Chicken Toys: Why They're Important & How To Provide Them!

All great ideas. I was thinking of putting a old lava lamp out for them. Kids would watch that thing for hours. Think it would work?

Great Article! I put together a wood “toddler” climbing set…they LOVE it!

Great article! I tried a few things already and they love their new 'climbing frame' but where afraid of the cabbage swinging back at them. Even after I tore off pieces and showed them, they just thought that the cabbage was out there to get them!

Great tips and ideas. I would add necessities to the title because lots of what you described are necessities for heathy chickens.

To keep the stress level low it’s important to keep chickens busy.

The sand bath is important to keep the skin and feathers in good condition. Adding a little diatomaceous earth is even better to prevent lice and mite problems to a certain extent (no guarantees, keep checking)

I've drilled holes in plastic bottles before and its always a hit. When I got geese they loved it too but I'm going to try bigger bottles as they're bigger and stronger. It's so fun to watch and worth the effort. Plus, I've helped bored chickens I chicken-sat back off on head pecking with adding toys.

I love this article! I'm going to try some of the ideas listed here. I like to push dandelion greens through the mesh on top of the run, so they jump up to get them. I tried hanging a head of broccoli for them, but they were afraid of it. I ended up pulling the florets off the main stalk and tossing them to them.

Wonderful ideas! I can't wait to try some of the things I never considered, such as the tire (or bin) for dust baths, hanging CD's, and plastic mirrors. My chickens are entertained daily by my ever-changing compost piles, but I haven't tried these. Thanks for sharing.

Great Ideas!! Thank you!!

Any ideas for toys for baby chicks? Mine are about two weeks old and they are running and jumping everywhere. They get bored in their box. I’m not sure what food I can give them other than chick feed. It would be nice to hang something in their box to peck at.

Great info and a great read. Thank you for all the ideas!

Great article and good advice, especially for limited range chickens. I would caution though that not all chickens are going to like some toys. My girls are terrified of shiny things (like an old CD). so be careful, if not introduced to the new object properly you'll have chickens refusing to go near it or worse, panicking and maybe hurting themselves.

Thank you for all the great ideas!

Excellent ideas! I'm going to try some now and incorporate more in the "mini coop"

Super article! Can’t wait to try some ideas out for the “kids”!

Lots of great ideas- Thanks!
we are getting our first chickens in April, and will use some of your ideas in our coop!

Great ideas. I tried adding a compost pile in the yard near the coop. It was a bad idea. I ended up with a rat infestation that has taken me almost 10 months to rectify.

Great ideas and suggestions for making low-cost enrichment for the chickens. Some things as simple as keeping your compost pile where they can scratch in it or using old CDs to reflect their images (and provide rainbows. Tons of easy to implement ideas!

Very useful!

Great article that really made me want to get out and create all the toys for my girls!

Great article! I will try some of these ideas with my mother's chickens. The one thing I will say is the interactive treat dispenser bit said there was a picture of a re-usable peanut-butter container and I didn't see the pic anywhere in the article, so I'm taking off a star for that. But otherwise, great work and well written! I'd never heard of chicken toys before, even though I've given chickens some inadvertent toys like treats lol.