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Let me begin by saying that I keep chickens. I’ve kept chickens for 10+ years. And in those 10 years of cleaning and re-bedding their coop, filling their hopper with grain, putting a warmer below their water during winter months, cleaning up their sometimes nasty nesting boxes, and frequently chasing them from my garden, I have never once looked upon them as pets. Oh I might affectionately refer to them as Scramble, Poach, or Benedict but I’m pretty clear about their role:
They are livestock. Providers of eggs.
They are creatures that I tend to, not cater to.  
But according to the folks at Happy Hen Treats, I’m going about this all wrong.
I should be interacting with my chickens. I should be demonstrating my love and affection for them daily with “special treat(s) made just for them.”

 

Happy Hen’s lead product is Mealworm Frenzy (mmmm, tempting isn’t it?). The package promises an average of 3,250 mealworms per bag. Plus, you can “feed straight from your hand”! (To think I’ve been missing out!) And if handling 3,250 mealworms simply isn’t enough for you, Frenzy comes in a convenient tub that holds approximately 10,000 mealworms (double mmmmmm…).
And what if handfeeding your chickens mealworms isn’t pampering enough for you?

Well there’s the Happy Hen Treat Ball.
 


Designed to be filled with cabbage or other leafy greens, the Treat Ball “reduces boredom” and provides nutrition for your chicken.  (Other amusing feature notes: “complete with buffet bell”, “colors may vary”)
Call me heartless, but I think my chickens are just fine eating the organic grain I haul down to the barn for them and munching on whatever other goodies they find on their own in the lawn. And as for reducing boredom, a couple of times a year they engage in a good game of “run for your bloody feathered life” from a fox , a Cooper’s Hawk, or a weasel.  
Trust me, the birds that make it through that evolutionary test are the Happiest Hens of all.
FUN CHICKEN FACTS:
- raw potatoes can be fatal to chickens (I was going to phrase that “when ingested by chickens” but realized a well-thrown raw potato would probably prove fatal too.)
- if a hen eats tomatoes, it puts her off laying for a few days
- Araucana chickens (the ones that lay blue-green eggs) also have blue-green skin
- If a chicken gets spooked mid-lay she’ll sometimes pop out an egg with a surrounding membrane but no hard shell.  These are very fun to play with.

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