GYO Needs your Top Tips on ..............

[JennieAtkinson]

.................... taming/handling chickens for the May magazine.

As usual good advice and tips will be published in the magazine. So how do YOU tame and handle those little darlings!

[shirlthegirl43]

Always be calm and confident when handling them. If you are a bit timid they will be more flighty. Hold them firmly with their wings held to their body and keep them close to your body and talk gently to them. They love having their comb and wattles massaged

[yoanbob]

leave them in the house for the first two days so they get used to it being there home and the place they go back to, have some marmite on bread ready when they arrive to help destress them (its the b vitamins in the marmite that helps)
try and handle them every day and they will soon get used to being picked up which makes it easier to give them health checks in the long run.

[Farmer_Gyles]

remove from packaging, make sure thoroughly defrosted, rub butter all over the skin, bung it in the oven for an hour and a half at gas mark 6
yummy

[Birdie Wife]

Get them into a routine - morning feed, afternoon treats at about the same time each day, and call them when you are coming with food - "Chook chook chook!" works well, because it sounds like their own way of telling each other there is food about. If you can spare the time, sit with them while they eat, that way they will associate your presence with food and reward. At afternoon treat time, if you have some corn for them, show them some corn in your hand - don't worry if they don't take it at first, persevere and make no sudden movements, and they'll work it out!

If they are very skittish and you need to check for lice etc, do it at night when they are roosting and the bird will be much calmer. Try to avoid a chase around the garden to catch them as this will really stress them out!

When you pick them up, you need to keep the wings under control and keep a firm hold of the legs too. Firm and confident, but not rough, handling is what's needed. If they think they can escape, they will struggle. Support the bird with one hand under the belly and holding the legs between your fingers (with one finger in between so the legs aren't squeezed together) with the other hand on top to hold the wings. I find it easier to hold the bird with the head pointing behind me.

Getting them use to handling is really important, like yoanbob says. Don't just pick them up when you need to check them or they with associate being handled with being poked and pulled about in uncomfortable ways. Massaging their crop (the bit of the gullet halfway down where corn and other things are ground up before passing into the stomach) and their chest is also quite calming. Many hens don't like being stroked in the back because they can't see your hand, but as the hen starts to trust you more this shouldn't be a continued problem.

[Birdie Wife]

remove from packaging, make sure thoroughly defrosted, rub butter all over the skin, bung it in the oven for an hour and a half at gas mark 6
yummy

*snigger* good one Farmer G, your post crossed over mine while I was typing!

[Farmer_Gyles]

i just wanted to get there before that heywayne chap .....

i'd love some real chickens in the garden - but i've got foxes, a bouncy labrador and snooty neighbours ...... i need to move ...!

[kirsty b]

I have a bench in my run, and got the hens used to me by sitting in there with them daily: I talk to them, give them little treats, stroke them gently, they seem to like it and I certainly do! It took a week or so, but they are so tame now, they will hop on to my lap.

[Birdie Wife]

Forgot to say also to be patient - hens all have different personalities and some are tamer than others - don't be discouraged if your hen is still shy after weeks of effort, keep at it and she'll come to trust you eventually!

[yoanbob]

Definatly birdie wife persistance is key

[Sue]

Hi
Food is def the key, but be careful when you carry anything nice into their run, they can do a mean impression of a pogo stick and will snatch any bag out of your hand quick as lightening.
Sitting down with them is good too, and they soon come and sit on your knee, shoulder etc. But be wary of them pecking at your face, earrings and teeth (! can be particularly attractive)
I pick them up now and then so I can look them over and they can get used to it in case of any emergency dash to the vet. I keep the carry case in the run so if needed it would smell familiar to them. I leave the door of the case off so they pootle in and out and sit on the top so if I have to use it hope it will make things easier.

It's fun to play with them as well, they love a tug of war with my latex gloves after I've finished scrubbing out the henhouse - have to supervise this but they don't want to eat them, just love stretching them. I drape spaghetti over a tree branch in their run so they can mess about with that and in the afternoon they get a big tub full of cut grass with dried worms in it which they adore.
So the more you interact with them, the more used to you they are and more comfortable and easier to control. Have fun with your chickens!
Sue

[Akela Ben]

I can only reitorate what the others have said. The best advice I have found to give from my experience is to talk to your chickens. It might seem mad, but chickens are social animals and like to interact with each other and their owners.

[bluemoon]

A chap I've got to know recently since I've been planning to buy some hens says that his first ever hen would undo his shoe laces whenever he went into the run, she must have thought they were worms. The behaviour has spread and every chook he has owned since uses the ploy to keep him in the run if he doesn't turn up with treats. This tells me two things; a, always wear slip-ons if I want to remain calm near my birds and b, hens are far more intelligent than I'd have given them credit for. (perhaps there's a c, forget the idea about buying my hens from him )

[hedgie]

I have a bench in my run, and got the hens used to me by sitting in there with them daily: I talk to them, give them little treats, stroke them gently, they seem to like it and I certainly do! It took a week or so, but they are so tame now, they will hop on to my lap.

Hi Kirsty How do you stop the chooks poo-ing all over the bench you sit on?!
I put in a plastic crate for me to sit on - no chance unless I hose it down first!! They sit and s*it on everything I put in

[TPeers]

If I want to get in the run I'd have to crawl, the door is only 2' high! (the run is approx 2'8" high)

Taming/handling.... personally I start by just leaning on the railing around the run and chatting to the girls, get them used to me giving them their food and then the part that is taking forever - get all of them to eat from my hand and accept strokes.

Once you are at that stage - and only two of my five are there - your problems are over. As they accept that you are the food source they will also accept you as boss hen then when you aproach them they crouch down and stamp the ground as if you were a cockrel (large and in charge!) so it is easy to pick them up, examine them or just pet them.