Are adults calmer and more friendly than chicks?

[kat salamon]

We have 8 chickens (2 roosters and 6 hens). They are about 7 weeks. We have Rhode Island Reds and Barred Plymouth Rocks. They run away from us like crazy. Will they get less freaked out by us as they get older? Thanks!

 

[Pyxis]

They might be skittish as adults too if they're truly running from you in a panic, but chicks can go through an "everything is trying to kill me!" phase.

Try to win them over with treats! I start mine young and feed them a bit of scrambled egg by hand each day. Within a couple days they are running to meet me at the brooder edge to see if I'm bringing them a treat. They swarm my hand and climb all over me when I stick it in the brooder. They're happy to be scooped up from below and held (they will run a little if I try to grab them from above since they instinctually fear things coming at them from above but they don't put up a fuss once I've got them).

So try out some treats and see how that goes. Here's one of my current batch contentedly sitting in my hand.

 

[kat salamon]

Great idea, thanks! Mine are already 7 weeks but I will start working on this tomorrow.