Game Hen defends her chicks

[ChicKat]

LOL I wonder if anybody has ever been sued over their chicken attacking and hurting somebody. I'm sure it's possible these days!

So funny---
There was a person on BYC who was such a great contributor that sadly has died in recent years. Their tag line said something like - "chickens may be your pets, they may be your hobby, but if you fall down dead in the chicken yard, they will EAT you." It was really funny and food for thought.

 

[Triple Willow]

So funny---
There was a person on BYC who was such a great contributor that sadly has died in recent years.  Their tag line said something like - "chickens may be your pets, they may be your hobby, but if you fall down dead in the chicken yard, they will EAT you."  It was really funny and food for thought. 

So funny---
There was a person on BYC who was such a great contributor that sadly has died in recent years.  Their tag line said something like - "chickens may be your pets, they may be your hobby, but if you fall down dead in the chicken yard, they will EAT you."  It was really funny and food for thought. 

Oh yeah, me and a friend joke about that. I believe it 100%. lol

 

[centrarchid]

FYI, not frightened just prefer to keep my eyeballs - common sense. I won't keep any chicken that makes a habit of attacking me or anybody else - common sense.

With the games at least, the threat a given hen poses is very much a function of your husbandry technique. All my hens have the capacity for being total face-floggers and well readily do so if not handled properly. Same birds can be raised to be very personable even when chicks are involved and all I have tried it with they can be gentle enough for even naïve kids to handle without hen getting riled. The husbandry does not seem to impact reactions towards predators.


My hens are very good but they cannot stop all losses. That still leaves room for them to be the best free-range mothers among chickens.

 

[Triple Willow]

With the games at least, the threat a given hen poses is very much a function of your husbandry technique.  All my hens have the capacity for being total face-floggers and well readily do so if not handled properly.  Same birds can be raised to be very personable even when chicks are involved and all I have tried it with they can be gentle enough for even naïve kids to handle without hen getting riled.  The husbandry does not seem to impact reactions towards predators.


My hens are very good but they cannot stop all losses.  That still leaves room for them to be the best free-range mothers among chickens.

Can you tell us what you do, how you raise yours to keep them on the human friendly side?

 

[centrarchid]

You several variations on theme where chicks and juveniles are not threatened by you and where mother of birds to be tamed is not effectively telling her offspring you are a threat. Chicks have good memories concerning threats. Start by treating a hen like she is a wild bird giving her small amounts of extremely tasty eats every time you come into yard. I use mealworms. Such exposed hens will not be tamed to degree desired but can be the intermediate stage needed to begat their tamed offspring. The first generation tamed hens will later bring their chicks in for eats like mealworms with very little effort. When they do such hens will still be quick to flog you so then offer then treats from a sitting position without looking at chicks. The chicks will be much more inclined to approach you which is to be rewarded with treats. Do little more with them until they are weaned of mothers care, then intensify efforts where juveniles are coaxed up on to you with treats. Then you are at stage of treating them like pets. Actually touch their flanks and neck with back side of hand on occasion avoiding contact with legs and back. This need only be done a few times then ignore juvenile pullets until they enter breeding flock. When they have chicks the second generation hens will approach and not be threatened allowing you to contact them and chicks when they are distracted by treats. Some details need to be explained further if interested but procedure used makes it easy for me to keep all current game hens much more manageable which is important when young are to be handled later and the squalling of stressed out birds is not desired in cockyard. Stags coming from a tamed mother are much quicker in adapting to conditions of keep which has lots of advantages in itself.


This is done without need for selection (genetically) which could be detrimental to quality of birds.

 

[aoxa]

I was in my coop cleaning cages. I heard a hen screech loudly in the pasture. I looked up and saw my game hen who has month old chicks meet a large Cooper's Hawk (an adult female) head on. I was sure it had a chick in its talons. She beat the hawk off and even flew up in the air after it when the hawk took off. I counted the chicks and all were there. The game hen is not that large-- the hawk looked larger. She is a Brown/ Red and is molting so even looks smaller than usual as she has no tail right now.

I would not known it happened had I not been outside at that moment. I have always said that my game hens never lose chicks and I let them free range. Some of this is luck I know but a lot of it is that game hens are aggressive mother hens.

I have had this as well! Except she had a goshawk by the tail feathers. The hawk was SCREAMING. It didn't get any of her chicks, but came back the next day and got another broody's chick. I got a good laugh out of it. The goshawk being pounded by the broody, not that it got a chick the next day.

 

[Triple Willow]

You several variations on theme where chicks and juveniles are not threatened by you and where mother of birds to be tamed is not effectively telling her offspring you are a threat.  Chicks have good memories concerning threats.  Start by treating a hen like she is a wild bird giving her small amounts of extremely tasty eats every time you come into yard.  I use mealworms.  Such exposed hens will not be tamed to degree desired but can be the intermediate stage needed to begat their tamed offspring.  The first generation tamed hens will later bring their chicks in for eats like mealworms with very little effort.  When they do such hens will still be quick to flog you so then offer then treats from a sitting position without looking at chicks.  The chicks will be much more inclined to approach you which is to be rewarded with treats.  Do little more with them until they are weaned of mothers care, then intensify efforts where juveniles are coaxed up on to you with treats.  Then you are at stage of treating them like pets.  Actually touch their flanks and neck with back side of hand on occasion avoiding contact with legs and back.  This need only be done a few times then ignore juvenile pullets until they enter breeding flock.  When they have chicks the second generation hens will approach and not be threatened allowing you to contact them and chicks when they are distracted by treats.  Some details need to be explained further if interested but procedure used makes it easy for me to keep all current game hens much more manageable which is important when young are to be handled later and the squalling of stressed out birds is not desired in cockyard.  Stags coming from a tamed mother are much quicker in adapting to conditions of keep which has lots of advantages in itself.


This is done without need for selection (genetically) which could be detrimental to quality of birds.

Thank you very much for the explanation. I see it takes a lot of time and patience but it sounds like a very good method. I really believe that game hens and game roosters could place a very good role even in a dual purpose poultry situation. Have you ever seen two roosters coexist with in one fllock? Would a game rooster that grows up wiithin a flock that already has a dual purpose lead rooster (Australorp) be able to coexist or would that game rooster try to kill the Australorp when it came to sexual maturity?

 

[allbirds]

I raise game chickens along with laying chicken and show birds. Game roosters will not tolerate ANY other rooster. Once they "come to game" , mature, they will fight any other rooster until it runs off or is killed. You must pen the roosters. However game hens can co-exist with other breeds of chickens. They are definitely worth having around, if nothing else just to raise chicks!

 

[centrarchid]

Thank you very much for the explanation. I see it takes a lot of time and patience but it sounds like a very good method. I really believe that game hens and game roosters could place a very good role even in a dual purpose poultry situation. Have you ever seen two roosters coexist with in one fllock? Would a game rooster that grows up wiithin a flock that already has a dual purpose lead rooster (Australorp) be able to coexist or would that game rooster try to kill the Australorp when it came to sexual maturity?

With a little practice, time invested is minimal, especially after first generation when all brood hens are trained. Most brood hens were offspring of previously trained hens so made effort much easier since mothers helped teach offspring we were not a threat. Every year we had to start with few first generation birds with walk reared pullets and those took more time like described above. My grandfather was all about easily handled birds and so it was worth effort on front side with hens to have them as tame, especially with brood hens that may be expected to give several years worth of service. Getting flogged by hens is only part of problem, they also put their chicks at risk trying to flog you the keeper. Overall flogging is not all that painful but does get aggravating when you are pressed for time or simply wanting to have a pleasant day.

In one flock co-existence is a negative once more than one is fully mature. The game roosters will eventually fight of rights to harem. With a mixed breed setup, even that is dicey. A young game will eventually challenge the old non-game and either be killed himself or run the non-game off. I tried recently (again thinking I figured something out) to keep a gamecock with American Dominique stags where once the dominique stags would try to stand their ground even briefly, the game would whip them then run them almost to death and would kill them if I or dog did not intervene. The game has much more stamina and no interest in relenting so long as target will not leave his territory.

Using games in dual purpose capacity is doable when only one mature rooster kept. You can also keep more than one on one barnyard area so long as they have discrete flocks and territories do not overlap. Separation of territories is difficult for most folks to realize unless you have several outbuildings serving as roosts / loafing areas and multiple fences that can serve as easily recognized territory boundaries. We had a couple walks were the two rooster system worked well. Common denominator in addition to larger more complex barnyard area was full time farmer managing grain-fed livestock in multiple feed-lots. Lots of oversight is required and we never allowed situation to persist more than about 6 months of the year.

We did realize the dual purpose with my grandmother's flock over several years where a gamecock and two hens free-ranged with about 30 Plymouth Rock and Road Island hens. Rooster tried to cover all hens but owing to realized roosting setup, gamehens were preferentially covered / mated ensuring good fertility of eggs. Hybrids that did manage to hatch despite effort to collect all eggs were easily distinguishable based on genetic markers. Size was a dead giveaway but color and feather development were more than adequate to distinguish.

 

[Triple Willow]

With a little practice, time invested is minimal, especially after first generation when all brood hens are trained.  Most brood hens were offspring of previously trained hens so made effort much easier since mothers helped teach offspring we were not a threat.  Every year we had to start with few first generation birds with walk reared pullets and those took more time like described above.  My grandfather was all about easily handled birds and so it was worth effort on front side with hens to have them as tame, especially with brood hens that may be expected to give several years worth of service.  Getting flogged by hens is only part of problem, they also put their chicks at risk trying to flog you the keeper.  Overall flogging is not all that painful but does get aggravating when you are pressed for time or simply wanting to have a pleasant day.

In one flock co-existence is a negative once more than one is fully mature.  The game roosters will eventually fight of rights to harem.  With a mixed breed setup, even that is dicey.  A young game will eventually challenge the old non-game and either be killed himself or run the non-game off.  I tried recently (again thinking I figured something out) to keep a gamecock with American Dominique stags where once the dominique stags would try to stand their ground even briefly, the game would whip them then run them almost to death and would kill them if I or dog did not intervene.  The game has much more stamina and no interest in relenting so long as target will not leave his territory.

Using games in dual purpose capacity is doable when only one mature rooster kept.  You can also keep more than one on one barnyard area so long as they have discrete flocks and territories do not overlap.  Separation of territories is difficult for most folks to realize unless you have several outbuildings serving as roosts / loafing areas and multiple fences that can serve as easily recognized territory boundaries.  We had a couple walks were the two rooster system worked well.  Common denominator in addition to larger more complex barnyard area was full time farmer managing grain-fed livestock in multiple feed-lots.  Lots of oversight is required and we never allowed situation to persist more than about 6 months of the year.

We did realize the dual purpose with my grandmother's flock over several years where a gamecock and two hens free-ranged with about 30 Plymouth Rock and Road Island hens.  Rooster tried to cover all hens but owing to realized roosting setup, gamehens were preferentially covered / mated ensuring good fertility of eggs.  Hybrids that did manage to hatch despite effort to collect all eggs were easily distinguishable based on genetic markers.  Size was a dead giveaway but color and feather development were more than adequate to distinguish.

Thanks again. I enjoy your thorough explanations. Too bad you can't run two game roosters or a game and a DP with one large flock. I agree, as long as spurs and that sort of thing is not involved, being flogged doesn't really hurt. It just scared the crap out of you when it seems to come out of nowhere! LOL I remember the first time I was flogged. I was about 4 years old and the hen hit me so hard that it nearly knocked me down. That is a quick eye opener! lol