@RebeccaBoyd I am almost afraid to ask, but did you find Ezzie this morning?
Fluffy Butt Acres: Stories of our flock
- Thread starter BY Bob
- Start date
A major chicken keeper failure..and some advice needed.
As I mentioned elsewhere my partner 's mother is in hospital and we were meant to visit her today.
She's not in the nearest ICU as it was full, so it's a two and half hour drive to go see her. We were planning to meet my partner 's sister, his aunt and her husband, visit her at 5 pm, and have dinner together after. This meant we would be home toward 23 pm, so we needed to lock up all chickens inside the run with the coop open so they could go roost at night.
Well it turned out we weren't able to get our gang of four teenagers chicken in the run!!! We got our four ex batts in and Théo and Chipie with no trouble, they are used to it.
But the four old chicks / young chickens...we tried everything : coaxing them with food, running after them, driving them around with sticks.. They were terrified and just ran/flew away. And because they are small enough to go through the chicken nettings they can run anywhere around, and they are fast, and don't hesitate to split up. So after 45 mn and quite a few ugly words towards them and between my partner and me, we gave up and I stayed home.
I used to lock them up like this when they were still with Chipie the broody and it was rather easy as they would follow her. But it's been quite a while, almost a month, since we haven't had the need to lock them in the run (we only do that when we both leave the property). And obviously they forgot and now they are just really scared both of being locked up, and of being locked up with the ex-batts and Théo and Chipie.
So I wasn't looking forward to this visit, but I like my stepmom a lot and she really wanted to see me. And now I'm wondering how we are going to train the four of them to come willingly in the run when we need. They like food and three of them will eat in our hands, but this time even broiled eggs and sunflower seeds weren't a sufficient incentive.
One thing I'm going to do is leave their usual food closer to that of the ex batts inside the chicken zone, as for the time being they don't meddle at all during the day. This should force them to get more used to being together. But I also need to be able to make them come inside the run or the coop when it's needed and accept being locked up.
How would you go about it ? They are not chickens we can pick up, but they do come near us and will ask for food and eat from our hands. I need to work from there.
Three of the four culprits playing jungle foil in the Jerusalem artichokes.
As I mentioned elsewhere my partner 's mother is in hospital and we were meant to visit her today.
She's not in the nearest ICU as it was full, so it's a two and half hour drive to go see her. We were planning to meet my partner 's sister, his aunt and her husband, visit her at 5 pm, and have dinner together after. This meant we would be home toward 23 pm, so we needed to lock up all chickens inside the run with the coop open so they could go roost at night.
Well it turned out we weren't able to get our gang of four teenagers chicken in the run!!! We got our four ex batts in and Théo and Chipie with no trouble, they are used to it.
But the four old chicks / young chickens...we tried everything : coaxing them with food, running after them, driving them around with sticks.. They were terrified and just ran/flew away. And because they are small enough to go through the chicken nettings they can run anywhere around, and they are fast, and don't hesitate to split up. So after 45 mn and quite a few ugly words towards them and between my partner and me, we gave up and I stayed home.
I used to lock them up like this when they were still with Chipie the broody and it was rather easy as they would follow her. But it's been quite a while, almost a month, since we haven't had the need to lock them in the run (we only do that when we both leave the property). And obviously they forgot and now they are just really scared both of being locked up, and of being locked up with the ex-batts and Théo and Chipie.
So I wasn't looking forward to this visit, but I like my stepmom a lot and she really wanted to see me. And now I'm wondering how we are going to train the four of them to come willingly in the run when we need. They like food and three of them will eat in our hands, but this time even broiled eggs and sunflower seeds weren't a sufficient incentive.
One thing I'm going to do is leave their usual food closer to that of the ex batts inside the chicken zone, as for the time being they don't meddle at all during the day. This should force them to get more used to being together. But I also need to be able to make them come inside the run or the coop when it's needed and accept being locked up.
How would you go about it ? They are not chickens we can pick up, but they do come near us and will ask for food and eat from our hands. I need to work from there.
Three of the four culprits playing jungle foil in the Jerusalem artichokes.
Oh dear. Sorry. And I can only imagine how stressful. After a similarly unsuccessful attempt at rounding them up so I could go out before they wanted to go to bed I made a couple of changes.
First, I now have the Chicken Palace complex be absolutely secure - no chickens out and no predators in unless I say so, and it is big enough for them to cope with being locked in there for even a few days. If I know I will need to go away before they are in bed I actually keep them confined all day. This is not a popular decision and I get many complaints but it is plenty spacious enough and they seem to cope just fine.
The second thing I have done is get serious about training them to come to me when they hear me rattle the seeds in the tin cup. I don't give them very many so I am not worried from a nutrition point of view (maybe just a couple of pinches between them) but the tin cup with the seeds makes a nice loud sound and they do all come running. Truth be told Bernadette is not yet fully convinced and Maggie often takes her own sweet time to decide to come in, but I think it is working.
Burying your head is a good strategy for a lot of things, and here it can help you in reframing the situation. Either through fantasy (go to your “happy place”) or in focusing solely on the physical sensations of your fear and not on the fear-producing events, thus compartmentalizing the fear. Anxiety reducing guided meditations do both routes, and could be helpful.Thank you.I'm generally pretty healthy & never had surgery before so the whole thing is doing my head in. I'll probably bury my head in the sand & pretend none of it is happening. The more I learn the worse it all sounds.
Last edited:
Very naughty chickies.
One thing I have learnt with the horses is to make sure they are handled daily otherwise they go wild fast!
With the chickens I always feed them inside the barn, I do not put feed and water outside. I have trained them to come running when I shake the feed bowl and I make sure daily I give a treat of scratch grains so they continue to associate the rattling of the feed dish with treats / feed.
Also I make sure everyone eats together - I do keep an eye out to make sure that the young/old/small/weak ones get their feed. Make sure there are multiple sources of feed well spaced out. But keep it in one location! Inside the run.
The only time I will put water outside is when it’s really hot , to make sure they have access at all times.
I would start by putting the feed close to the entrance were they can see it for a few days then move it inside, would then start locking everyone away in the late afternoon so they get used to going in there.
You can use a phrase to get them to go inside, I tell them ‘go home’ and start to slowly move them inside when I need to contain them.
Unfortunately it’s a slow process and needs to be done daily to keep them ‘tame’ the older birds show the younger birds the ropes. Right now at my place Mr Pompei is learning to ‘go home’.
Just keep it consistent and repeat often - and give plenty of treats! And no yelling running getting upset - in other words don’t leave it till you absolutely need to have them do something! At the last moment…..
Good luck!
- Thread starter
- #105,956
Beautiful mugs all.
Just added the tax!
@ManueB Do they go into the coop at night? If so, that is a good place to start. Make sure there are plenty of hiding spaces they can get under, through, and/or short roosts they can hop onto around in the attached run...and some morning, let everyone out of the coop, but not the run. If you are able to fit a chair in the run, sit in there with them, maybe with snacks...for a while. Do this multiple times until there is some sort of working out of the new pecking order and a semi-peaceful integration while in the run.
Also, a bit before dark...when they are thinking of going to bed, but not yet ready...use a specific call and toss treats into run. Do this for a few days...until they come readily...then gradually move the time a bit earlier and earlier...until you can do it mid-day and they still come running. But first, everyone has to figure out being together in the run comfortably.
Bernadette’s mugshot for Monday. She is getting a nice set of wattles with some swing to them!
Our little photo shoot was closely observed from the other side of the fence and gave me a chance to get another couple of mugshots.
Our little photo shoot was closely observed from the other side of the fence and gave me a chance to get another couple of mugshots.
Last edited:
Bernadette is quite poised & elegant, as always!
And your peeping Tom is quite handsome!
He's a leggy fellow - you must grow them tall down there!
Last edited:
Similar threads
New posts New threads Active threads
-
Latest threads
-
-
-
Older hens won’t forage with younger ones- Started by whatbeginsabetnotthat
- Replies: 0
-
-
-
-
Threads with more replies in the last 15 days
-
-
-
Question of the Day - Thursday, August 14th, 2025- Started by casportpony
- Replies: 69
-
Ended BYC Poultry Caption Contest 08-08-25 Pic by Molpet- Started by TwoCrows
- Replies: 62
-
-
