Well I have had my chicks respond to new things this way. They are afraid of new treats or foods if I just take them in their pen and plop them down or hang them up. They won’t touch them. I have to hand feed the item to them all first. Then after they have all tried it from my hand first then they will eat it elsewhere. They are so funny. I am really their Mom in real. My daughter and husband have all fed them and watered them when I have asked them too and my daughter has been almost as much involved in their daily routine as much as I have but I always tuck them in at night so to speak and get up with them first and check on them during the night and always take care of issues and do all of the big chores as far as bedding changes, main daily feeds, introducing new foods, give them stuff from the garden such as cucumbers on a stick or string- that is better to them than an apple on a stick. They love carrot greens and prefer the greens to the actual carrots. They get the tops now and my dogs or us get the bottoms. Go figure. A bunch of those will keep them busy for a while. However, I just never anticipated how attached they really would become to me and a person. Don’t under estimate them. They are superior to your furry pets in many ways and they do bond with you. I don’t care what other people might think. There can be a group of folks in the room with my birds which I don’t allow very often and they don’t mind it too much but I can walk in the room and they immediately know my voice and become calmer and more relaxed. We had such a major change in our weather after I put them outside. Mississippi is of course hot in June but it really changed from one day to the next and didn’t quit and they weren’t adjusted well enough so I put them in our basement to be cooler but not back in the air conditioning. I didn’t want them to lose what they had gained after putting them outside for a week and a half. So....they can’t really tell if it’s day or night down there and I don’t like it for them for long but it’s so much colder. It’s like 75 to 80 instead of 95-100 during the day temp wise and 105-110 real feel. They miss having the human contact and the interaction with activities and the outside of course activity where they should be. If you raise them from babies and handle them enough I think they do think Of you as more than the treat bag if you treat them right. I guess it depends on what you want to get out of them. Not everyone wants the same things from their hens. Everyone usually wants eggs sure. Most people need the eggs or they wouldn’t get the chickens for laying them unless they are raising broilers. If so then they usually don’t talk too much about them. I am not able to work anymore. If I was I wouldn’t be able to have chickens. I can’t chase them but if they are in a proper enclosure I can take the proper care of them well enough. I can put a stool or chair in their run and visit all I want and I intend to do a great deal of that when it’s completed next week. I can’t wait. Can y’all tell? I am laying on my bed now with my spinal cord stimulator on 50% - almost wide open sending my legs up in the air under their own power not mine- and I am just having a good ole time thinking of things to put in our coop’s first aid kit, and trying to make a mental list of everything else I need to have in the coop and run before I turn them loose for the first time. They have not even seen grass yet and that is because we have hawks, owls, dogs all around-not ours, coons,foxes,snakes,possums,skunk, the neighbor has free ranging chickens with a rooster and we don’t want chicks. And oh yes we cannot forget all of the stray and claimed when convenient and unclaimed with collars on - neighborhood cats-, and the abundance of coyotes. I have a chain link fence all around my back yard and six food wood fence where it is not chain link. They came directly to the gate and tried to get in by knocking it open. I never have dog food outside so there was no attractant there and luckily that night they didn’t jump my fence because they could have and my little dogs were out. Mine was sitting on my lap up on our screened in porch up above them real high thank goodness and I was looking down on them. So predators out the ting yang and way more than we can manage without a safe place to manage them either during the day or night safely so we just had to wait on the construction on the coop to be finito. Well I have rambled on for days and nights too. Y’all I wish you all good luck with your gals and guys too if that happens to you too!!
Take care,
Pam