Wheel...Of...FOOD!

So...what can you make with an old bicycle wheel, some chain, threaded rods and assorted hardware?

Why, a chicken consternation producer, of course!  Just add food!

Thanks to a swivel at the top of the chain, the Wheel of Food spins freely, the treats also spin on their rods when pecked.

...then hang the Wheel Of Food at chicken level from a sawhorse in the chicken yard.  After that, just stand back.

Bloop supervised it's installation.

Although to Zip goes the credit for being brave and approaching the thing while a bunch of the others milled about at CMSD--Chicken Minimum Safe Distance.

But Zip took her time studying the Weird New Thing. It has yet to win chicken-y approval.

Criminy, it's like she's studying the thing for her doctoral thesis.  At this point we sprinkled chicken food beneath the Wheel of Food to tempt them in.

Eventually (think a couple of hours) most of the rest of the flock unhinged themselves enough to go ahead and peck at the food, although there was no shortage of staring.

The rest of the afternoon we were rewarded with the occassional 'Twang!' over Chickam as the food disappeared.  I'm thinking as they get more used to it the Wheel of Food will be accepted more quickly and *maybe* the old ladies will join in instead of sitting huffily in the coop.

Now to figure out how to make the treats bob up and down ala a merry-go-round... 
...and maybe make a clown-horn 'Honk-a!' sound with each peck.

Y'know, nothing too extravagant.