Can chickens be trained? Stupid rooster!

[KlaHaYa Gardens]

@acissej and @Chicken.Lytle

After you folks are confident in your new skills, PLEASE pass them on!

I'm sure there are others that would appreciate knowing, especially if you can show them, just how well this works.

 

[Saltysteele]

i have a sister who is finishing up her phd in behavioral analysis.

if you ask me, what they teach you in her classes, is how to feel good about yourself by explaining to others what their flaws are in a way in which is not to belittle. she wonders why no one but her friends in her program want to talk to her.


are there any classes that teach what a chicken is thinking? i've never known a prey animal that can speak, that we may know what it is truly thinking. until we find one, it is all speculation based on imposing our own human emotions and feelings onto an animal. we have no way of knowing what is going on in that animals mind, aside from a handful of obvious emotions (fear, being one of them).

and then, once that speaking animal of prey is found, who is to say it is speaking for all animals?

trying to reason with a chicken, or use human logic is a bunch of bologna.

shoot! you have all these experts telling us how to treat our kids, and look at what they're turning into - a bunch of brats who think they can do whatever they want.

you can do what you want, but if my rooster decides to become a jerk, he's getting a thunkin' on the head

 

[mariel37]

Chicken.Lytle :

I practiced rooster stalking today. Works a treat! I was already doing this, but at a slower pace. The speedier pursuit got a much stronger reaction from the rooster.

BTW, any time the rooster fails to get out of my way I just walk into him. He only did this once deliberately.

This is a great example of the kind of "focused" internal confident energy I was talking about in my previous post (the one about prey vs. predator psychology). Not "mean" energy - confident and in charge energy.

There IS a difference. Congratulations on a job well done!​

 

[Becky_H]

You know, sometimes I wonder if people realize that there *are* in fact good roosters out there, and that the more aggressive 'roos people keep (and allow to breed) the more common this trait is going to become. I'm kind of flummoxed by this almost constantly. You read these communities and they give you the impression ever rooster's an jerk - and I think this part people mistaking aggression for roosters being teenagers, but a lot of it's just that the good roos aren't being talked about.

I have a rooster. He's 2. He is, as of right now, my only chicken He's a housepet, much the same way an extremely large dove or parrot would be (only less intelligent, and less messy). He's a sweetheart to all people. A lot of that, I am sure, is having no girls to protect. I'm also sure that some of it's just the amount of socialization he's had with people. The rest is, quite simply, that he's not an aggressive jerk. ...Unless you're a cat, but that's an entirely different thing.

 

[QualityPolish]

I agree Becky, not all roos are mean. My mother had one a long time ago who was very cuddly and loved to be around people. I think it's possibly how you raise them, now of course sometimes it's just their personality but make sure if you're wanting a friendly roo associate with him. If he's rude never allow him to breed or else there's a very likely chance his offspring will be just like him.

As for being able to train chickens..well. I can say they can be trained to come xD If you've got food, expect to be trampled!

 

[Barrdwing]

I raised an orphaned chick from a feral flock a couple of years ago, and the little squirt turned out to be a rooster. He's still separated from the main flock (we have an embarrassment of roosters already) and spends the days in a tractor on the lawn, and nights in a box in the laundry room. Because he gets picked up and handled daily, he's pretty accustomed to it. But he did go through a biting phase when he was four months old. I dealt with it by teaching him that "Stop that!" is a warning, and if he persists, then he will get picked up and restrained firmly. When I go to carry him out to his tractor in the mornings, he dances like mad in his box; he's likelier to bite when dancing, so I wait until he stops and stands, then pick him up and carry him out.

I am pretty sure that being hand-raised, he has gotten extremely accustomed to humans, and if he were loose in the yard he might become a holy terror because he's not afraid of us. But the way things are set up currently, he gets daily reminders that we're bigger than him. It's a good relationship overall. He doesn't defend his tractor from me and comes right over to be picked up in the evenings.

 

[Becky_H]

Quote:
I am pretty sure this is actually part of the good relationship we have with our guy - except inside he's in a large parrot cage for roosting and nights. He DOES go out into a tractor during the day, though not all day. I realize I give the impression he's locked up 24/7, but he's not. He also definitely had a phase around 4-5 months where he'd get overly excited when he was going out and bite. mostly though he's just a sweetheart of a roo. And yep, presumably the necessity of being carted around by us has helped that

 

[TinyLittleFarm]

KlaHaYa, I just tried the stalking technique with Jack, our one year old Light Brahma who has turned into quite a jerk in the last couple months. The kids have been begging for a stay of execution for him.

I stalked him around the yard for a few minutes and he did NOT like that at all. He ran into the coop and hid from me. I can't wait to do it again. Once I have him convinced that DH and I are both the boss of him, I'm going to take one kid at a time with me into the run and have them stalk with me. Kids are 8 and 10 so they are big enough to pull this off. I'm so sick of worrying about him hurting someone.

Thank you for the great advice.

 

[KlaHaYa Gardens]

Quote:
Excellent!!

Keep up a quick pace and no hesitation. Do it for a few days, several times a day before you involve the kids.

I am not worried that I chicken would NOT be intimidated by the size of a child, a peacock is much smaller and chickens are terrified of a stalking peacock. However, as has been pointed out many times, kids aren't worth risking. We don't want them hurt and we don't want a fear-complex developing. Having said that, I'm sure the stalking will work well for you!


Glad to be of help!!

 

[Barrdwing]

<huge "a-ha!" moment> So that's what Pod has been up to! Pod is our senior peacock, and ever since the breeding season started he has been stalking his son Yoshi. Not all the time--generally every three or four days--but once he starts, he won't stop. Now that I know that he's just taking a "pacifistic" approach to establishing his dominance, I'll stop worrying about it. (And the next time our rooster Baron gives me the fisheye, I'm going to stalk him!)