The ‘Chicken Orb” is a sphere made of metallic wire that allows chickens to move around and forage freely while preventing them from jumping onto flower beds and other places they’re not supposed to go into.

The Chicken Orb has been around for at least a couple of years, but it only recently started getting attention after photos and videos of it in action started going viral online. It all started from the misconception that the metallic wire orb was actually a sort of chicken armor designed to provide protection from predators while still allowing the domestic bird the freedom to forage and move around in peace. That got the debate going among chicken owners, many of whom criticized the device as useless, as it only acted as “to-go food packaging” for birds of prey, and did nothing to stop cunning predators like foxes or ferrets.

“This is a terrible idea. Would most likely cause a chicken a lot of panic,” one Reddit user wrote.

“It’s like a to-go box for coyotes and bears. Please don’t use them,” someone else commented.

Of course, the Chicken Orb was never designed as a piece of animal armor. If you check the manufacturer’s FAQ page, they clearly state that it is meant to stop chickens from jumping onto flower beds or other spaces they’re not meant to, while allowing them to move around and forage. However, this didn’t automatically remove the controversy from the equation.

There were still a lot of people who criticized the invention as dangerous for the birds, as it put them at risk of breaking their legs, or even their necks if they were to roll onto uneven surfaces.

“Looks like unnecessary torture for the sake of your entertainment,” one person said.

“This seems cruel and dangerous. If this was a successful item seems there would be many videos of chicken orbs. I can only find a few from the manufacturer,” someone else chimed in.

 

It’s unclear how popular the Chicken Orb is with chicken owners, but it’s definitely been getting a lot of free publicity as of late.