try not to kiss her on the beak.
Chicken lips!
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try not to kiss her on the beak.
discovered she's fine sitting in the palm of a hand like this
Just to show you how random it is, of my 7 birds, this is the only one that wants to be held. There was no training or bribery involved, we went to pick her up and move her out of the way one day and discovered she's fine sitting in the palm of a hand like this. Even as an adult she still fits in one hand. I "fly" her around like a toy airplane.
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It seems in attempting to appear in the line of “expert,” one must always fall short in some aspect or be humbled by those more knowledgeable. Therefore, I claim no expertise in any one thing, excepting that I can’t seem to stop wanting to hold a chicken.
I know that this habit probably goes against the chicken’s natural dispensations, and that the temptation to hold the chicken is probably related to being a relatively new chicken owner; but once captured, the bird seems pretty quiet and docile. When they are on the ground, they will eat treats from my hand, but if the hand is empty, it is every chicken for himself.
I have truly tried to keep my hands off of my chickens, and having recently acquired a cute and tiny hen, I figured that I had a “clean slate.” Not wanting to induce the “flee for your life” mentality as I somehow did in my rooster (who started out generally unafraid of capture), I avoided picking the new hen up. At first, she showed no fear of The Hands. However, after a couple of weeks of hanging out with my rooster and to my dismay, she now also flees from The Hands or The Feet (also known as The Boots). Did the rooster somehow manage to teach her this behavior through bad example? Or did he give her some bad advice?
I really can’t believe this as these chickens don’t produce anything except poop (no eggs yet), get daily access to a veritable chicken buffet, and are generally spoiled with cheese shreds, access to mirrors, a fully functional dust bath, are kept in a heated garage for the winter, and have a mansion for a coop.
I am sometimes haunted by the question, ”will my rooster ever trust me enough to fly on my lap again?” Have I ruined his trust forever? Has he permanently taught the new hen his naughty habit? I really would just like to be able to pet them sometimes without picking them up.
On a side note, the chickens provide a great source of daily entertainment and I really do not take them too seriously. But, I am curious to understand the psychology behind why my chickens are so chicken-hearted and if this behavior can at all be remedied!
I wholeheartedly agree. Personal experience is good and helpful, but actual, professional studies and books would be quite interesting and certainly most helpful to those without the natural "knack" for it.Unfortunately I am not aware of much that has been done in the field of handling poultry or any work on understanding a chickens response to pressure. It would be fascinating if it were and would be revolutionary in managing and handling our flocks.
I think the body language thing is key here. Unlike humans, most communication between animals is unspoken. They are especially adept at reading and understanding their surroundings by visual cues.
For any prey animal, from large grazing herbivores to small chickens, it is especially important to key in on what another creatures intentions are so as they can respond accordingly. Your intention is to capture them and to a prey animal, being captured means death.
Humans are inherently predatory creatures. Our movement and body language, our mindset and attitudes and to some extent even our basic physiology coveys that whether we intend it to or not. We are a large creature with forward facing eyes so right off the bat, we are starting at a disadvantage when trying to convince a chicken we don’t mean any harm. We look like predators! Then we chase and reach and grab at them. We attempt to ambush and corner them and make fast unpredictable movements. Basically, we do everything that a predator does because that is what we are hardwired to do! It takes considerable effort and training to overcome our natural instincts.
Folks like Bud Williams and Temple Grandin perfected this. What they have achived in the field of low stress animal handling in regards to large livestock like cattle is nothing short of remarkable. I can tell you from experience both moving cattle and bison on the range and in a corral system useing almost exclusively body positions and to a lesser extent simple tools like a small flag, that it not only works, it works better than conventional stock handling that fear and coercion centered.
Unfortunately I am not aware of much that has been done in the field of handling poultry or any work on understanding a chickens response to pressure. It would be fascinating if it were and would be revolutionary in managing and handling our flocks.
Oddly enough, many of the techniques I have learned to use on large bovines work strikingly well for domestic ducks (I guess that is why ducks are sometimes used for training herding dogs). I have not noticed that they work for chickens though.