Age for scratch?

Ccort

Crowing
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I have 8 weeks olds. I like letting them run the yard but when it's time to get them back in their run, its near impossible. Any tips to get them to return? I've heard scratch will usually do it...are 8 week olds old enough for chicken scratch?
 
They can have finely ground scratch as long as they've had access to grit.

But why not take this opportunity to train them to come to an audio cue? That's really what people are doing when they shake a can of scratch. The chickens have been conditioned to come at the sound of scratch rattling.

Right now, today, I've begun to train my four-week olds. I use a clicker you can get at any pet store for around a dollar. I click it then show them some meal worms. I click it while feeding out those worms. After a few days of clicking while distributing meal worms (or scratch), they will associate the sound with getting their favorite treat.

My adult flock is trained to come immediately when they hear the clicker. One time, I saw a hawk fly over. My chickens were all on the opposite side of the yard, and I wanted to get them all back into the covered run as soon as possible. When they heard the clicker, all of them came running. They were back under cover and safety within fifteen seconds. They got some scratch to reinforce the training.
 
They can have finely ground scratch as long as they've had access to grit.

But why not take this opportunity to train them to come to an audio cue? That's really what people are doing when they shake a can of scratch. The chickens have been conditioned to come at the sound of scratch rattling.

Right now, today, I've begun to train my four-week olds. I use a clicker you can get at any pet store for around a dollar. I click it then show them some meal worms. I click it while feeding out those worms. After a few days of clicking while distributing meal worms (or scratch), they will associate the sound with getting their favorite treat.

My adult flock is trained to come immediately when they hear the clicker. One time, I saw a hawk fly over. My chickens were all on the opposite side of the yard, and I wanted to get them all back into the covered run as soon as possible. When they heard the clicker, all of them came running. They were back under cover and safety within fifteen seconds. They got some scratch to reinforce the training.

Well that sounds great I have an entire bag of clickers from clicker training dogs. I think we'll start this tonight. They already know when I bring out the bug black plate, it means a treat so hopefully I can use that to my advantage here too.

Great advice, thanks. Now fingers crossed that it works.
 
Well that sounds great I have an entire bag of clickers from clicker training dogs. I think we'll start this tonight. They already know when I bring out the bug black plate, it means a treat so hopefully I can use that to my advantage here too.

Great advice, thanks. Now fingers crossed that it works.
That's great! Let us know how it goes! Mine come running whenever they see me, but I like the idea of audio in case of an emergency. I'll try that, too.
 

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