Poultry Enrichment

Chickens are smart and social animals who need things to do, places to be, and friends to hang out with to stay happy.  In this section, we will cover the three main categories of enrichment activities you can provide for your birds including interactions with animals, people, and their environment.

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Signs of a Problem

If they are not getting enough enrichment in their environment, you may notice things like:

  • Bullying – where they act aggressive towards other birds
  • Guarding behaviour – where hens will guard the feeder or waterer to prevent other birds accessing it
  • Feather pecking – where they peck or pull at the feathers of another bird
  • Vent pecking – where they peck at another hen’s vent causing damage to the skin and tissue
  • Cannibalism – where they peck, tear, and/or eat the skin or body tissues of other birds
  • Egg eating – where they start to damage and eat their own eggs
  • Destructive behaviours – where they peck or destroy parts of their cook or run

For any of these signs, it is important to make sure it’s not related to issues with their housing, nutrition, or health care before making the assumption that it’s a problem with boredom.

Interactions with Animals

Chickens are social animals and they do best if they have the company of at least two other chickens so they can form a proper flock.  It’s important to make sure that your coop and run are large enough so they don’t feel overcrowded and that your feeders and waterers are set up so they aren’t competing to access food and water.

Chickens are also generally friendly and curious towards other animals, but other animals might not be so friendly back towards them.

Dogs

Dogs, particularly terrier and hunting breeds can attack chickens without warning. If you have dogs at home, make sure you have observed them interacting with your chickens on multiple occasions to look for any potential signs of aggression.

If friends or family are bringing dogs over to your house, make sure the dogs are kept on a leash and fully supervised to prevent them from attacking your chickens. It can also be very stressful for chickens if the dogs chase them, which can disrupt them laying eggs or cause abnormalities in the eggshells.

Cats

Cats are generally okay with adult hens who can defend themselves, but much more likely to hunt and kill baby chicks. Chicks should be completely separated from cats until they are at least 8 weeks old. Most of the time when wild cats are around chickens, they are usually trying to hunt mice and rodents that may be in the chicken enclosure.

Birds

Some people will also keep flocks with mixed species of birds including chickens, ducks, turkeys, geese, and guinea fowl. While they generally get along okay, there are challenges with making sure they get the appropriate environment and nutrition for their species. Ducks and geese like having water sources to bathe. Most species have slightly different dietary requirements at different life stages. In particular, baby turkeys and ducks have much higher protein requirements than chicks and can develop crooked legs or wings if they are fed chick starter diets.

Pheasants and quail are often aggressive towards chickens when they reach adulthood and it is recommended to keep these birds apart.

Interactions with People

Most chickens will probably be curious about you and your family members that interact with them. 

Ways of forming a bond with them include maintain regular meal times, hand feeding them treats.  Even just spending quality time sitting near them in the garden with a good book can help them become more comfortable with you.

Some people will also train their chickens to do things like navigate obstacle courses, play xylophones by pecking the bars, coming when called, or giving hugs.

Interactions with the Environment

Environmental enrichments include all the objects in their surroundings that they can interact with.  These can be:

Physical Enrichments

This includes things like ladders, perches, swings, ramps, and see-saws that can be made inexpensively with things you may already have laying around the house. Chickens also love to peck through piles of bedding or litter you may already be planning to spread through their coop or run.

Food-based Enrichments

This includes things like dig boxes where you hide treats for them to find, treat balls which have small holes that allow treats to fall out when the chickens roll them around, hanging vegetables for them to peck at, or puzzle-based feeders that require more complex thought to be able to access the treats.

Sensory-based Enrichments

Providing chickens with things like mirrors or CDs that are visually stimulating or things like bells or wind chimes that make noise can keep them entertained. Just make sure the mirrors won’t break if the chickens peck at their reflection and make sure bells or ornaments are something that can’t easily be swallowed. Some people will also leave the radio playing for their birds during the day as background noise.

Whatever enrichments you decide to use, it is important to mix up the items as chickens can easily become bored if they have the same enrichment activities every day.