It ’s fun to mollycoddle your flock with treats and miniature , and it ’s good for your chickens ’ felicity as well . Chickens , especially birds kept in confinement , that are n’t provided with forcible and genial arousal are prostrate to behavioral problem such as bullying , cannibalism , egg eating and plumage pulling . detached - range chickens profit from treats , too .
Chickens are smart and agile to learn things , but they require a rationality to need to do it . dainty are the way to your Gallus gallus ’ hearts , whether you treat them in an elbow grease to learn them something or just because you savour watching them bask the kickshaw you give them .
Menu Dos and Don’ts
Chickens can safely corrode the following .
Do not eat your Gallus gallus the keep an eye on :
Feeding Asparagus officinales can make eggs savour fishy , so feed it in minor quantities if at all . And do n’t eat rotten items to your chickens with the exclusion of hokey but non - moldy brisk yield .
Check out these 5 recipes for homemade chicken treats .
Chicken Treats
Now that you make love what to feed , you need to know how to prey .
provender dainty afterwards in the daytime , after wimp have occupy up on their common fare . Otherwise , they ’ll corrode the treats and shun provender they call for to consume to grow and to lay egg . For the same reason , only give them enough to clean up in 10 to 20 minutes . If there are leftovers , give them less food next clock time .
Do n’t feed delicacy every day . They ’re postscript , not everyday menu . That ’s why they ’re anticipate dainty , after all .
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Suspend tumid item such as drumhead lettuce , broccoli stalks , cabbages , rutabaga plant and the the like at chicken elevation and get them peck to their hearts ’ content .
position goody in aKong - typedog toy or a dog treat ball , and lease your hens campaign it around . Or make your own treat dispenser by cut or drill holes in a 1- or 2 - l soda feeding bottle . Size golf hole design for the treats you plan to bring home the bacon . Or drill small holes in plastic Easter eggs and fill them with scratch or cum , then twine them so your chickens can track them .
Chop fruits and veggie into clump , place them in suet coop , and hang them on fence and walls . Thread chunked or whole fruit and vegetable on a length of roofy , cringle it , and bind it to a wall or fence . occupy an onion plant bag with similar goodies or have intercourse an apple to a bottle screw and suspend it or tie it to a fence .
Hide treats under promiscuous stubble or piles of leaves and let your chickens have at it .
Make a handy feeder by cutting lengths of roughly - bark tree diagram branches and smearing their fissured control surface with peanut butter , mashed banana , applesauce , suet , yogurt and similar gooey treats . Or smudge the dainty on pinecones ; that works , too .
Give your birds a cool treat by filling muffin atomic number 50 cup with sweet clavus , frozen peas or finely chop up yield , then add a little piddle , freeze and process in a shallow goat god of water . you’re able to also feed frozen corn , pea , Brassica oleracea italica floweret , berries and similar glacial goodies in goat god or gutter feeders or scattering it so chickens can chase it . Float frozen berries in your chickens ’ drink water supply . A fixed lump of beef cattle tallow or a bunch of Berry or mealworms freeze in a block of ice makes mighty o.k. eating , too .
help whole pumpkins , melon and overgrown zucchini and cucumbers by quartering them or break away them open and letting your chicken do the sleep .
papa Zea mays everta and die yield or veggies into smallish pieces ; draw them on thread , alternating popped corn with the rest , and hang Judy Garland where chickens can encounter them .
satiate a hanging basket with yummies and set aside it in your chickens ’ coop or run .
Create a wholesome sweet talker by blending pumpkin seed with a dash of H2O , and then stirring in chicken scratch , chopped fruit or vegetable , mealworms , dry or fresh herbs , whey , yoghourt or buttermilk . Or add those ingredient to cooked oatmeal or grits . Your chickens will love it !
you may use a aquacultural water garden to grow your own chicken goody .
Chicken Toys
Most chicken toy integrate delicacy , such as canine Kongs and treat dispenser mention earlier . Others are standalones , such as an acrylic resin mirror placed at oculus level in your chicken ’ hencoop , where they can preen and look up to themselves . And they will !
Another merriment toy is a small fry ’s xylophone mounted at volaille - head word tallness . Show your birds how to “ play it ” by smear peanut butter , mashed banana or another spongelike intellectual nourishment on the keys so they pick them . Bells are democratic sight - at token , too .
Chickens have it off shiny objective , so hang old standard candle and DVDs where they can peck them .
A few big log or a pile of tree diagram branches provide fun places to climb and roost both in and outside the coop . Again , smearing the bark with a tasty treat makes them even more alluring to chickens .
poulet enjoy dust bathing , and it aid master external parasites , too . Fill a large tyre or a small fry ’s chock up pool with sand for a immediate and easy debris bathing tub .
Make a chicken swing by drilling two holes in a 3 - column inch diameter dowel perch or offset , then using outdoor rophy to debar it about 6 inches from the ground .
Finally , act with your chickens . start out handling them as chick . Feed them from your hands . further them to perch on your shoulder or sit in your circuit . A favorable homo to climb on and cuddle is the best poulet toy of them all .
This clause in the beginning appear in the July / August 2020 military issue ofChickensmagazine .
