peck the tips of our fingers when we hand feed?? they are 12 wks this upcoming monday..is it an age thing?? it hurts too! I can have a HUGE handful of their feed OR their fave; clover leaves and they go straight for my fingertips!!
My older ones finally learned the difference between fingers and food. I wish they would teach the younger ones. Just wait until they discover freckles.
I think they think its worms. Mine do it all the time or will grab a chunk of skin. Dont ever have on setting on your lap facing you and smile. I got my tooth pecked that way. that hurt!
My chickens tend to all be different,, some are gentle some not so much, and since I hand feed treats, I have learned which ones are a little more "eager".., and will feed the ones that are gentle and I don't say anything to them, when I see one that tends to be alittle more "eager" coming up for a bite I tell them "careful now" kinda in a loud voice but not mean, but it gets there attention and they are nicer about it. LOL there so funny. PS none of my chicken are mean just get a little worked up about the goodies!
I stopped hand feeding when it started hurting. Especially as adults in a flock of chickens, there is SOOOOO much competition for the "treat" that I don't dare get my hands in the way! I dig them up worms and stuff like that, but I put them on the ground for the fastest beak! They generally don't bite my fingers on purpose, if we are digging in the garden together but they are older now. At the "teenager" stage that your chicks are still in, they're still learning what is good to eat and still very curious about your fingers (and teeth and eyes and freckles and whatever else catches their eye today lol) flip flops are generally discouraged because of curious beaks as well - I wear Crocs instead. hehehe
I don't feed mine from my hand. I usually toss their treats on the ground, in a wide enough area so that they aren't fussing with each other over them. They're always tame, want to come over to visit and like to sit with us or on us, if we don't mind. So, I never had the desire to get my hand mobbed by a whole flock of over excited adult chickens accidentally biting me when they were eating out of my hand. I do hand food to my parrot, but he has better technique. My husband and I were just laughing about the parrot. He has better technique when he wants to. He also can go after fingers like they are lil' smokies. It depends on who you are.
