Environmental Enrichment

[purplecatherine]

I have been told that my hens need environmental enrichment. What does this mean? Should I buy them toys? My 6 hens have a run of around 5X4m and an Eglu cube. There is plenty of vegetation from them to scratch up and plenty of shade from trees. Should I get some extra roosting bars to put outside the Eglu? I really want my girls to be happy but it looks like I'm making them sad!
Please help.

[davefromthechipie]

You got it extra roosting bars , places to dig , hanging the odd cabbage etc

[di]

Who told you???...did they come up with any ideas?
We have roosting bars in the run,also hang up greens for them to jump up at.
I think it was Nicos came up with the idea of old leaves,which we've done...also a couple of old logs which we put corn in the nooks & crannies.
Is their run movable?If not,once the grass is gone you could maybe sometimes pop some turf in there for them.
Good Luck with them & enjoy!

[HayleyB]

You are not making them sad they sound happy to me. They enjoy a good dust bath though

[Flummery]

My four have their feeder under the house (which gives them a shelter and nooks and crannies to peer into) and a roosting perch. Their water comes in a wide bucket and they do like perching on that too. There's a sand pit - a sunken plastic fish box for digging, dust-bathing and filling with wood chippings so The Slave has to rake them out each morning! And I keep a plastic garden chair in there (for my benefit not theirs!) which they also use for perching purposes. They like to fly up to the henhouse roof too! I think you definitely need to think in 3 dimensions and allow them places to jump/fly up to and places to perch. Make sure they have lots of deep material to scratch in - either soil or, if your run is on a solid base, lots of leaf litter or wood chippings - at least 3 or 4 inches deep. Greens hung up so they can jump, or tossed in as a whole plant with roots so they can 'kill' it and toss it around amongst themselves leads to hours of fun!
A bored hen is more likely to feather-pick or bully I reckon.

[HayleyB]

Mine have an old Landie Axle, a few boxes, planks they've decided make good roosts and various bits of machinery/rubbish to play with in one corner, soil/gawd knows what under a trailer they have been busy making a dust pool (too big to be a bath), two stables with hay and straw in, an elderberry tree growing through into the yard that is just high enough that they have to jump to try to get the leaves. All hell breaks loose when mummy throws the odd goodie over the wall into the yard and Alice was running around trying to escape everyone with her new toy - a dead mouse mummy found

[Suechooks]

Car tyres, bales of straw, tree branches, thick logs and tree stumps plus a hanging basket to chuck greens etc in so they can work for their treats, upside down wheelbarrow to play peepo from, huge Rosemary bush to shelter out of the sun.

[Nicos]

..oyster shells.......

[Bephlam]

Who advised you that they need environmental enrichment? Are they showing signs of behavioural problems?

Mine have loads of perches, half a tree trunk, a bush (well a skeleton of a bush now), mirrors (bought from the pet shop for parrots...they love it actually) and some cd's I've hung and drawn little bugs etc on...they seem to 'play' with all of it....

Most of the time they just scratch about and dust bath though!

Your girls sound fine to me...

[Qwerty]

In my duck pen I have: (as well as a large pond)

Old apple tree brances "tasefully" arranged

A turf mound (They like to climb on top of it)

Various reclaimed rotting logs (bugs live in these and the ducks snatch them up)

Hanging lettuce

An apple tree (There by chance)

Rocks (climbing again)

Hidey holes

Bushes (they nest in these: nettle stings galore!)

A wooden bridge (made from wire and branches: they are meant for guniea pigs Etc you can buy them from a pet shop)

I also have some short smallish concrete tubes, small enough so they can crawl through, covered with spare turf so they can climb on it (and so it looks nice! ) and I think these things would work with chooks too.

P.S you could scale these down easily E.G Smaller branches, rocks Etc.

[Snadger]

Mine have an old Landie Axle...........................

Is it any good? I was under mine yesterday replacing a propshaft and noticed there was play in the diff!!!!!

[Snadger]

Everyones forgot the main requirement.........a MIRROR for them to peck there reflections and to use to put there make up on!

Ps Supposed to be good at keeping foxes at bay as well......apparently they run a mile if they see there own reflection!

[di]

Everyones forgot the main requirement.........a MIRROR for them to peck there reflections and to use to put there make up on!

Ps Supposed to be good at keeping foxes at bay as well......apparently they run a mile if they see there own reflection!

Everyone bar Bephlam!!!

[Snadger]

Everyone bar Bephlam!!!

Ooops!..........

[Flummery]

Everyones forgot the main requirement.........a MIRROR for them to peck there reflections and to use to put there make up on!

Ps Supposed to be good at keeping foxes at bay as well......apparently they run a mile if they see there own reflection!

Had to take mine out! Mostly they ignored it except when it clacked against the weldmesh in a wind - they they were scared of it! Must find a way of hanging it away from the mesh sides!