Arthurmogman Posted April 3, 2012 Share Posted April 3, 2012 Hi all, I wondered whether you could tell me what sort of things you put in your runs to keep your hens busy? I've kept hens for about 3 years but lost all four of mine to a fox last autumn. Until then they had been mostly free range, I realise now that I was just lucky and this time I will be keeping my hens in their Eglu / run. I'd like to make the run a nice space for them as they will only be able to free range at weekends now. Thank you in advance. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
heth1986 Posted April 3, 2012 Share Posted April 3, 2012 Try hanging goodies in there, cabbage, cauliflour, carrots, sprouts, apples etc always go down well with mine. You can get a smallish food dispenser balls for dogs quite cheap from most pet stores that can be filled with treats, corn etc, that the hens have to push around to get the food out (hilarious to watch!) My OH came up with the idea of using the nets that you get some vegetables and fruit in (onions, garlic, oranges etc) and filling them with chopped goodies like apple and carrots. You can also buy pecka blocks or similar from pet shops, I think they do chicken specific ones now! So I guess food is my answer here! The only draw back is making sure that you don't go too made on the treats so that they eat their pellets and not just the goodies! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LottyJ1 Posted April 3, 2012 Share Posted April 3, 2012 Hi, I'm looking for info on this too as just built a WIR. At the moment I have the peck blocks etc but going to get some veg hung up too. I have also read that rabbit water bottles are good as they love to peck at the drops. I also use wild bird fat balls in the winter and they love it. I have some logs for them to jump on and purch and sorting out a dust bath. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chortle Chook Posted April 4, 2012 Share Posted April 4, 2012 I'd certainly recommend a dust bath. A tub trug would do (colour coded to go with your Eglu of course ) A mixture of wood ash and old pot soil seems to be the favourite 'dust' amongst my chooks. As for food fun, I'd highly recommend hanging up half a coconut. Also at this time of year hanging up a bunch of rape seed leaves is a good freebie. My chooks love it. I pick no more than one leaf from each plant as I take the dogs for a walk along a rape seed field. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LottyJ1 Posted April 5, 2012 Share Posted April 5, 2012 Ohhh a coconut - that is a new one that sounds good I will try that! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
auntielizzie Posted April 5, 2012 Share Posted April 5, 2012 I bought one of those rabbit water bottles and my girls love it. They got used to it very quickly - within a day. I put their ACV in there about once a month and the rest of the time just plain water. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
