Chickens aren’t terribly different from other domestic animals that humans keep, such as cats or dogs. Just like other pets, chickens are likely to become mischievous and get into trouble when they become bored. This can lead to damaged property and unhealthy chickens in the long term. Luckily, the solution is quite simple – give your chickens some toys to keep them entertained!
You might have noticed that there’s no chicken aisle at your local pet store. That doesn’t mean you’re out of luck though! Rather, it just means you’ll have to get a bit creative, roll up your sleeves, and build something yourself. Thankfully, chicken toys are pretty easy to build, and we’ve gathered 6 great DIY options for you to toy around with.
The 6 DIY Chicken Toys
1. Chicken Swing
Children absolutely love swings. A swing set is a perfect device for occupying children over long stretches of time. But it’s not just children who are open to the allures of a swing. Chickens love swings just as much as children if you give them the chance to try one! Luckily, building a chicken-sized swing isn’t that hard, and here you can even find directions to follow so you can easily build a swing for your chickens.
2. Chicken Seed Roll Treats
These might remind you of crafts you made back in art class in elementary school, and in truth, they’re not all that different. Chicken seed roll treats are extremely easy to make, and they don’t take long at all. Best of all, you probably already have everything you need. You don’t need to buy much for this; you can recycle most of the required materials, like the old cardboard tubes from your empty toilet paper rolls.
3. Chicken Playground
Entertaining chickens isn’t really all that different from entertaining children. When you want to occupy your kids, you take them to the playground. Well, the same thing works for chickens. Give them a playground and they’ll get near-infinite enjoyment out of it. There are many ways you can build a playground for chickens. Try using this as a starting point, but don’t be afraid to use your imagination and build something truly unique.
4. Chicken Boredom Buster
This Cheep-n-Easy DIY boredom buster for chickens is easy to make and inexpensive as anything that might occupy your chickens. All you need is an old water bottle and a way to put some holes in it. Then, you can fill it up with chicken feed and watch your chickens all go nuts over it!
5. Jungle Gym for Chickens
Here’s a modification of the playground idea. You can build a jungle gym for your chickens, which is perfect for flocks of more than just a few birds. If your jungle gym is large enough, all of your chickens will fit on it at the same time without being cramped for space. Best of all, you can make this from repurposed materials so you don’t have to spend anything!
6. Flock Block
Flock blocks are like hanging treats for chickens. As they try to peck off a bit of seed, the block keeps moving, making it quite a bit of work for your birds to get any seed. It will keep your whole flock entertained for hours, and you’ll probably get a pretty good laugh out of it as well.
Final Thoughts
Chicken toys don’t have to be complicated. In fact, some of the simplest toys seem to provide the most entertainment. After all, they’re not the smartest creatures in existence; occupying birds isn’t that complex. In just a short time, you could construct any of the simple DIY projects on this list and entertain your birds with little more than your imagination and ingenuity. Remember, these are just ideas. Feel free to make them yours by adjusting and tweaking them as you see fit.
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Featured Image Credit: JPR03, Shutterstock