Does anybody train their chickens?

[Silkie Princess]

Hi! I'm sorry if this isn't the right place to post this But does anybody train their chickens to do tricks? Apart from the come when called kind of thing. I did train my 11-week old chick to stand on my head but...Does anybody teach their chickens to do tricks? And how do you train them?

 

[Silviaschicks]

I do! I train my BR, because she’s my smartest girl and has the longest attention span. I usually train her to interact with objects (like fetch me sticks) and how I did that was I put her on a table with some sticks. When she picked up a stick, I used a clicker and then rewarded her with treats. She kept picking it up because she knew she would get a treat. Then I stopped giving her a treat for picking up the stick, so she would pick it up and move around. Eventually, she brought the stick to me so I rewarded her with her favorite treat, eggs. Then she knew what to do! If she jumped off the table, I let her because you don’t want to exhaust your chicken’s attention. Do you need help training for anything specifically?

 

[Silkie Princess]

I do! I train my BR, because she’s my smartest girl and has the longest attention span. I usually train her to interact with objects (like fetch me sticks) and how I did that was I put her on a table with some sticks. When she picked up a stick, I rewarded her with treats. She kept picking it up because she knew she would get a treat. Then I stopped giving her a treat for picking up the stick, so she would pick it up and move around. Eventually, she brought the stick to me so I rewarded her with her favorite treat, eggs. Then she knew what to do! If she jumped off th table, I let her because you don’t want to exhaust your chicken’s attention. Do you need help training for anything specifically?

Oh well, nothing specific. I just really want to train my sweet girl ( or boy but probably girl) Huggy. I tried teaching her to lie down and it kind of worked out. I also have a crossbeak chick named Crookie that knows how to jump tiny obstacle courses. I know it takes a lot of patience but I do have time. Do you know about any other teachable tricks I can train my chicks? Also, your hen is soo clever! I can't imagine any of mine doing that!

 

[Silviaschicks]

Just pick a hen who has a long attention span and loves treats and you can train them to do almost anything! I recommend that you buy a chicken training book or find a website for chicken tricks, which will have more information than I can give you

 

[BantammChick]

Hi! I'm sorry if this isn't the right place to post this But does anybody train their chickens to do tricks? Apart from the come when called kind of thing. I did train my 11-week old chick to stand on my head but...Does anybody teach their chickens to do tricks? And how do you train them?

I was trying to teach my chickens to jump on my arm for treats, but they started scratching me really bad.

 

[JNC]

I didn’t really train mine but since she grew up as an only chicken it has always been really attached to us. I would sit on The edge of our trampoline and then she would fly up and sit next to me. I don’t know what told me to do this but I put my forearm out to see if she would fly to it and she did! Now she knows how to fly to my forearm when i let her and she perches on it. Every now and then I give her treats when she does it, but I would love to teach her how to fetch!

 

[Silviaschicks]

Currently training my BR to get onto my arm. I'm starting that by putting her on my training table with my arm laid flat. She stepped on my arm a couple of times, so I gave her treats when she did. She hasn't associated getting onto my arm with treats yet because she left. The biggest part of training is making sure if your chicken wants to go it can. Otherwise training will become like a chore to them, something they have less motivation to do

 

[Silviaschicks]

You should rename this thread so it can just be a thread for people to talk about training their chickens

 

[Gammas Bearded Babies]

You should rename this thread so it can just be a thread for people to talk about training their chickens

Once you have trained them to do something using the clicker...do you always have to use the clicker to get them to do it from then on or do you advance to not having to use clicker and they do it just for treats?

 

[Poultrybonkers]

I trained mine to all go to bed at night....thats as far as i go lol