Cabbage tether ball.

As promised, I thought I'd share about the wonderful world of chicken leisure activities.

 The ladies get bored from time to time just scratching the dirt and straw all over our yard, so it's important to provide outlets of entertainment, lest they remember that they make tasty snacks. 

I've compiled a step-by-step guide to making a cabbage tether ball, that the chickens gleefully volley back and forth in the run, catching small mouthfuls with each peck.

Step 1: Get a medium head of cabbage (green or purple*), and slice it in half.

*purple cabbage, used with varying success to dye Easter eggs, imparts a blue pigment to various types of matter.

Step 2: Use a chopstick or other pointed object to pierce a hole in the cabbage. Alternately, Mr. Baker likes to drill though a whole cabbage using a long drill bit.

Step 3: You'll want to feed a string through the cabbage in order to tie it up. Shove a straw through the hole and create a passage through which you'll feed the string.

Remove the straw while keeping the string fed through, and tie the string around the cabbage, knotting the ends together.

Step 4: Tie the cabbage up to the top of the chicken run, and get ready for hours of chicken amusement.

Several hours later you'll find nothing more than a cabbage nub. Coming soon, Mr. Baker has video footage of the buffoonery. Stay tuned.