No Love

[Arwenelfmaiden]

I wanted to hear if anyone has had this issue. I have 6 pullets. Born May 5th this year, all 6. I have a Black Copper Marans, a Cuckoo Marans, a Barred Rock, an Orpington, a Silver Laced Wyandotte, and an Easter Egger. I bought them at one day old. I have been so good to them, since chicks, spoiling them with friendliness, attention & goodies. They have a nice Coop, all needs met. They even get out of the pen & free-range every afternoon. I've studied on them but still learning-Rookie. The problem is they are NOT friendly, don't listen, won't let me touch them. It's hurt my feelings because I have invested so much time, care & money for it all to be successful & my efforts be enjoyed. I truly care for them all.
Are there any suggestions that might help. When they were younger they attempted a little friend ship but they always kept their distance. I hope for some advise.
Signed Sad in Hesston.......

 

[aart]

I can't get over how folks seem to think that chickens will act like dogs.....SHM.
Chickens are for eggs and meat.
Dogs are for adoration, snuggles and obedience.
My advice, get a dog.

 

[itsamyo]

My adult disabled son keeps our chickens. (high functioning autism+other stuff) It's magical, the way he has with animals, even feral cats, wild birds, etc. Regarding dogs: We have a PitBull we rescued. She's an avid huntress, going after mice, rats, cats, etc. When we got the chicks, my son insisted on socializing our dog with them. I thought,"This is a BAD idea". AnnaBelle would shake & whine like crazy when around the chicks but my son gently & firmly controlled her, including her many times a day while caring for & checking on them. His diligence paid off. The chooks are free range (in at night) & they & AnnaBelle are great girlfriends, traveling the property together, basking in the sun, sitting on her. She really looks after them & kills rats & mice, & she chases Eagle, hawk, etc. that swoop around the chickens. I think this is amazing. Does anyone else have this sort of situation?

I want to add that, even though the chooks are not afraid of me, they don't care for me to reach for them. But, my son, that's a different story. He's like the pigeon lady in the park. They hop up on his head & shoulders & follow him everywhere.

 

[shortgrass]

Well, chickens aren't really trusting souls lol

But breed can make a huge difference; usually Cochin or silkie are considered the "lap chickens" of the chicken world. But each breed has their personalities... EE are usually very friendly, BRs pick and choose, they're more "standoffish"... The Orp should be friendlier than the rest, but Wyandotte's are also more standoffish... Not sure on Cuckoo Marans, I've never had those...

Treats. They make a spiteful chicken love you lol... I trained mine with red cups and a mealworm bag.. Feed in red cups, so now no matter what, if I have a Red cup in my hand, I've got about 20 best friends... I have a bag of mealworms that is refill almost daily, too. Shake the mealworm bag and I've got 37 vicious snarling chickens clamoring onto my lap lol... Food

Time and treats; I teach my daughter's to just take the bag and sit with it, and only let the chickens that will come eat out of their hands get any. That way, the chooks learn that they aren't going to get grabbed at every chance, and they trust more when they have to get brave and learn to approach that way. Mine were all manhandled by a 5 and 9 year old as chicks, so that can both help tame them, and also make them scared if they've ever been chased.

Give it time with some treats... As they near lay, they will have a personality change and most likely calm down quite a bit

 

[lgutt]

I have a dog as well. I consider my chickens pets that I adore and not just egg laying animals. I would also never eat my pet chickens.

 

[Blooie]

I wanted to hear if anyone has had this issue. I have 6 pullets. Born May 5th this year, all 6. I have a Black Copper Marans, a Cuckoo Marans, a Barred Rock, an Orpington, a Silver Laced Wyandotte, and an Easter Egger. I bought them at one day old. I have been so good to them, since chicks, spoiling them with friendliness, attention & goodies. They have a nice Coop, all needs met. They even get out of the pen & free-range every afternoon. I've studied on them but still learning-Rookie. The problem is they are NOT friendly, don't listen, won't let me touch them. It's hurt my feelings because I have invested so much time, care & money for it all to be successful & my efforts be enjoyed. I truly care for them all.
Are there any suggestions that might help. When they were younger they attempted a little friend ship but they always kept their distance. I hope for some advise.
Signed Sad in Hesston.......

I can understand where you're coming from. When you see photos of chickens riding on people's shoulders and hear stories about a very special chicken bonding completely with the family, it can be hard to want that with yours and not get it. Give them a little time. They'll come to you if you don't worry so much about pleasing them and give them some space. They're pretty young yet - just as you are learning to be a chicken owner, they are still learning to be chickens.

I highlighted one phrase in your post that caught my eye, and I wanted to give you a little food for thought. Define "successful". If you don't feel successful because they don't follow you around like spring lambs follow their moms, then that is a problem for you. But if you define "successful" as having healthy chickens who are living in a good, clean environment with plenty to do, the freedom to be chickens, getting a good diet with a few treats tossed in, and who will reward you with delicious eggs and their antics, then you have indeed been very successful. My dad used to tell us "You can't climb to a success point and stop. You have to reach the underside of success and then build on it, little by little. Be satisfied with the small steps because it's the journey that measures the success." I hope you get what you want. But remember that they are just chickens....balls of feather and feet, and it's unfair to ask them for more than they are prepared to give yet.

Good luck!

 

[Tati]

You are so wrong! Chickens can make wonderful pets. I grew up during WWII, in Germany. My first pets were chickens because there wasn't enough food to feed a cat, and even less a dog. After the "bad time" (= WWII and the deprived years following it), our chickens would sit on our laps together with our cat.

 

[Tati]

And aren't we glad we didn't fall victim to "natuerliche Auslese" (natural selection) or--worse--selective breeding (as favored by Hitler)!

Seriously, natural selection has ensured the survival of the physically strongest for millennia, but I think there are also other qualities in humans (and animals) than being physically strong. Mind you, this is a subject philosophers and wannabe philosophers have written many books about.

I personally would never discard a runt-of-the-litter animal, but I would not necessarily want to breed it. With humans, this issue is a bit more complicated. Yet renouncing hygiene is certainly not the answer.

So, let's cuddle our beloved chickens, cats, and dogs, and then, by all means, wash our hands before we touch our faces or handle food.

Btw, we have included in our Last Will that all our animals (27 cats, 2 dogs, and 8 chickens) are to be cared for as they are cared for now and that the chickens shall never be slaughtered. (We also no longer eat chicken and pork and only eat beef [with occasional exceptions in restaurants] of free-range cows, who, at least, had a happy, if short, life.)

 

[rides2far]

@ shortgrass:  When chickens talk, it is an expression of content, even basic happiness. They also might want to share their thoughts with you, whatever they are. (Such as: "I love it when you come to visit. Why don't you visit more often?" or "You should have seen the big bug I just found, chopped up, and ate with delight.")--When chickens sing, it is an expression of high emotional happiness.

Chickens have a whole variety of vocal expressions. They all have different meanings. They can express excitement. So the typical "guck-a-guck-a-guck-aaaaaaa" (for instance, after the accomplishment of laying an egg). They can express discontent with short, hacking clucking. And they have a variety of other, differentiated noises to express other emotions and purposes, from interacting with other chickens (or other species) to scaring away imagined or real dangers to screaming loud for help. As an ESL-writer, I am not familiar with the English vocabulary for the different sounds that chickens make. So I cannot describe them and their meanings any more detailed.

Yet, growing up with chickens (and later with cats), I speak some chicken (and cat). So my translations from "Chicken" into English might include some fantasy but are not totally unfounded.

Well, I was thinking I'm the only person who speaks chicken. Whenever I clean the poop tray, my Delaware & one of my EEs come up on the roost to 'talk' to me. English is my first language, but I'm a CSL learner (chicken second language) learner

 

[feather13]

I love my flock of thirteen chickens and this is definitely the pet for me since dogs and cats are too high maintenance. I handle the affection issue by reminding myself that these are tiny dinosaurs. We raised chickens growing up and they would attack and peck my mom until her hands bled. I'm lucky to have eleven docile hens and two docile (so far) roosters, but I don't forget that they are dinosaurs and tolerate me just as a means to treats, feed, and water I think it's a good idea to have low expectations of affection when you own chickens and then you might be surprised if you get a friendly one or two!