- Jun 26, 2012
- 527
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My five beautiful one
year old
hens love to be around people, they run to you for food, they jump on your back, and when you come near their pen, they cluck and garble.
Then this summer, I raised eight silkie chicks, one was attacked by my dog, and then I was down to seven chicks. They never did like being touched, they always ran and peeped and just plain made you feel bad for touching them. I handled them as much as I could, but it was hard to keep track of them, and I'm not even sure if I handled certain ones. So that's probably the reason I'm having so much trouble with them now. They run when I walk past them, they won't come anywhere near me, and they glare at me. I decided that this had to stop, if I need to treat them for some injury, I don't want feathers flying. So I decide to try making friends with them. And so, this training diary began.
October 9th, 2013.
Today, after school, I grabbed two small plastic bags, and filled one with Cherios, and one with Mealworms. I planned on putting the one year olds in the chicken tractor, and feed the silkies treats, in an attempt to win them over. After the one year olds were in the tractor, the silkies came slowly walking out of the pen also, at first I was going to chase them back into the coop, but then I just opened up the other door to form a sort of barricade, one door on the left side, one door on the right, the coop in front of them, and the chicken tractor was behind them, it didn't completely close them off, but it was okay. First the brown silkies-Carmel and Cadbury-came out, then the partridge-Princess-next came two of the white ones-Marshmallow and Charlotte- and then the final partridge-Wings-. I looked in the coop for the final white silkie, Annemarie/Annie, and found her laying an egg, so I left her be. I watched the six others scratch around in the grass for a while, before I opened the bag to the Cherios, and threw one out. It went unnoticed, I threw out three at a time, and they seemed to realize what I was throwing, they slowly ate the treats, looking very happy. I heard an angry cluck come from behind me, turning around, I found my one year old flock leader, Skye, glaring at me. I guiltily threw about half the bag into the tractor, and heard happy munching moments later.
The silkies soon grew bored of the Cherios, and resumed hunting in the grass once more. After fifteen minutes of this, with them staying as far away from me as possible, I brought out the big guns... Mealworms... The first one I threw, once again, was unnoticed (Perhaps their so fluffy they can't see. Or maybe they were just busy), I threw on directly in front of Carmel, and she gobbled it down. Yelling to the others about her new food source, most of them came over. Annie, having come off the nest just in time for the mealworms, gulped down the next one I threw. Soon, I had drawn them all close to me, (I had to throw a good number of mealworms to the big girls too, so they wouldn't get jealous) I placed a mealworm on my boot, and waited. Carmel slowly walked over to me, and pecked it off my boot, this was the first time she had willingly touched me. A few more on my boot, I placed a couple on my leg, and they were quickly gobbled up by Princess. I placed on my palm, and they ignored it, they looked at me, obviously waiting for more mealworms to be thrown. I put a few more on my hand, that sealed the deal for Carmel, and she snapped at my hand, I won't lie, it hurt, but I didn't want to scare her, my hand never moved. After seeing that it was seemingly safe, Princess bossily pranced through the flock and pecked my hand repeatedly, she didn't seem to understand I had to dip my hand into the bag to get more. Once I got more though, she and Carmel ate them. Nearly everyone wanted some then, but they didn't want to stick around, they walked up, pecked at the hand, and then raced back to the compost heap.
Soon, I was out of mealworms, and I gently corralled them back to the coop. After making sure they had slightly warm water (It's cold around here) and enough food, I left.
I planned on sitting with them later today, not giving them treats or anything, just sitting with them would be nice. But I had to get a cavity drilled, and was crashed on the couch until nightfall.
The silkies didn't get along with the big girls normally, but lately, Carmel and Cadbury are sleeping on the perch with my Eastern Game Bantam, Chipmunk, while they rest ignore their perch and sleep on the ground in a big silkie pile.
Thank you for reading, more should be up tomorrow!
year old
hens love to be around people, they run to you for food, they jump on your back, and when you come near their pen, they cluck and garble.
Then this summer, I raised eight silkie chicks, one was attacked by my dog, and then I was down to seven chicks. They never did like being touched, they always ran and peeped and just plain made you feel bad for touching them. I handled them as much as I could, but it was hard to keep track of them, and I'm not even sure if I handled certain ones. So that's probably the reason I'm having so much trouble with them now. They run when I walk past them, they won't come anywhere near me, and they glare at me. I decided that this had to stop, if I need to treat them for some injury, I don't want feathers flying. So I decide to try making friends with them. And so, this training diary began.
October 9th, 2013.
Today, after school, I grabbed two small plastic bags, and filled one with Cherios, and one with Mealworms. I planned on putting the one year olds in the chicken tractor, and feed the silkies treats, in an attempt to win them over. After the one year olds were in the tractor, the silkies came slowly walking out of the pen also, at first I was going to chase them back into the coop, but then I just opened up the other door to form a sort of barricade, one door on the left side, one door on the right, the coop in front of them, and the chicken tractor was behind them, it didn't completely close them off, but it was okay. First the brown silkies-Carmel and Cadbury-came out, then the partridge-Princess-next came two of the white ones-Marshmallow and Charlotte- and then the final partridge-Wings-. I looked in the coop for the final white silkie, Annemarie/Annie, and found her laying an egg, so I left her be. I watched the six others scratch around in the grass for a while, before I opened the bag to the Cherios, and threw one out. It went unnoticed, I threw out three at a time, and they seemed to realize what I was throwing, they slowly ate the treats, looking very happy. I heard an angry cluck come from behind me, turning around, I found my one year old flock leader, Skye, glaring at me. I guiltily threw about half the bag into the tractor, and heard happy munching moments later.
The silkies soon grew bored of the Cherios, and resumed hunting in the grass once more. After fifteen minutes of this, with them staying as far away from me as possible, I brought out the big guns... Mealworms... The first one I threw, once again, was unnoticed (Perhaps their so fluffy they can't see. Or maybe they were just busy), I threw on directly in front of Carmel, and she gobbled it down. Yelling to the others about her new food source, most of them came over. Annie, having come off the nest just in time for the mealworms, gulped down the next one I threw. Soon, I had drawn them all close to me, (I had to throw a good number of mealworms to the big girls too, so they wouldn't get jealous) I placed a mealworm on my boot, and waited. Carmel slowly walked over to me, and pecked it off my boot, this was the first time she had willingly touched me. A few more on my boot, I placed a couple on my leg, and they were quickly gobbled up by Princess. I placed on my palm, and they ignored it, they looked at me, obviously waiting for more mealworms to be thrown. I put a few more on my hand, that sealed the deal for Carmel, and she snapped at my hand, I won't lie, it hurt, but I didn't want to scare her, my hand never moved. After seeing that it was seemingly safe, Princess bossily pranced through the flock and pecked my hand repeatedly, she didn't seem to understand I had to dip my hand into the bag to get more. Once I got more though, she and Carmel ate them. Nearly everyone wanted some then, but they didn't want to stick around, they walked up, pecked at the hand, and then raced back to the compost heap.
Soon, I was out of mealworms, and I gently corralled them back to the coop. After making sure they had slightly warm water (It's cold around here) and enough food, I left.
I planned on sitting with them later today, not giving them treats or anything, just sitting with them would be nice. But I had to get a cavity drilled, and was crashed on the couch until nightfall.
The silkies didn't get along with the big girls normally, but lately, Carmel and Cadbury are sleeping on the perch with my Eastern Game Bantam, Chipmunk, while they rest ignore their perch and sleep on the ground in a big silkie pile.
Thank you for reading, more should be up tomorrow!
