Topic of the Week - Raising People Friendly Poultry

The-White-Elephant said:

I wish I could have let her when she was that small! How small was she?

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She was 3 ounces when i got her. She is full grown and is still 3.7 ounces. Lol she is a Sebright they stay small. I’m my opinion smaller then a serama.

sumi said:

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Pic by @Mountain Peeps ​

For many of us, our birds are pets and for some, they are used for showing purposes, both mean raising people-friendly, tame birds are important, but what is the best way(s) to go about that? This week I'd like to hear your thoughts and practices when it comes to raising people-friendly, tame birds. Some questions:

- How best to raise chicks to keep them tame and comfortable around humans and what about broody raised chicks?
- How do you tame an adult bird?
- What about cockbirds? How do you establish the human vs cockbird "pecking order"?


For a complete list of our Topic of the Week threads, see here: https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/topic-of-the-week-thread-archive

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We got our chickens as day old chicks and interacted with them daily, holding and cuddling them. We have handled them daily since we got them. They are sweet loving pets. I made a video to show our journey .

I just go out and talk to them, pick them up, ruffle their feathers, tell them they are pretty, the kind of stuff all ladies universally love to hear!
Food is a good motivator too, Ill bring out a hand of treats when I am picking them up, petting them. They are not lap birds so to say but you can snatch em up and hold them and pet them a bit and they'll stay fairly still. While food will get them to you, the handling and daily interaction is the key to having them accept you and tolerate you

Oh and when they do the run and squat, if you reach down, scritchy scratch their backs and pull on their tails a bit, they LOVE it and tend to want to follow you around a bit more it seems. yes I know what this is and well, it works.

The only real problem is, when I am loving up on the girls, I MUST do it out of sight of the back door, because if the indoor one sees it, oh lord, Houston, we have a problem.....


Aaron

All of my chickens are hand-raised. When I let one of my hens brood, I spend a lot of time around her and the chicks. I like to keep my broody hens away from the flock (I have a special enclosure for that) until the chicks are ready to join. It’s a bit time-consuming (but worth it) introducing the two groups prior to allowing them to fully interact. Those who don’t fully integrate (for any of a number of reasons) go into my 2nd henhouse. As far as any roosters I raise, 9 out of 10 times, I have raised sweet and calm roosters. But, the 1 out of 10 that’s a little nightmare gets separated into the rooster enclosure. I successfully house 4 roosters together. I’m not one for culling. I know many chicken keepers do, but I am always willing to give all flock members a good chance to live out their lives.

WoDia said:

All of my chickens are hand-raised. When I let one of my hens brood, I spend a lot of time around her and the chicks. I like to keep my broody hens away from the flock (I have a special enclosure for that) until the chicks are ready to join. It’s a bit time-consuming (but worth it) introducing the two groups prior to allowing them to fully interact. Those who don’t fully integrate (for any of a number of reasons) go into my 2nd henhouse. As far as any roosters I raise, 9 out of 10 times, I have raised sweet and calm roosters. But, the 1 out of 10 that’s a little nightmare gets separated into the rooster enclosure. I successfully house 4 roosters together. I’m not one for culling. I know many chicken keepers do, but I am always willing to give all flock members a good chance to live out their lives.

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Truly devoted chicken parent! We are in the city and bylaw only allowed 4 chickens I would love to have what you have with roosters and chicks and lots of room for all of them. I hope you know how lucky you are. I’m envious lol Enjoy lol

Limits on numbers does kind of stink but that does not put a limit on the love you can give the few you have

Aaron

Ascholten said:

Limits on numbers does kind of stink but that does not put a limit on the love you can give the few you have

Aaron

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Very True!

Dlepage said:

Truly devoted chicken parent! We are in the city and bylaw only allowed 4 chickens I would love to have what you have with roosters and chicks and lots of room for all of them. I hope you know how lucky you are. I’m envious lol Enjoy lol

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Thank you so much! I’m glad to hear, that even in the city, you can STILL have chickens…. that’s awesome. I couldn’t be a city girl, because there’s just no room for all of mine! Neighbors would NOT be thrilled! Wide open space is a requirement for me . Good Wishes to you and your city girls !!!!

I have a friend who has 2 chickens. She takes them with her all over the place, they are VERY tame. I mean she goes into the TSC and they sit on the handle of the shopping cart and go shopping with her tame! People come up and pet them and they just love the attention. Not sure what breeds but they are smaller chickens. She has a dog kind of cage she puts them in the car when the travels with them, she opens it and says ok up up, and they hop up into the crate, she closes it, and when it's out time she sticks her hand in, it hops on and she pulls it out to put on a shoulder / grocery cart, wherever. She says the only noise they really make is in the morning, they'll cackle softly to let her know it's feeding time, or if something frightens them they'll make a bit of a fuss but otherwise are very quiet.

so, where there is a will, there is a way, one CAN find chickens that DO adapt to whatever circumstances you have.

Just because you may be stuck in a condo, an apt, or whatnot, do a little research, and don't count yourself totally out of the game yet.
aaron

WoDia said:

Thank you so much! I’m glad to hear, that even in the city, you can STILL have chickens…. that’s awesome. I couldn’t be a city girl, because there’s just no room for all of mine! Neighbors would NOT be thrilled! Wide open space is a requirement for me . Good Wishes to you and your city girls !!!!

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Yes once you live in the country there’s no going back to city life. I like to think of my yard as my little bit of country lol. I’m re landscaping the yard this spring. Last summer was our first year with our chickens and it start out great….by fall there was nothing left of my beautiful gardens but roots and dirt lol. Need to make it chicken friendly this spring and still have flowers lol. Attached some before and after pictures of my missing grass and flowers