In a land far, far away there are ponies who ride bicycles, cats who carry briefcases and chickens that play on swings.
Again. I kindda feel it's necessary to reiterate ... that land is far FAR away. Like, super-far. End of a black hole far.
Some time around Christmas a reader told me she'd like to send me a present. Well, not me actually, my chickens. She'd seen a Chicken Swing for sale and was dying to know if chickens were really swingers.
Well according to the website for The Chicken Swing, they are indeed the swingiest of the swingers. Swaying to and fro on their chicken swing. Here's their video proof.
The swing isn't only for the chicken owner's amusement, chickens get bored, especially in the winter and they like to have things to do. That's partly why they scratch around in the dirt so much. It's entertainment for them. The chicken swing is supposed to help combat coop boredom.
According to the manufacturer it's easiest to teach a young chicken new tricks so I started with the youngest chickens I have and worked my way up to the older ones.
This was going to be very easy because I follow instructions well and I'm very smart and I have a blog that shows people how to do stuff. So. Easy.
This is how it went for me.
Walk over to the swing with the tiny chicken and ...
... gently place the chicken on the swing while holding the swing steady.
Watch as chicken immediately jumps away and off of the swing without so much as the stink eye.
The little ones might just be a bit scatter brained so I head over to Sweetie. My 2 ½ month old hen who is terrified of air, let alone a swinging, swaying artificial cob of corn.
Sweetie jumped away so fast there isn't even photographic evidence of it. Ditto for Cheez Whiz and Josephine.
That left Mabel who is pretty chill. The second I got near the swing with her, Mabel started back peddling into my underarm. I calmed her down, talked to her soothingly then slowlyyyyy moved her in the general vicinity of the swing.
At which point she flailed like a banshee, scrambled up my legs and ran under a tree.
So that's how that went.
Here it is in video.
I kindda knew this is how it was going to play out. A chicken isn't likely to just jump up on a swing and start whipping back and forth any more than a cat is liable to pick up a briefcase and walk out the door. So I went to the website, read all their tips on how to get a chicken to use the swing AND looked up the Chicken Swing reviews on Amazon. It turns out the swing gets GREAT reviews and you just have to be patient. Even then all your chickens might not use it but the adventurous ones seem to and they apparently genuinely like it.
I figured when I first saw chickens swinging that they only swung back and forth like lunatics because they were too afraid to jump off. Again, according to the Amazon reviews this doesn't seem to be the case. Chickens are swingers. Willingly.
I'm going to leave the swing in the coop and go through allll the steps outlined on the Fowl Play website very slowly to get the chickens used to it.
I will let you know when my chickens are officially swingers. Since they don't drive, I'm not sure how we're going to have the key party, but we'll figure it out.
Click here if you wanna buy The Chicken Swing!
Karen!
What is the light brown screened box behind your left shoulder?
I couldn't tell.
Btw, you look great all tan and stuff!
Hi Lynn, that's my compost bin! :) ~ karen!
The swing looks slippery. My chickens use a 1" X 1" wood piece 18" wide only a few inches from the ground and they went to it rather quickly. It seems they stink eye anything new in their coop and grounds from new chickens to furniture but they adapt well. I bribe them with corn muffins, organic of course. It's their " calgon take me away" moment.
Our chickens LOVE their swing. It's one we made at home using a board that's essentially a piece of shelving. It's about two feet off the ground and hangs from chain.
We routinely look outside to see two or three chickens on it at one time.
We never taught them to use it; chickens like to fly up onto things, so the swing made perfect sense to us. We also have a wooden ladder secured against the shed that they fly up on and perch.
Since out chicken love their swing so mug, we're making another one. Who knew!?
What about starting off with it on the ground? Just leave it where they can jump on it, and after a few weeks then raise it a bit, and then a bit higher? Might work...maybe.
Problem solved. The young chickens caught on fairly quickly and love it! I suspect they'll always love it. :) ~ karen!
Hello Karen,
I made a swing for my chickens. I did the same thing with each of them. I placed them on the swing and gently held them there and slowly let them go. They all jumped off and wanted nothing to do with swinging. So, I tried again, I'm not one to give up easily. The chicken launched herself off the swing, which came back and hit me squarely in the shins. Needless to say, the chickens aren't swinging and I don't care.
Thanks!!! Was the dust for the chickens or their house? Love your blog... Inspiring!
Both Mary. :) ~ karen!
Love the chicken swing- what did you hang it from? Also, have you ever had to deal with mites......
Hi Mary. You can see how I hung the swing here ... https://www.theartofdoingstuff.com/how-to-hang-anything-on-brick/. I have had a mite infestation once and had to get hard core mite dust to get rid of it. It's powerful and I had to sign a waiver when I bought it from my local feed store. I also cleaned out, washed and bleached the entire coop. It was all a lot of work but it got rid of the mites. ~ karen!
Maybe you need to hypnotise them first? Now that really does work. It's a fascinating experiment in animal behaviour. https://heidiruckriegel.wordpress.com/2016/03/21/heidis-diy-chicken-hypnosis/
I've never done it with my chickens because I'm afraid they're still because their organs are being crushed, lol. I'm going to have to try it tomorrow though. ;) I guess they're playing dead, no? ~ karen!
That seems to be one theory - that it's fear-induced 'tonic immobility'. I have seen my hens hide under a bush, motionless, when a hawk flew overhead. But they seem quite flustered when they come out, making a hell of a racket and getting together for a big discussion of the big scary thing. They don't seem to be at all bothered by being 'hypnotised' and wander off as if nothing's happened. It really is weird. You can also do it by drawing a line on the ground and lying them down with their beak on the line. I suspect it has something to do with the two halves of their little brain getting confused. We need a chicken analyst for this, haha!
Karen, maybe there's a problem with my computer, but your video isn't showing up (at all- it just shows a larger than normal white space between the paragraphs). Can you check to see if everything is ok with it on your end? I'd love to see it :)
Hey Kate! Everything is good on this end. As always, if there's a problem with something loading try to "clear your cache" It's also called emptying your cache. If that doesn't work let me know and I'll look into it more. thx. ~ karen!
Jump, jive 'n' wail! One of the all time great tunes. I loved it when you tried to steady the swing between your knees while doing twenty other things at the same time. Very talented. And btw, you only gots one pair o' Crocs? I have red, navy and marigold . . . they make the best muckn' about in the yard shoes ever. And they actually give decent protection too. And a further btw, had me some salted caramel Foundry icecream recently. That falls into the omg category!
Oh my gosh I needed that laugh today. I've been thinking about making a chicken swing... maybe if it's made with a small branch and some rope?
I think the best part (for me) was when you used your knees to hold the swing. Total "I need two more hands" trick, that was great!!
Good luck with your swing. I have to agree with some of the other comments that a plain old branch would probably work as well (or better) and be pretty close to free. I'll be waiting for an update.
Smiles, marli