I don't know about you, but I take my responsibilities as a Claw and Crazy Chicken Lady VERY seriously. This means I am going out of my way to spoil my chickens. I have tons of chicken décor, I am decorating the coop for the seasons...and I am spending some serious time looking at toys (enrichment is the fancy term for this) and items that improve the girls way of life. I don't like wasting money or buying something that my girls will hate or not play with.
Please don't feel that this is a sales pitch in any way. I hate when people only pitch products if they can get a kick back. Full disclosure I am an Omlet affiliate and I joined that program AFTER purchasing several items from this company (You can click my link here, but you don't have to). HOWEVER, I can only speak to the products I have personally purchased. If you want to click on the links it will support me as an affiliate, but if you don't want to here is the link to the website without my info attached Omlet
Things I like about Omlet.
- The cost. Everything is very affordable.
- The shipping is fast.
- The products are quality and created with the animals and owners in mind.
- The products are fun and enriching for your chickens and you!
- These products are available all over the world.
The First Purchase: Auto Door
We went out one night and had to rush home to rock Artemis to sleep and to make sure that Rex made it into the coop. Chicken keeping does have its perks, but it also has its drawbacks as well.
One of those is waking up early to let the birds out and having to leave things at night to put them in the coop. Now in the age of Covid, this hasn't been too much of an issue. However, my family lives quite a distance from my home. We went to visit them and rushed home to put the girls to bed and make sure that the door was shut so no predators entered the coop. It was very stressful.
I told the Bearded Claw that I wanted an automatic door. He rolled his eyes and said yes it would be a good idea. He told me to research and see what I came up with. I showed him several, but they were very expensive and not what HE wanted in an automatic door. Enter the Omlet Auto Door. He wanted it because it looked cool (men...) and was universal.
The Auto Door features:
It's battery operated. You have the choice of a timer, using the light sensor, or manual mode to operate the door. You can delay the closing of the door too. I have girls that straggle and don't go in immediately at night because they need their Claw snuggles. The door also locks and is very secure. The predator proofing on it is amazing. It will also stop and not hurt any chickens if they stand in the doorway as it closes.
Yes, it does look cool. We did take the front panel off to paint it to match our coop. As much as I love Omlet, the Lime Green was not going with the Forest Green that the Bearded Claw spent so much time accenting the coop with.
It was super easy to install and the manual comes in many languages! I believe it only took about an hour tops to install and we had plenty of chicken help.
The Toys...I mean enrichment items
Make sure when purchasing chicken toys that you call them enrichment. One it makes it sound so much better and less crazy to purchase enrichment items for your animals, verses toys. Two if you say enrichment to your Bearded Claw, he's more likely to ignore that you purchased toys for your chickens.
Poppy Peck Toys
My girls love to peck. All chickens love to peck. I've found that giving the Cluckers enrichment activities has helped with some management issues. They have to be supervised when they leave their run. I can't let them just free range due to the nesting hawks nearby.
The Peck toys are a nice size and are easy to fill. The holes in the plastic allow for pellets, worms, scratch, and grubs to pass through freely. I have the hanging peck toy and the ones that look like flowers. They're super cute. The girls prefer the flower ones, so I purchased several more. I like how it keeps the girls busy and not bullying each other. With several toys to choose from, there is an opportunity for all of them to use them. They are also very easy to clean. I honestly thought at first my girls wouldn't be interested, but I was wrong. These are worth it. As you can see from the video below, they love their toys. Please consider Omlet when you are looking for great things for your chickens!
