Chicken scared of leash

[Fluffs_flock]

I have a 4 year old hen who I recently got a harness and leash for. She's fine with the harness (she's had aprons on before) but when I attached the leash she freaked out. Any suggestions on how to walk my chicken?

 

[chickenlittle21]

Is there a reason you need to walk your chicken or is it just for fun?

 

[Fluffs_flock]

Is there a reason you need to walk your chicken or is it just for fun?

Just for fun.

 

[MarkJr]

I’m sorry... I can’t stop laughing at the mental image in my head!!!
What about the leash is scary?

Maybe use a piece of braided fishing line.... then a piece of jute cording.... eventually working up to an actual leash??

 

[21hens-incharge]

Leash=restraint=something has a hold of me=terrified chicken.

Fun for the human. Not fun for the chicken.

Maybe walk a dog instead.....

 

[cottontail farm]

I can't imagine that any chicken would NOT freak out about a leash. If you think about it, everything eats chicken. You've just attached something strange to her that's taller than her and moves erratically.

 

[cottontail farm]

Let me add that the movement of a leash above her head is probably not too far off (in a chicken brain) to the flapping of a hawk's wings.

 

[Fluffs_flock]

It's not that it's restraining her or anything like that. We've had things on her before, she's fine with it. The worst part of the harness is she gets her foot caught sometimes and trips, but even then we only put it on her when we are outside. She just waits for us to untangle her.

It's not really even the movement over her head. We come up behind her and pick her up, she's totally cool with it. She even likes being picked up.

This time though, for whatever reason, she saw the leash dragging behind her and got scared. I get that she thought it was chasing her, but she's seen it before and been cool. So she just tried to run and I caught her and took it off and soothed her.

Should I give up completely, or try to convince her the leash is not scary?

 

[TheOddOneOut]

Walk your dog instead.

 

[Sammi_0411]

Might be a really silly question but why would u need to leash a chicken and take her for a walk? Chickens do not like to be restrained etc if its for YOUR fun is it really fair? Really nt trying to be rude but needs to be said