bugs and seeds they find in the piles plus they will eventually turn the leaves into compost.
3. Hang up a mirror
Do you want a good laugh? Just give your chickens a mirror. Chickens are apparently vain and can't stop looking at themselves in the mirror.
I have found that this boredom buster is especially effective with young chicks. They love to look and run around and then look again at themselves in the mirror.
If you don't have a mirror you could even hang up an old CD for them to look at. Shiny objects definitely catch a chicken's eye.
4. Set up a dust bath
Chickens "bathe" in dust to keep insects off of them and it is a very important activity to keep them healthy. If your chickens don't have a place they can dust bathe, then you will need to make a spot for them.
My chickens have made a dust bath of their own in our forest, so I don't have one specifically set up for them. If you do make one, make sure that it is protected from rain because chickens don't want to roll in the mud.
You can even add things like wood ash or food grade dematiaceous earth to their dust bath to keep off pests like leg mites.
5. Force them out of the coop
If your chickens have been cooped up (yep, I just made a pun), because they don't like the cold weather you should make them come out of the coop. Keeping their blood flowing and getting exercise will help them have better immune systems.
To entice your chickens to come out you can line "paths" out of their coop with straw. I keep a straw covered path to both their water and food dishes to encourage them to come out.
6. Make the chicken run larger
Chickens generally need 8 square feet of run per bird. Chickens can get very bored if they do not have enough room to roam, especially in the winter.
If your run is not covered you will need to shovel the snow out in the winter and cover the compact snow with straw. Chickens can not stand to walk on snow.
7. Build a chicken swing
Chickens love to swing. I think it is almost like sitting in a rocking chair for them. My chickens have a simple wooden bar that they will jump on and swing on.
Chicken swings are really great for the winter because it is an area for them to get off the cold snow. You can learn how to make a chicken swing here.
8. Treats and scratch grains
Chickens love scratch grains and you can make fun treats with them. You can also buy treats like this scratch grain flock block.
It is best to give treats with scratch in the winter or cooler months because scratch grains heat the chickens up. It can also help your chickens gain fat for more winter warmth.
9. Fruit pinata
A great boredom buster is hanging up a piece of fruit or a lettuce head in the chicken coop. The chickens will enjoy jumping up in the air to try and peck pieces out of the fruit.
If you don't want to go to the extra effort of stringing up produce, you can just give them the fruit and cut it up to entice them to eat it. Extra large zucchinis always go to the chickens at our house.
10. Change up the coop
It is always a good idea to change where you place your feeder and water dish in the chicken coop or move around perches and other things.
This keeps the chickens interested and looking for bugs. I like to keep logs and straw bales in the chicken coop. When I move these things, the chickens can eat all the bugs that were underneath them.
Boredom busting toys and products
If you want even more ways to keep your chickens entertained then you should look into getting some chicken toys. Things like veggie skewers, hanging veggie ball, and other chicken toys can be good ways to keep your chickens entertained.
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Lisa Steele says
Glad you enjoyed my blog post!
Josiah says
You always have great chicken keeping posts! That's why I included your post on making a treat wreath for chickens. Thanks for reading my post!