The Peterson's New Chicken Play Yard

It all started when I saw a Rural King ad for a chicken play yard.  I had never heard of such a thing until I saw the ad.  It then took some convincing but I talked Mike into buying it for our chickens.  The only problem was that Rural King never had it at the store.  I went twice but it was always on back order. 

As it happened I was explaining all of this to Heath one day, just in general conversation, when he volunteered to make me one.  I was not my intent to convince him to make me one but that ended up being the result of our conversation which worked out very well for me.  Heath took scrap lumber Mike had laying around, did some research, borrowed Mike's workshop and tools from Frank's garage, and built us a chicken play stand. 

So, naturally, as soon as the chickens had access to this wonderful structure, they all moved away from it.  Mike put their favorite snack, cracked corn, on the top platforms to encourage them to come check it out.  That was enough to have them come back to the pen but not enough to get them to climb on it.  

So then, Mike actually picked up a bird and placed her on the top platform.  She pretty much just wanted to come down.  

So we moved to plan B.  We would give them a day to get used to the presence of the structure in their pen.  

On day two, Mike and I watched but we did not see any chicken on the structure.  Mike even took out some fresh cut vegetables and day old bread as additional enticement.  He placed these items on the platforms with the ends of them visible over the sides.  Several of the chickens began jumping to knock the items down to the ground.  I suppose this is an example of good problem solving on their part and could be called good mental stimulation for them but it was not quite the use of the structure that I had intended.  

Finally, our two white chickens climbed the structure and went after the vegetables and bread.  Now Mike is afraid they are going to get fat as none of the other chickens followed their lead.  So....

stay tuned to this blog to find out if the other chickens ever climb the play structure and if any of them ever use the ladders.