Entertain your chickens for free!

You likely have a lot of this stuff already (or can find it on the side of the street any given weekend) to be re-purposed into your very own chicken carnival. Yeah! Take the girls to a carnival!

So, naturally, when you arrive, you, as the responsible adult, will be analyzing all the activities at the carnival to make sure you and your girls hit all the important attractions with minimal inconvenience. Everyone’s so excited, aren’t they?

So while you’re passing by the ticket booth, you see all the Chicken Tractors parked outside, backed up to the fence, you remember to remind all the chicks about the buddy system & stranger danger. When you get past the curtain at the carnival, you hear the music from the old radio and can see hens swinging like they’re headlining at the Moulin Rouge. Those rowdy teenage ducks are here, too, but you see management already prepared for that, as they’ve Rocked the Watering Hole.

Chicken Tractor

I know someone has an old metal triangular swingset somewhere. These make hilarious and awesomely sturdy tractors that you can move around the yard, providing fresh grass to the girls, and fertilizer to the lawn.

Swing

Just like the Moulin Rouge, baby! Anything really can be used, like an old curtain rod, a sturdy stick, even a stick of cut bamboo, tied up with some rope or wire.

Chickens like to swing.  I’ve had chickens two years and just discovered this! They actually make a chicken swing (for thirty bucks!?), but who wants to buy one when you can just make one?

 Rocked Watering Holes and other drinking spots

Overturned bucket or pot with rock-filled pan to keep those rowdy ducks from sloshing it all out. 

Snack Ball

Baby’s old open weave plastic ball – Everybody’s kid had one of these. Hang it up with string or leftover wire or whatever you have and stuff some fresh fruits or vegetables inside. I cut mine where three bars intersected to make it easier to punch the food into the ball. The plastic is still rigid enough to hold its shape.

Oh, yeah! While those wild young things ride the rides, the mamas are going to settle in to some Nesting Boxes for Dinner and a Show on the Stage!

Nesting Boxes

Cat litter buckets on their sides, old drawers, tractor tires, milk crates, even some old lockers turned on their sides would even work.  They’ll lay eggs wherever you invite them (for the most part).

Show Stage

OK. I admit, this is more for you than them, but happy chicken parents improve chicken lives. Re-Configure a pallet, an old dresser with useless drawers, a table with a broken leg that you repaired with a scrap piece of whatever you had on hand. It’s just more comfortable to use their show stage as an examination table than squatting down to give ’em a once-over. Maybe I’m just lazy.

(Dinner) Food Storage

What? They offer food at carnivals! Use a large trash can (with lid), rubbermaid tote, or recycle bin – clean out well and line with sturdy plastic bag for secure feed storage. If your chicks are as excited about their feed as I am about a super-fresh nutty buddy, fresh kibble IS part of the carnival.

Yeah, the mama chicks are getting hot now after sitting so close together at the show, so they usher the little chicks to the House of Mirrors while they take Dust Baths at the Rings of Saturn exhibit to cool off. Better make sure you’ve got a Snack for the chicks when they come off that ride!

(House of Mirrors) Chick Toys

Remember when AOL used to send out all those cds? Occasionally, I still receive a cd in the mail or I make a coaster out of one by accident. You can hang them or put them on the walls of the brooder box to protect baby chicks from pecking each other. Anything shiny will do, really.

(Rings of Saturn) Chicken Dust Pit

Old tires, old tires with umbrellas, old drawers, even rocks in a circle, filled with ashes from your campfire or burning your mortgage after the last payment, or your ex’s clothes or body, you know, whatevs. (Kidding. Please don’t murder your ex, even if they deserve it.)

Snack Attractor

Charge a single solar light during the day and watch attract some voluntary bedtime snacks to your sweeties before they roost for the night. Nobody can eat just one! Yeah, I believe I’ll have a lil bite of that.

Hoowee! Everybody’s tired, so you shuffle ’em on home and put ’em up in the coop. They don’t even bother taking a bath. They head straight for the Ladder Roost and tell you to be quiet on your way out.

Roosting Ladder(s)

Try using a bent wire shelf, a pallet, an old ladder. If I had enough, I’d make a chicken run up the wall and all Here-and-there like in Mario Brothers.

Yeah, I know, this is kind of like the School Carnival, but trust me, the ladies will think you hung the moon! What kind of fun stuff have you set up for your chickens? Send me pictures! I can’t wait to see them.

~ Erica

Owning Burton Farm