Please forgive the hideous pun.
We have five hens and one rooster. We have a decent-sized enclosed
yard (16x24, if I recall rightly) attached to a largish drafty old
henhouse. We used to let them out at lunch for the afternoon but
they've become too familiar with the environs (we only have an acre)
and were wandering into the street (small court, but still...) and,
worse, into the neighbor's yard where they provided her much
entertainment BUT also the unwelcome 'digging' of her carefully
mulched ornamental beds. *sigh*. One or two routinely get out each day
but stick close, and wait politely for my husband to let them back in
at lunchtime.
So now we try to let them out for 20-30 mins right before roosting
time (in fact we often get them off the roost as they will go to bed
early from boredom), but only IF one of us gets home before they are
well roosted. Otherwise they can go all week without getting an outing
(they almost always get some time outside on the weekends, if only
that brief half-hour of glory).
So they are not technically abused birds, I think. But I do worry that
they don't have much to occupy them. Their pen is dirt, with two small
hollies for shade. I probably feed them way too much scratch grains,
and (at this season - winter) not enough greens.
My question is this: what can we do to provide them with
entertainment? I wanted to add some three-dimensionality to the pen -
what is the best way for that? Branches? Platforms? And are there
'toys' I can provide them, or giant foodballs that they can 'worry
over' to keep them occupied? When I kept hens before I used to throw
them a flake of alfalfa hay in the winter for the green leaves and
entertainment value when they were snowbound in their house; I guess I
should try that with these guys.
Thoughts? Suggestions?
- Susan
