DarkKnight
In the Brooder
- Sep 24, 2023
- 13
- 40
- 34
Hi all.
I have a ~10 week old EE that I've raised since 2 days old, along with 1 other EE, a polish, and a Silver laced plymouth rock. All are definitely pullets. This particular EE grew really, really fast and almost from hatching until about 4 weeks ago was easily twice the size of the others with just absolutely enormous clown feet like talons. While the sizes have gotten a lot more equal this month, she still has height, length, and weight on the next closest bird, the other EE. She was yellow at hatch with a couple of bright white feathers on her wings. She feathered in 98% white, then as her feathers have been cycling they are picking up small flecks of brown and a like one or two spots of grey. She looks pretty close to this girl: https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/white-easter-egger-gender.686515/
For about 2 weeks, my nervous EE was okay being handled, but once she got big enough to struggle, she has been an absolute pain to deal with. We are first time chicken owners, so had no experience in holding chickens. I spent a lot of time reading on here and watching videos to learn about how to hold larger chickens. I started doing the 'fork between the legs' one handed hold, that was better for her until she got larger than my hand, and while it's effective at keeping her from hurting me, she frequently flaps a lot and I have to hold her wings tight with a second hand. That's fine, but there are times when it's not practical. I try the football or other holds, but she starts panicking pushing her head into the crook of my arm and quickly fighting to get loose.
For example, tonight, for some reason she jumped down off the roosting bar. I went to put her back up on the bar, and it just went really badly. She was facing away from me laying in the bedding right in the drop zone from above. I spoke quietly as I opened the cage and reached in, so they know it's me. She didn't panic when I made contact with her so I gave her some pets with little but a distressed 'meep' in return. When I went to pick her up though, she started this airy quiet screaming and struggling. She reared her talons up and started flailing. I let her roost on my left hand so she'd calm down to which she sat down and calmed down immediately. I tried to transfer her to the bar, but again it went badly and my right hand got tore up by her enormous talons/claws as she panicked.
I've spent a lot of time training these 4 to deal with human handling and lap sitting. I did get bit and pecked a few times about 4 or 5 weeks ago, but put a stop to that pretty quickly. Nobody bites or pecks to hurt a human now. This lady will sit calmly in my lap for 30 minutes with snacks and will tolerate some petting, but is just a nightmare to actually pickup. I've gone to holding her against my chest from underneath, pushing her legs out in a Y with my arm, a bit like beer can chicken or maybe one of those chest baby carry harness, just to keep us from hurting each other. She doesn't really struggle much in that position, but does still fuss.
Is this something that settles down with age? From my perspective, her panic seems to almost be proportional to her size. She's only gotten more terrified and more dangeous the larger shes gotten. At this point, I'm seriously concerned about her getting scared to death or otherwise accidentally killing her as I try to avoid getting scratched up.
TL;DR: I have a (large for her age) EE pullet that is physically calm on the ground, but always seems terrified, and is getting extremely difficult to pickup without me getting hurt. How can I acclimate her to handling without seriously injuring her or me?
I have a ~10 week old EE that I've raised since 2 days old, along with 1 other EE, a polish, and a Silver laced plymouth rock. All are definitely pullets. This particular EE grew really, really fast and almost from hatching until about 4 weeks ago was easily twice the size of the others with just absolutely enormous clown feet like talons. While the sizes have gotten a lot more equal this month, she still has height, length, and weight on the next closest bird, the other EE. She was yellow at hatch with a couple of bright white feathers on her wings. She feathered in 98% white, then as her feathers have been cycling they are picking up small flecks of brown and a like one or two spots of grey. She looks pretty close to this girl: https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/white-easter-egger-gender.686515/
For about 2 weeks, my nervous EE was okay being handled, but once she got big enough to struggle, she has been an absolute pain to deal with. We are first time chicken owners, so had no experience in holding chickens. I spent a lot of time reading on here and watching videos to learn about how to hold larger chickens. I started doing the 'fork between the legs' one handed hold, that was better for her until she got larger than my hand, and while it's effective at keeping her from hurting me, she frequently flaps a lot and I have to hold her wings tight with a second hand. That's fine, but there are times when it's not practical. I try the football or other holds, but she starts panicking pushing her head into the crook of my arm and quickly fighting to get loose.
For example, tonight, for some reason she jumped down off the roosting bar. I went to put her back up on the bar, and it just went really badly. She was facing away from me laying in the bedding right in the drop zone from above. I spoke quietly as I opened the cage and reached in, so they know it's me. She didn't panic when I made contact with her so I gave her some pets with little but a distressed 'meep' in return. When I went to pick her up though, she started this airy quiet screaming and struggling. She reared her talons up and started flailing. I let her roost on my left hand so she'd calm down to which she sat down and calmed down immediately. I tried to transfer her to the bar, but again it went badly and my right hand got tore up by her enormous talons/claws as she panicked.
I've spent a lot of time training these 4 to deal with human handling and lap sitting. I did get bit and pecked a few times about 4 or 5 weeks ago, but put a stop to that pretty quickly. Nobody bites or pecks to hurt a human now. This lady will sit calmly in my lap for 30 minutes with snacks and will tolerate some petting, but is just a nightmare to actually pickup. I've gone to holding her against my chest from underneath, pushing her legs out in a Y with my arm, a bit like beer can chicken or maybe one of those chest baby carry harness, just to keep us from hurting each other. She doesn't really struggle much in that position, but does still fuss.
Is this something that settles down with age? From my perspective, her panic seems to almost be proportional to her size. She's only gotten more terrified and more dangeous the larger shes gotten. At this point, I'm seriously concerned about her getting scared to death or otherwise accidentally killing her as I try to avoid getting scratched up.
TL;DR: I have a (large for her age) EE pullet that is physically calm on the ground, but always seems terrified, and is getting extremely difficult to pickup without me getting hurt. How can I acclimate her to handling without seriously injuring her or me?
