Hello @Maggie ! In France too, certain places have to keep chickens and hens (and duck and all feathered animal) inside.
No doubt that it is a stressful situation for them. And they could become agressive to each other !
To keep them occupied the first thing is to give them mineral or « feed block » so they can « peck » / sorry I am not sure of the exact word in English. I mean these king of things : Bloc minéral Madox pour volailles - Elevage - Ducatillon
You can give them extra straw or hay or even sand so they can explore it and it is safe for them (but change it regularly to keep it clean).
Make sur they have a ladder and a place up so they can go up and down and move regularly.
You can also hang a string or cord that goes down to their head : they can play with it. It is better to change it place regularly so it brings novelty to them : chicks are curious they will be happy to discover new things.
Sadly locked in is not a nice environment for free range chicks and they won’t be happy !
. Logs and Sticks. Gather them up and you can then create some really fun obstacle courses in your run of jumps, walkways, perches and multiple levelled climbs. They will enjoy jumping up and down, walking under them and perching. They will also love pecking the bark, you should probably disinfect them first with a Virkon sprayer or a hot disinfectant wash to ensure you don’t bring in any wild bird poo etc…
Tunnels. You can use hollowed out logs or giant card tubes to create fun tunnels and walkways, they love going inside and popping out the other, just be aware that some card can be toxic, and as chickens do they may peck it so try and use something natural like giant bamboo!
Swings. Easy to make and they love them you just need some string and a stick. Hang them from the top of your run and the birds will jump up on them and swing away… hours of fun.
Sand Baths. This is a great way to offer a distraction, if your run is well covered then add a sanded area for the hens to bathe in, they love doing this and it also will help prevent mites and lice naturally.
Mirrors. Chickens love to look at their own reflections, attach a mirror to the inside of your run and they will spend hours gazing at themselves. Just be careful if you have a cockerel/rooster – it might think its reflection is an intruder and attack!
Old Tyres. Perhaps not the prettiest things but pop them in your chicken run and your girls will love them, you can haphazardly stack them and they will jump on them, run under them, sit in them. Be careful to ensure they won’t fall though so you may need to tie them together. You can even fill them with soil and the girls will love it.
Upside Down Flower Pots. So, so simple but great fun, you can get multiple sizes and create walkways with them on different levels.
Hanging things from your run. You can hang different items from the top of the run using string, items can range from healthy treats, i.e. corn on the cob, a cabbage, whole apples, large chard leaves and so on… this will create a fun swinging feeder and your girls will be busy for hours pecking at it. You can also hang shiny objects such as old DVDs or CDs again, they will love the shiny light reflections and spend hours pecking them to make them swing and change the light reflections.
By varying week by week the distractions it will, hopefully, keep our chickens happy & healthy.
@Margaret I would never had though of mirror !!! Yes they are so curious I am sure they will love it.
You describe perfectly a great adventure park for chicks !! Thank you !
@mars Sorry don’t have any photos from the last flockdown & currently they just have some branches to climb on & cabbage etc hanging to peck at. If you google Chicken Boredom Busters there are plenty of photos on various sites.
Thank you @Margaret I want to be one of your girls!
We sat chickens for the first time about 5 years ago and went on a voyage of discovery with these fascinating and endearing creatures. Since then we have cared for many mostly rescue hens and have been forever grateful to owners like you, for giving them the life they deserve and giving us the opportunity to share their space.
Françoise thanks very much for all these fantastic idea’s I have passed them on to my nephew’s family. Here’s hoping her 18 chooks will be happy and entertained
“For laying hens, depending on the breed, they generally lay less in winter months, which is normal, as it’s linked to the amount of light during the day,” Françoise Foucher, an agriculture and breeding expert based in France and a sitter with Trusted Housesitters, explains. “Some breeds do continue to lay, as long as you feed them enough.” She explains that as the chickens use more energy to cope with the cold, they need more energy to lay … read the full article here
It never ceases to amaze just how many knowledgeable members there are, in our community across many different subjects and disciplines.
Excellent and perfect timing as I will be with a flock of 30 in February. Have had quite a bit of chickenly sits over the years so always enjoy learning more about them.
Merci @Françoise-et-Youn
Anyone ever heard of a transgender hen?
I had one for the first time a few months ago. It was fascinating.
Some type of shift in hormones that causes the hen to become more like a rooster. This particular one stopped laying eggs, developed talons and had a full rooster comb but the main body still looked like a hen. No crow though
This isn’t as uncommon as you might think! I’ve seen it happen a few times. The hen doesn’t fully turn into a rooster but over time will stop laying, start to make a sort of crowing noise and may even start dominating and bothering the other ladies in the flock.
Yes @Amparo I’ve seen it !
You are right @Lindsay it is not so uncommon to see hens acting like a roostern ( generally because there is no roster in the pack) but when hens start to develop male “attributes” like @Amparo describes it is due to hormonal “changes” and is not so commun. And it seems that it is only in this direction hen =>rooster, never the opposite ! It is because hens got two sexual glands from which one is supposed to stay still (sleeping ?) but sometimes it wakes up and send male hormons to the body !
Thank you all for you enthusiasm about my contribution to this thread ! Hope it helps.
@Françoise-et-Youn I’m talking about the hormonal changes due to the dormant ovary - I raised poultry for many years and have seen it happen several times. Also only in the same hen to rooster direction, I’ve heard talk of rare cases of the reverse but have never seen anything documented to support it!
Thank you @Lindsay for your answer : I didn’t know how to say "dormant ovary » ! I hope it was understandable though !
Would you say it only happens in hobby farms, when hens live long enough to express it ?
I’ve never heard of the opposite process. Do you think or have you seen hen becoming rooster and going back to hen, laying again ? Very interesting. Thank you for sharing.
Oh yes @Françoise-et-Youn you made perfect sense! I haven’t really thought about it but I imagine you are on to something with the thought that it happens in hobby farms where we let the hens live much longer. I haven’t seen a hen that changed physically return to a hen state and lay but I did have one who took over the flock in the absence of a rooster, she became very dominant and stopped laying, but when I brought another rooster in, she submitted to him and eventually started laying again. Chickens are such fascinating creatures, they really don’t get enough credit!
Thanks @Lindsay
And yes hens are much more clever than we believe they are.
I wrote a paper few months ago about behavioral inhibition in poultry :
you can read about this experiment made by a french team here (this is the scientific publication peer review) :
