Making new year resolutions for your flock

Paul Donovan kicks off 2026 with a wish list that provides positive experiences for your poultry

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Most of us make New Year’s Resolutions, although if you are anything like me, a couple of weeks into the New Year, and the resolutions have all but been forgotten. But I thought it would be interesting to try and make a few resolutions for the good of our hens.

ENVIRONMENTAL ENRICHMENT

At the top of my list, would be to enrich the hens life, by stimulating natural behaviours. And one way we can do that, is environmental enrichment; it is a subject I have covered some years ago Practical Poultry before it was amalgamated into The Country Smallholder. Environmental enrichment is, as its name implies, simply enriching the environment the hens are living in, by creating things for them to do. Chickens are intelligent birds, and can quickly become bored if they are not stimulated, and this boredom can sometimes be vented towards other house mates in unsavoury behaviours such as feather pecking, or bullying.

One of the easiest areas we can start with, is feeding. While we may provide food in a feeder, this makes the birds lazy, because they know there is food there, and where it is. We can stimulate foraging, an important natural behaviour, by removing the feeders one or two days a week, and throwing handfuls of food on the floor. This is a worthwhile activity to expose young birds to, as it reinforces eye/beak coordination.

To make things a bit more stimulating for the hens, mix food in with handfuls of hay or straw, as it will make them work even harder to find it. Not only does this foster foraging, but keeps the birds healthy as they can't gorge on food, and diverts their attention away from picking on one another. Alternatively, give them a cabbage to peck/play with, or suspend some food in a net from the ceiling. The latter is a great way of reinforcing eye-beak coordination.