Chasing chickens - want them to learn to come to me

[Madvalleychick]

So I didn’t spend enough time training my chickens to let me hold them I guess, because whenever one escapes our run - it’s like a gong show trying to get them to not run away from me. What do I do to train them. Will then come to you if trained to? Normally as soon as they see me they run over to me for a treat or just out of curiosity - but that all falls apart when it is one anxious chicken on the outside. And sometimes the outside is interesting too... more bugs etc. I was thinking about buying mealworms and using them to train the chickens with clickers , like we did with our dog. Any advice?

 

[K0k0shka]

Use your voice. It's familiar and loud and can get their attention better than a clicker, or a visual cue (like the bag of mealworms) especially when they're panicking running away not looking at you. Pick a distinct sound to call them with, one they will recognize easily. I use an imitation of the sound roosters or mama hens make to call the rest over when they've found something tasty to share. It's a loud, sharp tock-tock-tock sound. I do that when I give them treats, or food in general. They learned very quickly and will come running if I make the sound. They come to me anyway, because I hang out with them a lot, but if I make the sound, they REALLY come flying Especially combined with the gesture of me bending over and tapping the ground with a finger (that's how I'd teach them to eat when they were chicks). I've tested this and it really works. My kids will occasionally let a chicken or two out of the run by accident, sending the chickens scrambling, panicked. But the familiar sound snaps them out of it and reliably brings them back.

 

[rosemarythyme]

Yes, they'll come to you if you train them to. Clicker should work fine if you "load" them to it (since you mentioned the dog, I assume you're familiar with that - click, toss treat. Click, toss treat).

I haven't tried it with a clicker but my chickens are trained to come at the sound of treats rattling in a container, as well as returning to the run on voice command.