I don’t know for sure, but I think the chickens may be getting bored. Not surprising, really: apart from scratching around, eating and drinking there isn’t much to do when you haven’t got any arms. In their little chickeny frustration they’ve taken to pecking at our fingers through the bars when we open or close the gate.
When we walk around the edge, they chase our feet on the opposite side of the grille, and cluck excitedly when they see us coming.
So we’re working hard to give them some inspiration. We already bring them the offcuts of our veg, which sends them into a little carnival of excitement, and we’ve hung up a CD, which they’re supposed to peck but they actually just ignore.
Then we struck on giving them some furniture, and installed a perch in the outdoor area so they have somewhere to sit during the day without getting their bums wet.
It’s been there three days, and it’s taken until now for them to work out how to use it. Since it went in, they’ve been circling the coop, ducking under it like it’s some limbo exercise machine. This morning, though, as we went out to feed the girls, Barbara was standing proud on it, looking across the patio towards the fruit bed.
I’m sure she was eyeing up the raspberries. They’re getting well past ready for human consumption now, but they’re nectar to the hens.
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When I’m replanting windowboxes and small containers I give them to the chickens to play with. They eat any of the remaining plant material they want, scratch in the top for bugs and then generally tip out all of the compost, sift through it for goodies and then use it for a dust bath if it’s dry enough. Hours of chickeny fun!
I’ll be doing that with the lettuce trays now that the season is over and they are starting to go to see. Rather than plant them in the plot, as we did last year, we grew them in troughs in the greenhouse to keep them away from the slugs, and harvested them a leaf or two at a time so they could cut and come again.
Now that they’re past it, the chucks can have the remains. Lettuce seems to be one of their favourite things.