Training Chickens to do tricks

[Puranin]

So I am fairly new to backyard chicken keeping. My girls are all at least 1 yr old. They come up to you when called but several are still pretty skittish. My two braver girls will eat out of your hand. I'm trying to teach them to get onto a perch when I say up. We have started with a 2x4 on the ground and just stepping on to it for treats.Does anyone have any suggestions on how to get the others interested or a different treat that may inspire them. I've been using dried mealworms with the occasional cheerio.

 

[Adalida]

Your braver girls might be keeping the others away from you when you feed them by hand. At least that's what mine do. The ones who are real foodies crowd around me and want all the food for themselves, so they'll chase the more submissive ones away if they come too close. If you separate them, you might have better luck. I don't mean separate all the time- just while you're trying to teach them their trick. They might do better individually than all together.

For treats, mine all have their favorites! One goes crazy for tomatoes, another loves noodles, and one loves the ribs/seeds of bell peppers. They all love bread crusts.

 

[Puranin]

I'll have to figure out how to seperate them. Might be able to use Richard they tend to stay nearer to him. Anyone else tried to train their babies?

 

[Puranin]

I've managed to get three of my babies to do something for treats. Buffy will step up on a perch and jump. Brahma Mama will step up on a perch and Rudy Toot will finally come take a treat from my hand. I havent managed to get Jail Bird to come all the way over and try for treat, but its getting better. Any ideas on other tricks I can try to teach them? Im really trying to get them good and acclimated to me since I got them all as adults except one. I want to be able to pick them up if I need too.

 

[Adalida]

I like your chickens names

I've seen people say their chickens fly up and land on their shoulder, maybe you could try teaching that?

 

[Adalida]

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/388547/training-chickens-for-voluntary-flight

This is a long post but within the first 20 posts, a poster talks about training his chickens to know their name. It's really interesting, he said he can call an individual chicken and just that one will come to him. Pretty cool trick!

 

[Puranin]

The goal of the perch was to get them to ride on my arm but so far they are a little skittish of me. Im working on moving the perch higher and higher and the gonna get them to step up on my arm. Im only barely 5 ft tall im not sure if they would fit on my shoulder lol!

 

[Adalida]

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/...ica-the-beautiful-on-a-keyboard#post_18022167

Here you go, you can train one of your birds to play the piano like this guy did!!

 

[centrarchid]

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/388547/training-chickens-for-voluntary-flight

This is a long post but within the first 20 posts, a poster talks about training his chickens to know their name. It's really interesting, he said he can call an individual chicken and just that one will come to him. Pretty cool trick!

Training sticks for at least 7 years. Female used still responds when called.

 

[chippy99th]

I've heard training them to go in a circle is supposed to be fairly simple, as you can lead them with the treat.

I'm going to start training my two youngest soon. One of them is missing a leg and I'm going to try to do some strength training. The other one is too curious for his own good and needs to be kept busy! So far the only treat they've had is mealworms and they go BONKERS for those. My adult chickens love noodles, bread, and bits of deli meat (I don't use poultry meat though, yuck). They like greens a lot, but that's usually not a good enough motivator to be a training treat.