Disciplining your birds????

[Newfarmer36]

I was just reading about people that discipline their birds. One person said they spank them for "being bad" and tell them no and another person said they hold them by the neck until their eyes roll back in their head to break them from bad habits.. I've never heard of anything like this. Does anyone else do this? Wouldn't it just frighten the birds??

 

[sourland]

No disciplining here. "Holding them by the neck until their eyes roll back" sounds like abuse to me. No kicking, no hitting. Forced submission for human aggression - absolutely, and sometimes it even works. I have no problem killing humanely, but have great problems with abuse. Whether it is intentional or not.

 

[BantyChooks]

No disciplining here. "Holding them by the neck until their eyes roll back" sounds like abuse to me.

x2. Correction must be given in a way the birds understand. Holding them by the neck is NOT one of those and constitutes abuse.

Pecking on the head or back with a finger works, as does a shove/kick to move them out of your space with the severity depending on how bad the bird's behaviour is in terms of threat to human safety. An aggressive rooster will get pushed a lot farther than a hen that's too rough in taking food. No, I don't mean you should be inflicting actual damage to them, but giving them a regular kick isn't going to mentally or physically scar them. Chooks are light enough that the energy transferred by the kick makes them involuntarily move a few feet away rather than remaining still or nearly still like an average weight dog would and absorbing all that energy themselves, which often renders harm to the critter. Does that make sense? I have a difficult time putting that into words without sounding like some psycho, lol. NO, I don't kick dogs.

Any correction used should be constant. Don't chase them out of your space one day and then lug them around like a doll the next. The amount of force applied shouldn't ever exceed what you could do by leaning down and pushing them with your hand, IMO. Feet are just a safer way of doing it because then your face stays farther from the bird. Plus, your hands don't have shoes on to protect them.

Watch the birds, and see how they settle disputes among themselves. Copy that; those things are what they understand.

 

[N F C]

The kind of "correction" you've read about is abusive in my eyes. A bird isn't going to understand spanking and it's not going to understand being held down like that. The only thing the bird is going to learn is to be afraid of humans.

 

[Abriana]

Chickens don’t learn like people do, disciplining your birds won’t rid them of bad habits, it will only make them afraid of people. The ways you’ve been reading about are abusive and cruel. I feel terrible for those poor birds you’ve been reading about.

 

[Newfarmer36]

I was horrified when I read that. I'm not trying to call my birds stupid but I didn't think they understood what was happening either! I've waved my hand and told them to "get" before and ive waved my foot at them and told them to move but I've never hit them. When my rooster was beating the daylights out of my bantam rooster, all i did was run over and clap my hands really loud and screamed "stop!!" I don't understand animal abuse. Poor things!

 

[Newfarmer36]

Chickens don’t learn like people do, disciplining your birds won’t rid them of bad habits, it will only make them afraid of people. The ways you’ve been reading about are abusive and cruel. I feel terrible for those poor birds you’ve been reading about.

Me too! You should've seen the comments people wrote about how they discipline their chickens and ducks!

 

[Abriana]

How mean!

That’s horrible!

 

[Newfarmer36]

That’s horrible!

It Is! They don't know what they're getting beat for! Poor things!

 

[Abriana]

It Is! They don't know what they're getting beat for! Poor things!

I wish I could take them all away from those people.