Getting to know chickens -media diary

[Martaals]

This is the best. There is nothing like when they want to be with you and cuddle. I have only had 2 over years that wanted to do that. If you like it, don't discourage the behavior.

I love it, I don't want to discourage it I was just really hungry and wanted to go for breakfast we are trying very hard to make them easy to handle cuddle chickens, andwhen I was just down there before closing up actually Aart and Kali both flew to sit on my shoulder at the same time such cuties! I'll post pictures in a sec

 

[Waves]

Wow i love it
My black 8 month old pullets always jump on my arms or on my coat when they think i have something good to eat! I love it, the bad thing is when they scratch on my neck....

 

[Martaals]

DAY 15 (continuation)
Okay, just because I didn't have time to finish up day 15, I will start where I left off, we taught/showed/urged them to sit on our hand in order to get treats. Pretty straight forward, we just made a little step to reach the treats.
Aart is a little clumsy, and cannot grab so good with her feet, but she is the most eager one and doesn't even blink. She tumbled off once and wanted to come back up straight away. And sometimes she flaps her wings a little to keep balance or find a better position

They are not only trying to get the food, they are also quite relaxed and enjoying the attention



Greta is definitely really good at it and just gets up on your hand no matter what position you hold it. No problem. If you turn your hand a little she doesn't even blink, she just rearranges her grip.



They both could fit on Kim's hand/arm and share


Kali was a little more reluctant to step up, and in the beginning we settled with letting her put one foot one the hand, but eventually she totally got it



Perhaps this was also good practice for them to sit on the roost, because they all went to sit on the stick in the night!

Greta is showing off her great legs


DAY 16
Salad for breakfast and they were super excited and happy about that! After coming home from work we practiced more of our new stepping into the hand trick and they are not even blinking, just going for it


Another cute funny thing that happened, was that Aart decided to fly up and sit on my shoulder

Then Kali thought that looked like a nice place to be so she flew up too, and Aart had to scoot over down to the elbow.


Eventually just Kali was chilling there, cutie


So as you can see it's all cuddles and snuggles over here. And they all went again to sit on their stick. They learn so fast!

 

[Martaals]

Wow i love it
My black 8 month old pullets always jump on my arms or on my coat when they think i have something good to eat! I love it, the bad thing is when they scratch on my neck....

Hahaha that's dedication being the dirt pile your chickens can scratch in
Once I had a kitten who loved running up your body to sit on your shoulder while you were doing stuff. Really charming when she was a tiny kitten with tiny nails, very scary once she got bigger/heavier and sharper eventually she got reschooled into asking to come up and getting a lift.

 

[BY Bob]

DAY 15 (continuation)
Okay, just because I didn't have time to finish up day 15, I will start where I left off, we taught/showed/urged them to sit on our hand in order to get treats. Pretty straight forward, we just made a little step to reach the treats.
Aart is a little clumsy, and cannot grab so good with her feet, but she is the most eager one and doesn't even blink. She tumbled off once and wanted to come back up straight away. And sometimes she flaps her wings a little to keep balance or find a better position
View attachment 2016902View attachment 2016907View attachment 2016900
They are not only trying to get the food, they are also quite relaxed and enjoying the attention
View attachment 2016904
View attachment 2016905

Greta is definitely really good at it and just gets up on your hand no matter what position you hold it. No problem. If you turn your hand a little she doesn't even blink, she just rearranges her grip.
View attachment 2016901
View attachment 2016928

They both could fit on Kim's hand/arm and share
View attachment 2016929View attachment 2016906

Kali was a little more reluctant to step up, and in the beginning we settled with letting her put one foot one the hand, but eventually she totally got it

View attachment 2016909View attachment 2016903

Perhaps this was also good practice for them to sit on the roost, because they all went to sit on the stick in the night!

Greta is showing off her great legs
View attachment 2016908

DAY 16
Salad for breakfast and they were super excited and happy about that! After coming home from work we practiced more of our new stepping into the hand trick and they are not even blinking, just going for it
View attachment 2016927View attachment 2016926

Another cute funny thing that happened, was that Aart decided to fly up and sit on my shoulder
View attachment 2016980
Then Kali thought that looked like a nice place to be so she flew up too, and Aart had to scoot over down to the elbow.
View attachment 2016981

Eventually just Kali was chilling there, cutie
View attachment 2016898

So as you can see it's all cuddles and snuggles over here. And they all went again to sit on their stick. They learn so fast!

Great job training them. They are responding wonderfully.

 

[MaryJanet]

Thanks for the link! I'm really unhandy, so I will pass this on to my housemates I'm already happy they started using it, but it seems not too complicated to make it more attractive for them. Might come in handy especially before we are going to open up the nests again.

I had the same problem in a very similar little coop. When the pullets arrived two weeks ago, I made a new roost for them, higher than the nest boxes and they used it that very night!

I also removed the nest box divider because it made the nests too small for Mary. She's a fullsized Australorp.

 

[Martaals]

I had the same problem in a very similar little coop. When the pullets arrived two weeks ago, I made a new roost for them, higher than the nest boxes and they used it that very night!

View attachment 2017220

View attachment 2017221

I also removed the nest box divider because it made the nests too small for Mary. She's a fullsized Australorp.

Ah cool, thanks for the pictures I will definitely try and have it modified. It's a lot of height difference though! I think greta would love it, everytime I'm cleaning out she likes to go and sit on the roosts (when the floor is out). The others are rather clumsy though,will the height make it more difficult for them to get on it?

 

[Martaals]

Great job training them. They are responding wonderfully.

We don't have to do much, I think the credit goes to the chickens in this case, they are so easygoing and social by nature.

 

[MaryJanet]

Ah cool, thanks for the pictures I will definitely try and have it modified. It's a lot of height difference though! I think greta would love it, everytime I'm cleaning out she likes to go and sit on the roosts (when the floor is out). The others are rather clumsy though,will the height make it more difficult for them to get on it?

It's roughly 30cm to hop up. Both pullets managed fine first time. They were 13 weeks old at the time.

 

[BY Bob]

Ah cool, thanks for the pictures I will definitely try and have it modified. It's a lot of height difference though! I think greta would love it, everytime I'm cleaning out she likes to go and sit on the roosts (when the floor is out). The others are rather clumsy though,will the height make it more difficult for them to get on it?

It should not. They can fly and should be able to reach a roost of that height easily.