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How to Keep Your Chickens Healthy in Winter

When the days are short, the ground is frozen, and foraging is scarce, it’s easy for your backyard chickens to get lazy or fat (or both!).

Keep them healthy with fun and simple boredom busters, nutritious snacks, and a safe way to move around the yard so your chickens stay active and fit all winter long.

Supplement your chickens’ diet with store-bought greens.

Fresh greens in the garden are usually hard to come by in the winter, so you should supplement your chickens’ diet with store-bought salads.

Hang a green piñata in the chicken run.

Turn feeding time into a little game for chickens who might be cooped up and restless when it’s grim outside.

Let grains and seeds sprout naturally in the run.

Instead of cleaning up the mess, let Mother Nature do the work: A few days after a rain, all those grains and seeds will sprout themselves—and voilà, instant pasture!

If your chickens don’t have access to pasture, up their protein intake by buying a bale of alfalfa for them to scratch.

Alfalfa is your friend.

Release your chickens right after a rain, as all the moisture in the ground brings out a buffet of protein-filled worms, grubs, and other delectable bugs that they love to scratch, peck, and devour.

Bring on the bugs.

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