HELP ME!

i just got three hens that are about 3 months old, every time i come into the run they run away from me, usually into the coop. if my coop was big enough i would follow them in there and just sit with them, but its not, so i just have to wait outside in the run. i have also tried treats but i dont think they know what they are. i want to be able to pet them and pick them up! PLEASE HELP ME!

How long ago did you get them? They are going to be shy of you for awhile if they're not used to you. Chickens are a prey animal so their instinct is going to be to run from something unknown to them. Now, I don't make pets of my chickens, so I can't say for sure, but from what I've read (there are many threads referring to just this issue - go ahead and do a search on them) it seems that your best option is to give them some time. Put a chair in their run, go in there and just sit in the chair letting them get used to you. Bring some treats with you and toss them out now and then. Don't reach or move toward them right away. Just let them get used to being around you first. Remember that sometimes chickens just aren't comfortable being picked up and petted.

I have had my 6 pullets and 1 cockerel for 2 months now. They were super skittish when I first got them, and I was not able to get near enough to any of them to pat them.

Every day I take my bucket of treats down to the run, sit on a milk crate in the middle of the yard and throw treats. I am usually there for at least an hour. They are at the stage now (2 months later) where they will take bread from my hand, and ONE will let me pat her when she walks past!

At night, when I lock them in the coop and they are already on the roost, I am able to pat them. They are half asleep then and don't really notice me! I do so just for a minute, talking reassuringly the whole time and telling them they are good girls and boys - a quick pat each so as not to frighten them!

It really does take time. They are naturally wary, but you can earn their trust. One, slow step at a time!

Krista

i just got them a week ago. i will try what you suggested, hopefully it works. thank you so much!

thank you so much for your help! when i locked them in their coop last night i tried patting them and it kinda worked, they looked at me weird and started to move so i stopped and they sat back down. i think i will do what you suggested and keep doing this.

phelanwolf said:

i just got them a week ago. i will try what you suggested, hopefully it works. thank you so much!

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Save your table scraps and go out just before it's coop time. Here that's 7 pm now. I sit in a chair and hold the box while they go nuts over it. They are skittish. Some breeds more than others. It's a very interesting little journey. They hate you one day and jump on your leg of you sit still long enough.

What breeds do you have?

haha thats funny, ill try that tonight. i have two easter eggers and one white leghorn!

There's definitely hope. My pullets were 11 weeks old when I got them and prior to that day, had never been handled. I kept them in a pet crate in the house at night for the next month and out in their own run during the day (to give them and my older girls time to adjust). I took that opportunity to talk to them, read to them, hand feed them and hold them in the evenings and made a point to carry them out one at a time each morning to put them in their run, talking to them and petting them during the walk. Now they run to me every time they see me and one of them is a Hamburg which is a breed that is notoriously flighty and standoffish with humans. Even she will grab onto my skirt with her beak and tug on it for treats. She's still wary of hands but when she's on the roost she doesn't shy away from me petting her on her chest with the back of my hand (an open hand over their backs would seem more like the jaws of a predator than anything friendly or comforting).

A little patience goes a long way
Best of luck,
Heather

phelanwolf said:

haha thats funny, ill try that tonight. i have two easter eggers and one white leghorn!

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Well my Leghorn hates my guts. I think it's one of the less petable breeds. (Think I just made a word up). My Easter Egger hated me too because it followed the Leghorn.

K9Dave said:

Well my Leghorn hates my guts. I think it's one of the less petable breeds. (Think I just made a word up). My Easter Egger hated me too because it followed the Leghorn.

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Chickens neither hate or love our guts. However a leghorn has had less human meddling with their body structure than most chickens have. Therefor a leghorn or other Mediterranean type of chicken (like a Hamburg) is more dexterous and is able to run, fly, hide from, and avoid that strange looking monster on two legs that just burst through the wall (door) of their run. A Leghorn is more of a "heritage" breed, or more like the Grey and Red Jungle fowl than any other standard breed. They don't like things (like human beings) known for wringing a chickens' neck or chopping off its' head reaching for them or trying to corner them.

Take a bucket into the run with you at feeding time. Before feeding any thing turn the bucket over and set down on it. You are now more on the chickens level and look less like King Kong. This also helps keep you from making a quick lunge or grab at a chicken just to give it some loving. Chickens live in flocks and any alarm you raise quickly passes from bird to bird. Have a soup can of scratch feed or some shelled corn with you. Talk to them in a low soft and monotone voice. When your birds come out of hiding to investigate and by using only your thumb, flick a corn kernel their way and chat them up. Don't give them another bite until the first kernel is found and eaten. Before long they will associate you with the corn. If you avoid sudden and frightening (to a chicken) movements before long you'll have to push them out of your lap to go back into your own house. The fat, fuzzy, and fluffy breeds are less able to avoid human contact and these breeds are also further removed from a natural chicken living in the wild.