At the end of my rope with 3 1/2 week-old chick.

[Senorahoney]

ruh roh…y’all are scaring me…I have a mottled Cochin bantam coming in 4 weeks… fingers crossed…

 

[thecatumbrella]

ruh roh…y’all are scaring me…I have a mottled Cochin bantam coming in 4 weeks… fingers crossed…

I rehomed the chick in this post, but I have 3 other mottled and 3 calico. They were VERY nippy and a bit skittish as chicks, but have mellowed out quite a bit at 12 weeks. One will even jump up for a cuddle (but don't touch her!)

 

[Bough]

Pics attached from this morning. 3 weeks 6 days old.

Other than her taking the walk of shame after a hard bite, I only handle for health reasons or transport. I do try to desensitize them to hands in the brooder so that they're not petrified of us (with hand cleaning instead of using tools, or tapping on their food/water/toys to encourage wanted behaviors). The shy Silkies seem to benefit from it, but it does give Tilly more opportunities to misbehave.

Thanks for your help.

I have a bantam mottled cochin and she didn’t look like that. I feel like you may have a roo and that’s why she’s pecking when you try to get one of the silkies. Those are his girls. I would keep holding him daily just to get him used to it. But that’s my opinion. My silkie too was a little more aggressive than the hens and he was supposed to be a she. My other two accidental rioos were also more aggressive in behavior. And none of them got waddles or turned red until after crowing at 10 weeks

 

[BigBlueHen53]

I had a BJG that was pushy/ aggressive/ protective of the pullets at two weeks of age! He'd come up and chest-bump my hand when I tried to remove feeders, waterers, etc. Well, I just "chest-bumped" him right back, with my hand! He came at me again a little harder, so I bumped him back, a little harder. This went on for about 10 blows each. I figured that last bump might have hurt him a bit, but I only hit him as hard as he hit me. He staggered back and thought about hitting me again. But then he thought better of it and didn't. And that was the end of that. He made a grand cockerel and later, a wonderful roo ... until a coyote got him along with 4 of my BA hens.