How to Catch a Chicken video

[6chickens in St. Charles]

This video was my first attempt at sending encouragement to a coworker who claimed she was worn out by trying to get her sisters' chickens into their coop for the night. At my house it is ridiculously easy to call a chicken and have a little chat.

Am I the only one with chickens who know their name and act like pets? I gave some chickens EXACTLY like these away, only to learn that later they were killed "because they were roosters" and "were getting mean". Our rooster is 4 years old and still loves a good talk and a lap at the end of the day. He knows his name, too. Maybe its just me. Perhaps I have St. Francis-itis.

 

[Reurra]

Thats fantastic! How did you train them thier names? Did you handle them lots as babies? Im getting 5 hens and they are all about 2 years old and Im worried about them being too scared. I know they will likely never be pets like a hand raised bird, but I really would like my birds to trust me.

 

[theoldchick]

That's great!

 

[dianehodges]

You are the chicken whisper Awsome

 

[kara_leigh]

Can you explain how you train them to do that? I have a few that I can pick up occasionally b/c they squat, and one that will freely let me pick her up b/c she's really tame and is my buddy (I carry her around everywhere when I'm outside), but otherwise they run from me. It would be nice if I could train mine to do this. All of mine are less than a year old, so hopefully still trainable. lol

Mine all know their names. My buddy is Buttercup, and if I call her name she will come running but no one else will. I address them by their names every single time I see them, from the very beginning. Even just walking past, I will say "Hi Esther!" or "Hi Georgia!"

 

[6chickens in St. Charles]

I have an Esther too! She's smart and pretty and TINY so I named her Esther, like the brave little queen from the bible.

I didn't so much train them to do that, but I noticed they have a serious issue with their pecking order. They ALL want the treats in the can, but spreading it around the ground results in squabbles. One day Esther flew up to get out of the squabble and she looked me right in the eye, sort of with misery. So I called her name and gave her a sunflower seed from the treat bag, like, "Oh, Esther, here this will make it better" After I put her down, she flew right back up and looked me in the eye again. So I gave her another treat again. After I put her down, I called her name and gave her a treat when she flew up.

Soon every chicken was trying it, "monkey-see-monkey-do" when they saw me with the treat can. So I learned to give them a hand signal and a name call, and only gave a treat when they did it well, no grappling onto the can or my chest or out of turn. They LOVE it. It makes treat time very enjoyable, they are so relaxed and happy now. Sometimes they come for a little chat, asking to be called up by staring and squatting like they're about to fly up, so when we can we call them on up into the hand and they have a little chat.

Their feet are so nice, like monkey paws. Its nice to do a little inspection while they're standing there, too, its easy to go through their feathers and visualize their under-tail space for mites and lice.

But I'll warn you, the Easter Egger is HEAVY! Unless you're absolutely sure your cervical spine can take the torque, I'd only invite flying Bantam birdies onto my outstretched hand. The bigger birds, easily could be encouraged up onto a prop like a railing or ladder for you.
Good luck!

I think the term for training is Operant Conditioning. Videos by Bob Bailey are on the YouTubes.

 

[6chickens in St. Charles]

Too, I think sometimes life is like this. I bet my chickens always were looking me in the eye, I just didn't notice til that day.

Its like that movie Babe the pig, where the dog-mom teaches the piglet "Speak to the sheep slowly and clearly, so they'll be able to hear you". Only its the chickens speaking slowly and clearly to US, because we have all our preconceived notions about what they are and how they'll act. They have to have a lot of patience to deal with us, we're always in such a hurry and are generally poor listeners, always on our own program, doing what we think is right. Its the nature of being human, always trying to be right somehow.

 

[Reurra]

I thought this was really cool!

 

[6chickens in St. Charles]

OH! I really enjoyed that video. It's a 9 minutes worth relaxing in front of. The psych student did an excellent job on that video presentation! I hope she got an excellent grade for it!

 

[6chickens in St. Charles]

OK, so I watched Reurra's youtube post, and saw this one, too. Cool!