My Two Hens!

TechnoChicken33

Hatching
Jul 18, 2015
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I have two Leghorn hens in a medium coop. They are doing quite well at the moment. I am wondering if there is a way to "train" or "tame" the hens so I could hold them and stroke their necks. They are about 4 months of age. I have been reading up on training chickens, and I found a book with a section on training. It said that Leghorns are difficult to train, but it can be done, with time and patience. Time and patience are two things I have. Being a first time chicken farmer, I don't really know anything.

If someone could tell me how to train them that would be GREAT!

Thanks!




My Hens; Left, Janean Right, Heather
 
It can be done. When I was in my early teens I had a pet white leghorn hen named Henrietta. Not only would she travel around on my shoulder, she would also perch on my fore arm like a parrot and ride on the handlebars of my bicycle. She was a big girl and as gentle as a lamb.

My advice is have a treat in hand whenever you go in their pen so they look forward to seeing you and handle them daily.

You have 2 beautiful young ladies there.
 
Leghorns like any other breed, are definitely trainable if you treat them like pets since they are chicks.

Our Leghorns would fly onto our arms to eat treats out of our hands. If we keep our arm outstretched and spin around, the chickens will still be able to balance on the arm for the "ride", sometimes 2 chickens at a time. All of them know how to jump up to eat the treats held between our fingers. When we walk up the them, they would stop and squat, spread their wings and let us pat them like puppies. They are so tame that we can just pick them up, put them on our laps, or carry them around like pets to play with them. If we shake the treat jar, the would come running, so we do these chicken exercise running back and forth with them in the yard. In the evening, if they are outside, they would walk up to our back porch to say good night first before going back to their coop. If we give them a bath, they would like lay on their backs enjoying a warm blow out session. My son tried to walk a chicken with a leash, but she never goes straight, it was pretty comical to watch.

Leghorns have this flighty reputation, but we don't have any other breed to compare them with. As far as we are concern, they made pretty nice "pets with benefits".

At a few months old, already used to the human touch.

Sitting on the shoulder to get a better view around the house.

A few days old lap chickens.

Flying up the the arms for treats.

Walking a chicken around the suburban neighborhood is not exactly a normal thing to do.
After a nice bath, enjoying a blow out (looks like a road kill but she is alive).

Napping on the lap.

Warming up indoor during winter.
 
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