How The Chicken Spinner Was Hatched

With challenges in keeping and maintaining a small backyard flock, space is often an issue and finding ways to limit boredom can be one of the biggest challenges. Without constant activity and positive social interaction, poor behaviors can develop, which may result in feather plucking and/or aggression. Unfortunately, most of us do not have space to free-range our birds in open pasture or woodland scrub or even within the confines of our own garden that would allow them to forage for tasty morsels. Instead, they are often confined to an area that offers little distraction and behavioral enrichment.

Creating access to areas of your yard and garden such as a compost area or flower bed can be a great boredom buster. There are a number of websites that will show you some creative ways to allow your birds to travel the areas of your garden to explore and dine on any unsuspecting grub or seed that they may find.

For my small flock of six birds, I went in a slightly different direction. I built an inside/outside coop that I thought would be more than adequate to meet their social and behavioral needs. Placing a variety of rotting logs for them to explore along with several upright branches for perching and a sand substrate floor for them to dig in, I thought was a great habitat. However, after a few days, they had pecked at, sat on, or dug into everything, which left these girls looking for something more.

Apparently, I needed to create another area that would allow these birds to show those behaviors that were now very limited. So after a couple of weeks, a new 16’x16’x7’ foot high covered pen had been constructed. This prime piece of real-estate filled with grass was all that I had hoped. The girls visited every day and like little excavators within weeks had created the perfect moonscape. I realized that any space offered must be space managed.

 I found myself watching these chickens visit the same place where they had been fed that morning, time and time again looking for any food item that may have been missed. It was then that my animal behavioral enrichment background paid off. Creating any activity that allows that animal to demonstrate any natural type behavior is behavioral enrichment and with that the “Chicken Spinner” was hatched.

If we use the definition from Wikipedia:

“Behavioral enrichment (closely related to environmental enrichment) is an animal husbandry principle that seeks to enhance the quality of captive animal care by identifying and providing the environmental stimuli necessary for optimal psychological and physiological well-being. The goal of environmental enrichment is to improve or maintain an animal’s physical and psychological health by increasing the range or number of species-specific behaviors, increasing positive utilization of the captive environment, preventing or reducing the frequency of abnormal behaviors such as stereotypes, and increasing the individual’s ability to cope with the challenges of captivity.”

Therefore, logic dictated that any group or types of activity not only needed to strengthen individual status within the flock, but it also reinforced the social structure. So my design needed to parallel these basic flock behaviors. I decided to focus on feeding behavior since chickens eat throughout the day. After looking at the different type/styles of feeders on the market, I also looked at the various chicken websites to see what the backyard chicken community had tried.

My design needed to be functional, safe, and easily cleaned. Without these components, it would not become a regularly used item but rather a novelty used once in a while. Focusing on treat items that supported the overall health was very important and so offering seasonal fruits and vegetables was a good place to start. The feeder needed to accommodate a variety of these items to make it a value.

Early designs and prototypes appeared that I was on the right track. My small flock of six birds became the test chickens and the “Chicken Spinner” became a unique feeding method that far surpassed all expectations. Seeing how these girls interacted with the “Chicken Spinner” generated the development of the “Chicken Slider” that could accommodate leafy plant material such as greens, corn, and rooted plants from the garden.

As with any feeder, care must be taken when skewing the fruit or veg. Keep your body and hands away from the pointy end of the rod, while applying the appropriate force/rotation to skewer the food item.

With these two methods, you can now offer a variety of home grown and store bought fruits and vegetables that up until now had been broadcast on the ground or placed into a wire basket. If you free range your birds all year round this feeder may not be worthwhile as you are already meeting and allowing for natural feeding behaviors. This feeder was designed for the small flock when free ranging is not a year round activity.

I hope your experiences with the “Chicken Spinner” and “Chicken Slider” parallel or even exceed mine and you enjoy your birds engaging in this activity.