Anyone here train chickens?

[Hen Heaven]

I trained chickens tricks for the first time ever. "Here Chook Chooks!!!" has been around in our place for a while. Instant response. Also, a year ago, Laynee, an Americana, got to know her name. Cool, eh? I don't use a clicker.

In five days, (about 45 mins total) six chickens got to know these tricks well.

1. Peck the Green Circle. Hen pecks green circle, not purple, white or blue. Within 3 minutes, Sierra knew it. Then, the other 5 fallowed. Check!

2. Peck the King. Cards. Hen learns to peck the king, not Queen, or Jack, nor Joker. April learned it first, then Sierra, then Mrs. White, an older chicken. Learned in five minutes. Check!

3. What Hand is It In? Hen has to peck one of my hands. Each hand is folded with fingers facing up. If she pecks the hand with food in it, open both hands, to show that one hand has food and the other does not. Trick learned instantly! Check!

4. Choose a Card. The hands already know to pick the king, so that's what they doing newest trick. Hen has to peck King only. So, I show them about six cards fanned out. They still pick the king, but if I put another face card in, what would happen? It took a while to get the idea, but they still pick the king. They used to peck Jack or Queen, even the Joker. But after a while, they got the hang of it and picked the king. Check!

5. Kings and Greens. Both green circle and King are in front of the chicken. The chicken has to peck one of each once. If so, they get the treat. Got one hen to do it. Check!

6. Up! Up! The chicken has to jump up and peck the green circle that is in my hand. If they jump and peck the circle, they get a treat. Each time, I raise the circle higher up. The chicken has to jump harder and higher every time to get the treat. That worked well. Miss White got it right away! She and two other hens got idea. Check!

Thats what I taught them so far! Every day I'm training them.

TELL ABOUT YOUR CHICKEN AND TRAINING!!! I WOULD LOVE TO HERE ABOUT THEM!

HEN HEAVEN

 

[Nutcase]

Haha you've made me feel so inadequate. I've trained my chickens to go, stay, sit and come pretty easily.

 

[shorttimer]

I know you're expecting someone to ask 'why not make a video' so it might as well be me. Back in the 70s, my uncle trained a cat to fetch a small foil ball. I imagine there's a plethora of tricks you could train a chicken. Sounds like fun. It's way past my bed time, but I always get hung up here at BYC. Now I'll go to bed & not be able to go to sleep thinking of new chicken training tricks. Thanks!

 

[Chicken Breast]

How do you train them? Like dogs? I would like to train my house chickens to stay and sit.

 

[Hen Heaven]

I train them by giving food. If the trick is performed correctly, the hen receives food.

 

[shorttimer]

So does the food/treat need to something special like mealworms, or does it matter?

 

[Fuzz Fuzz]

I do train my bantam silkie too.
I started with a clicker but i'm not fast enough so now i train her without.
Training a chicken is like training a dog. They learn fast and they can do a lot of tricks.

For treats you can use everything as long as they like it very much. I use dried and live meal worms, apple, tomato, or anything else i happen to have on hand.

I don't use her normal food since she doesn't like that enough to work for it because she can eat it whenever she likes.

It's nice to read about other people training there chickens, i always pick up tips and tricks for the training and stuff i can teach her.

 

[sewchick]

The only thing my chicken will do is step up and stay on my arm until I tell her to fly down. I should have made the trick step down. Fly down with men around....well it's probably not the correct thing to say. LOL Other than that I lack the patience.

 

[rooster092]

I would like to start training my chicken but dont know how

 

[Silseb]

Mine are trained to run into a small cat crate, does that count?