Magpie checks out the "ball-o-cabbage"
The latest issue of Backyard Chicken (yes, there is such a thing) had an article decrying the availability of toys for pet cats and dogs while nothing has emerged for the burgeoning pet chicken population. While in my mind our girls are less pets than egg producing livestock, Mel and I thought we might give a couple of their suggestions a try.
One idea was a mirror. It so happened that Mel had a cracked one left over from a project that was sitting by our trash waiting to be transported to the dump (Our rural trash service requires everything to be bagged – this was too big). It’s an oval shape about 5′ high by 1.5′ wide. I installed stakes in the ground to hold it upright and stood it on its side in view of our living room. The chickens seemed interested while I was putting it in. But after one look, the novelty wore off. Apparently they were then satisfied in their own appearance or simply decided that the “other chicken” wasn’t worth any more of their time.
The other idea was a vegetable ball. This was a wire metal sphere stuffed with lettuce/treats that hung from above at a level the chickens could easily get at. When we saw a similar hamster sized ball at the pet store we were inspired to give it a shot, but then couldn’t find something large enough to be of serious recreational attention to our chickens. Necessity being the mother of invention, I managed to fashion a means to easily hang a head of cabbage purchased that same day using a corkscrew and some twine. Ta-Da! Instant cabbage-toy. They completely ignored it.
The next day I went out to demonstrate to them how my great new invention was. Part of the issue was likely that we bought purple cabbage, which the chickens had never seen. Part may have been that the head was so tight that they couldn’t see a place to start. So I unpeeled a couple of the outer leaves and tore off some pieces to give them a taste. That seemed to do the trick. This morning they are joyfully (just judging by the gleam in their eyes!) pecking away at it, working on their timing so the swinging doesn’t catch them right on the comb.
But as chicken toys go I think we are 0 for 2. As chicken owner toys go we seem to be batting 1000! At least we know these are toys to be enjoyed even if they just think its food.
