chicks have become skittish?

[iPeanut1990]

My chicks are, well, they're turning into big fat chickens. They're scared of everything now. Is this normal? They'll be 2 weeks old on Wednesday. We haven't changed anything. We take them outside for about 10 minutes almost every day which they seem to really really enjoy. They like digging around in the dirt. Now they peep really loudly and flap their wings like they're scared every time we come into the room where the brooder is. Maybe they're just trying to fly? They settle down pretty quickly. Should we stop handling them as much for a few days. If I put my hand in there they come up to it and gently peck at my fingers curiously but then they freak out when I move my hand.

 

[chooks4life]

If someone's catching them and then allowing them to 'escape' rather than letting them only leave peacefully, they will be learning some serious flighty behavior, reinforced every time they fail to escape the 'predator' initially only to escape it later. In this case the 'predator' is a human, I would bet, but rats in their living area can do the same to them mentally. I would recommend you monitor everyone's interactions with them to see who may be doing this, or anything else to inspire fear or anxiety.

When you say they're 'scared of everything' I'm picturing them fleeing from inanimate object, but then you describe them acting normal outside, and then you describe them acting fearful of human movement.

If they were truly scared of everything it could be a deficiency i.e. calcium/magnesium shortage, which can cause nervous behavior, which can in turn be due to illness, toxicity, diet, genetics, etc.

But due to the later part about them startling at human hands I think you may need to monitor how people are interacting with them. Some people naturally do the very worst things, they have a knack for it. Some people only get along with predators, some only with prey. Some act like predators, some like prey. I'd guess you have someone mimicking the behavior of a predator on your chicks.

Best wishes.

 

[iPeanut1990]

Ok, I guess "everything" was a little exaggeration lol. They will hop on our laps if we sit on the ground with them. They'll eat out of our hands. We try to scoop them up rather than grab them from above. We try not to pick them up too suddenly too. However all I did was clear my throat earlier and they all 3 darted across the brooder and then froze. We're doing our best not to scare them because we want friendly chickens so we're a little sad they're acting this way. I don't want it to become a long term problem. How should we be handling them?

 

[maryellen21]

Some of mine were like that at a few weeks old, the comets were fine, but the bantams and tetras were really skittish with noises and fast movements in the tubs in the house. I didnt move them out alot . Once i put them all in their coop they got more friendly and with noises i just socialized like a dog to different sounds. They were afraid of me sneezing lol, and now are fine. Give them time and socialization and they should be fine

 

[chooks4life]

Ok, I guess "everything" was a little exaggeration lol. They will hop on our laps if we sit on the ground with them. They'll eat out of our hands. We try to scoop them up rather than grab them from above. We try not to pick them up too suddenly too. However all I did was clear my throat earlier and they all 3 darted across the brooder and then froze. We're doing our best not to scare them because we want friendly chickens so we're a little sad they're acting this way. I don't want it to become a long term problem. How should we be handling them?

Ah, I see. It can just be instincts kicking in, though it's weird it's happening at this stage, generally they're either instinctive or low-instinct from a young age. Still, exposing them to a more natural environment wakens dormant instinct, so the free ranging could be getting their ancestral instincts stirred up.

Don't coddle them would be my suggestion, cough or clear your throat as normal, and if they spook, simply talk calmly to them, reassure them, and continue on doing whatever you do normally. They have to get used to it. You'll see with roosters, if they get overly keen and charge over to a new hen and accidentally spook her, they stop immediately and make soothing noises. Most animals will respond to that. They understand tone naturally.

With chooks, they're very adaptable and should settle quickly. They get so brave about things they are regularly exposed to that we've had some walk under a running dropsaw or vehicle. Most didn't get hurt, thankfully, but they will be right in the workshop with you, with hammers and drills and saws going, they lose all fear. One did get killed, but she had this thing where she would charge vehicles head-on. No idea why. When she did get run over, it was because she ran under the back wheel, just to be more random.

Just try to be mindful of how they respond to your body language and tone, and try to establish some reliable communications with them, reaching a place where they understand your intentions based on vocal tones. They're pretty trainable once you spend some time figuring them out. It may help to have treats on hand to get them approaching you again if they startle, to break them out of any aversive behavioral pattern. Talking is one of the best things you can do to establish understanding between you and animals.

Please, try not to take it to heart if they get a little scared of you, it's pretty normal for animals at some point or another to experience conflict between domestic instinct and wild instinct. Laugh at it, scold them in a friendly way for being silly, remain peaceful and try to avoid negative emotions about it, because they do pick up on it and it makes them uncertain. They will probably come out of this as tame and trusting adults if you just remain steady and kind. Chickens also go through a 'terrible teens' period where they can be extra stupid and overstimulated.

As long as you can end all interactions on a positive note, it should 'stick' with them. Even if you accidentally scare them, then have to walk away for whatever reason, chuck them some treats to put them in a better frame of mind, just try to make it end positively. Even if you have to hurt a chook, i.e. when you're treating injuries, as long as the experience ends positively, that's what they remember and focus on.

Best wishes.

 

[penella22]

Thanks for posting this thread, as I am in a bit of a similar situation. My chicks are a week old today, and I have eight of them in a fairly large brooder. Every day I sit by the brooder and lean down with some of their chick starter, or hardboiled egg in my hand. They've learned to all run right over and soon will hop up in my hand and peck at me. At least, there's about half of them that will.

The other half is more skittish, and may come up to my hand only to run away again without eating. My husband and I thought we would do a 'photo shoot' with them today, but I wanted to catch them with patience and treats, and he wanted to 'scare them to me.'

I only caught one chick and they got all riled up and piled into each other in a corner. Not good. I made him leave since he wasn't being patient about it. I will have to explain it to him more.

In the meantime, this is something my chicken books didn't cover enough in detail. Yes, there are some walking on my hand but it seems hard to convert this into picking them up. I want more of a plan to get them comfortable with being handled. I can only imagine it gets worse as they get older if you don't handle them. Not sure what to do to entice the other four chicks...maybe get mealworms? Maybe a better treat will win them over.

The other thing is that they are growing fast and their pecking at my hand is soon going to be painful. Do you just wear gloves around them always? Or not feed them from your hand?

Hope I'm not hijacking the thread, it's just pretty much the same topic I was going to post so I figured there wasn't much point in duplication, and, that maybe it's helpful to know there's another chick owner out there dealing with similar issues.

 

[chooks4life]

Thanks for posting this thread, as I am in a bit of a similar situation. My chicks are a week old today, and I have eight of them in a fairly large brooder. Every day I sit by the brooder and lean down with some of their chick starter, or hardboiled egg in my hand. They've learned to all run right over and soon will hop up in my hand and peck at me. At least, there's about half of them that will.

The other half is more skittish, and may come up to my hand only to run away again without eating. My husband and I thought we would do a 'photo shoot' with them today, but I wanted to catch them with patience and treats, and he wanted to 'scare them to me.'

I only caught one chick and they got all riled up and piled into each other in a corner. Not good. I made him leave since he wasn't being patient about it. I will have to explain it to him more.

Hope that works, one person frightening them can make a bad impression... But, since they are flock birds, they can distinguish between individual members in a family, so given time they will learn which family member to avoid. There are some chickens which prefer men, some which prefer women, some which prefer kids, some which prefer no humans at all. If you're the source of treats and calmness they will like you, it's almost a guarantee. Almost.

In the meantime, this is something my chicken books didn't cover enough in detail. Yes, there are some walking on my hand but it seems hard to convert this into picking them up. I want more of a plan to get them comfortable with being handled. I can only imagine it gets worse as they get older if you don't handle them. Not sure what to do to entice the other four chicks...maybe get mealworms? Maybe a better treat will win them over.

Varying the treats is a good idea too. They like watermelon, really just melons and fruits in general, as well. If you don't talk to them when they're on your hand, or when you've got food to offer them, you should start.

Some chickens are human-averse by nature. They choose to not interact with you if they have a choice. I rehome or cull those, because while some just don't like you, some are actively anti-human and incite others to distrust you, for example hens with babies or roosters with hens will utter the 'predator in the area' alarm noise when they see you and lead the movement away from you.

It's without justification and the last thing you need are fear-mongerers getting the rest of the flock to distrust you and making all your work with them harder. For their own sakes they need to trust you to some extent, otherwise treating them for anything necessary can be impossible due to unreasoning fear. If you have a hen training her babies to avoid you, that's very hard to undo. It's a behavioral pattern that breeds on fairly true and it's counterproductive to them and you.
The other thing is that they are growing fast and their pecking at my hand is soon going to be painful. Do you just wear gloves around them always? Or not feed them from your hand?

I handfeed them and don't use gloves. I think handfeeding is important because otherwise they remain ignorant about what a hand is, and that results in the adult chook who leaps up, aiming for your sandwich, and takes a stab at your hand instead, and isn't apologetic because it has no idea it hurt you. (Yes, they can be apologetic, if they accidentally hurt one another they make some pretty apologetic sounding noises to try to reconcile with the accidental victim).

Chooks that get used to hands learn to be very careful, they won't hurt you. This is very important for me because I require my animals to be safe with small children. It's also part of the bonding process I use. Some swear by not handling/handfeeding roosters, but I swear by it. It's pretty natural, as they trust the animal that feeds them, and respect it. Chicks trust and respect their mothers, hens trust and respect roosters who look after them, my roosters trust and respect me because I give them treats, as do my family members; I make sure everyone is respected and trusted by the chooks as much as possible so I supervise treat feeding with kids, etc. It's natural for them to bond to the one/s that feed/s them. I don't use automatic feeders for this reason. It's important that they know I provide the food. Automatic feeders aren't the end of this possibility for establishing trust but it can help with a large free ranging flock to have them all trained to come on command, is all.

If the pecks don't hurt now, it might be a good idea to leave your hands where they can peck at them and let them peck until they are bored. They're only babies and much like little goats they learn about the world by trying to eat it.

They don't have a mother to tell them to eat only this, and not that, so they have to experiment. You can try to take on the role, by mimicking a hen's movements with your hands when you 'peck' up a piece of food and call them to come get it. That can help them learn to take from your hand, not attack your hand.

You don't need to go overboard with the imitating a hen analogy, really any vocal encouragement you give them while pointing repeatedly at a food item will get their attention. Then you can pick it up and hand it to them when they come to investigate. Live insects are ideal for this as the movement really stimulates them and the fresh raw protein will stimulate them even more, and intense/strong experiences, positive or negative, cement in their mind more solidly. Grasshoppers or crickets would really excite them.

You can also 'scratch' at the food like a hen, just with your fingertip rearranging it, it helps them learn what's food and what's you. This works better if you have something to bury the food in. Giving them something to dig in will give them something to be curious about, and if you can give them something to dig for, they will be quite happy, and it's easier for you to sort of sidle in there as a mother/father figure/flock leader helping them dig and hunt, feeding them. It gets them use to rapid and normal movements from you without spooking them. I've used that method with termite mounds to help bond frightened chooks to me. With fresh raw protein as a reward, with you helping them get it, they will get the idea quickly.

Hope I'm not hijacking the thread, it's just pretty much the same topic I was going to post so I figured there wasn't much point in duplication, and, that maybe it's helpful to know there's another chick owner out there dealing with similar issues.

Same sort of issue in the one thread I wouldn't think is much of a hijack, maybe just helping people find info in one area.

Best wishes.