My flock of chicks is five weeks old, and I recently moved them to a transient coop on my back porch while I build their permanent home. Up until four weeks, I had to keep them in an oversize Rubbermaid bin (21 chicks got pretty cramped in there by four weeks!), which made it hard to get them used to human contact, since the only thing they saw every day was a hand coming down out of the sky. Needless to say they were always terrified!
Now that they've been in their new home about a week, I've been able to handle them properly and show up with goodies every day, mealworms, oats, veggie scraps, and they love it. I have 12 RIRs, 8 brown leghorns, and 1 Wyandotte, and I've slowly been introducing them to the yard in mixed groups, each day taking a couple more outside until today I managed to get all 21 out and running around. For the most part they stick near me, running to hide between my legs when they get scared, but I'm having trouble with the leghorns. Every single one of my RIRs loves to play with me, and they'll even hop up in my lap when I sit on the ground. Every one of my leghorns thinks I want to eat them!
Today the worst happened: I had two leghorns, one pullet and one cockerel, run off into the woods as I was gathering everyone up to carry back to the coop (the porch it's on is screened in and they haven't figured out yet how to climb the porch steps and find the coop themselves). I doubt I'll see them again, but at this point I've pretty much said good riddance. The leghorns get so anxious and flighty that their paranoia starts to affect the RIRs after a while, to the point that I'm highly considering getting rid of all the leghorns if they don't start warming up to me. Any suggestions on how to socialize the leghorns? And any tips on possibly attracting the missing two back to the yard?
Now that they've been in their new home about a week, I've been able to handle them properly and show up with goodies every day, mealworms, oats, veggie scraps, and they love it. I have 12 RIRs, 8 brown leghorns, and 1 Wyandotte, and I've slowly been introducing them to the yard in mixed groups, each day taking a couple more outside until today I managed to get all 21 out and running around. For the most part they stick near me, running to hide between my legs when they get scared, but I'm having trouble with the leghorns. Every single one of my RIRs loves to play with me, and they'll even hop up in my lap when I sit on the ground. Every one of my leghorns thinks I want to eat them!
Today the worst happened: I had two leghorns, one pullet and one cockerel, run off into the woods as I was gathering everyone up to carry back to the coop (the porch it's on is screened in and they haven't figured out yet how to climb the porch steps and find the coop themselves). I doubt I'll see them again, but at this point I've pretty much said good riddance. The leghorns get so anxious and flighty that their paranoia starts to affect the RIRs after a while, to the point that I'm highly considering getting rid of all the leghorns if they don't start warming up to me. Any suggestions on how to socialize the leghorns? And any tips on possibly attracting the missing two back to the yard?
