Chickens are highly social animals who thrive best in flocks. As a chicken owner, the last thing you want is for your chicken to feel lonely and bored. Naturally, you want your single chicken to be happy even though they are not in a flock.
Ideally you will want to add more hens to keep your chicken happy. If you can’t get a extra hen or two too keep your single chicken happy in the short term you can try some of these tips.
You can keep a single chicken happy by allowing them inside your house, letting them interact with you and other human beings. Additionally, you can hang some fruit for your chicken to peck at or provide some toys to keep your chicken entertained throughout the day.
Due to chicken’s social nature, a single chicken will likely experience loneliness and boredom. As a chicken owner, you’ll do everything in your power to cheer them up. Fortunately, there are multiple ways to keep a single chicken happy.
Tips on how to keep a single chicken happy
Here are a few resourceful ideas you can implement to keep a single chicken happy.
Provide your chicken with high-quality food
Providing your chicken with high-quality food and fresh water is essential in keeping your chicken healthy and productive. Chickens enjoy commercial chicken pellets and scratch feed.
You can also enhance your chicken’s diet with fresh fruit and vegetables and allow them to forage for wild insects or plants. Ensuring your chicken has a good diet will go a long way in ensuring they are happy and healthy.
Create a shallow pool
Chickens enjoy standing in pools of water and wetting their feet in hot weather. You can create a little swimming pool using a container or shallow dish, so your chicken has a spot to relax on hot summer days.
Unless you are confident that your chicken can swim, it’s best to be cautious and only fill the dish with sufficient water for your chicken to sit in without drowning.
Install a swinging perch
Installing a swinging perch in your garden or inside your chicken’s coop is a great way to keep your chicken active and amused. You can easily create a simple swing to hang from the coop’s ceiling using a branch and some rope at either end of the branch.
Opportunities to peck
Chickens enjoy pecking food out of holes. A fulfilling activity for your chicken may be to peck food out of a log. Simply drill holes in the log, fill it with boiled rice, peanut butter, or mealworms, and allow your chicken to peck at it for hours of food and fun.
Decorate the chicken coop or chicken run
Chickens love shiny things. Hanging wind chimes in the chicken coop or chicken run is a wonderful way to entertain your chicken with music while also providing them with entertaining light movement.
Additionally, you can hang up old CDs or DVDs as these provide entertaining light movement for your chickens while also providing protection against hawks who fly away in fear, deterred by the light movement.
Give your chicken newspapers
While chickens are intelligent, they, unfortunately, don’t seem to have evolved to the stage of reading newspapers. However, they do enjoy having to sift through pieces of newspaper if you layer some seeds in between the newspaper.
Hang a mirror in the coop
Hang a child-safe mirror in the coop. Hanging a mirror in the coop will keep your chicken intrigued for hours as they watch themselves and try to comprehend their reflection.
Repurpose food
Chickens love food and are highly motivated by food. You can hang some lettuce leaves or a peanut butter snack from some twine in the coop for your chicken to jump to reach. This way, you are ensuring your chicken remains active while getting in a healthy snack.
Toys
Your chicken is likely to be highly entertained by most pet or kid’s toys, especially those that make sounds or emit light. When purchasing a toy for your chicken, ensure that your chicken will be able to peck on the toy without consuming anything harmful and that there are no choking hazards for your chicken.
Create a comfortable chicken coop
If your chicken is not spending time with you indoors, your chicken is most likely spending its days inside their chicken coop. As humans, we understand how important it is for our homes to be comfortable because it’s where we spend a lot of our free time, and we want it to be a relaxing and entertaining environment.
Your chicken’s coop is their version of a home. For this reason, it’s essential to keep the coop as clean, stimulating, and relaxing as possible in order to keep your single chicken happy.
Here are some insightful tips to consider when creating a comfortable coop for your single chicken.
Space allocation
The general rule is that your coop should be 4-5 square feet per bird. However, since you only have one chicken, try to make your chicken’s coop as spacious as possible, so they have lots of space to roam and a good roost to perch on.
Ventilation of the chicken coop
It is essential that your chicken coop has windows as your chicken will need proper ventilation. Proper ventilation is crucial to chicken health as they are susceptible to respiratory diseases, making it vital to have fresh air passing through their coop.
All the chicken coop windows should be covered with a small galvanized mesh wire to prevent predators from intruding while allowing proper ventilation through all the seasons.
Sleeping on a perch
Chickens enjoy sleeping off the ground on a 1-3 inch wooden perch as this allows the chicken to comfortably wrap their food around the wood and grip it with their toes.
Chicken feed and watering station
Ensure that your chicken’s feed and watering station are off the ground in order to prevent your chicken from standing in or defecating in their source of food and water.
An ideal preventative measure to ensure your chicken does not stand in or defecate in their food and water source is to have the watering station and chicken feed hanging from the ceiling.
It’s important to ensure that the chicken feed and watering station are not in the vicinity of where your chicken sleeps on their perch in order to prevent having the feed and watering station full of poop.
Insulation and heaters
It is essential that your chicken coop is set up to withstand the cold weather in order to keep your chicken happy and comfortable. If your climate requires insulation, consider insulating the floor, the roof, and the main door of your chicken’s coop to ensure your chicken is cozy in the winter months.
Your chicken may also enjoy spending time inside with you during colder weather. If your chicken spends time indoors on cold days, be sure to protect your chicken from any fire hazards or choking hazards while indoors.
Attach a chicken run to the coop
Chickens are intelligent birds who require stimulation. Ensuring your chicken is able to entertain themselves when you are not around is a crucial point in ensuring your single chicken is happy.
Consider adding a chicken run to the coop, so your chicken has space to roam freely. Attaching a chicken run to the coop will give your chicken access to fresh soil and grass to scratch at.
A chicken run is also a great way to ensure your chicken can spend some time in the sunlight and get fresh air while being safe from predators.
If your chicken is not allowed to free-range, it’s important that you position the coop in the shade so that your chicken is not stuck in the sun on a hot summer day. Additionally, you can attach a shade cloth to the mesh of your chicken run to provide extra shade for your chicken.
It’s important to note that unless your coop is adequately heated and insulated, the coop should only be used during the warmer months because the colder climate is likely too cold for your chicken. Your chicken should be housed in warmer accommodation during winter and on cold, rainy days.
Conclusion
While your chicken would probably enjoy having a companion keep them company, there are numerous other ways to keep your single chicken happy.
The most significant thing you can do to ensure your chicken is happy is to ensure that they have a comfortable living environment, space to roam, and adequate toys to stimulate their sharp minds.