Hens are friendly but also bitey

[bjdewell]

@aart is so right here! Peckpeckpeck, fast as possible, until the pullet moves away. Wear jeans, socks, and boots or shoes, always best out there anyway. One of our 2021 pullets has been like this, and by being very consistant, and firm, she seems to be over it. Finally. Now she follows me around, and it's cute, and at a respectful distance. She's pushy!
This spring sometime she tried one more time, a nice bite on my jeans. Would have been a wound if I was wearing shorts! She was not pleased by my response!
I don't hand feed, rather call the birds and toss treats on the ground.
Mary

I hand fed my four when they were younger, but it got too sketchy and I was afraid of being bitten as they grew, so now I always toss their treats in their yard. That works better.

 

[BlindLemonChicken]

I start hand-feeding my pullets around point of lay. They are like this at first but they always chill out. I've never owned Dominiques but plenty of other breeds and never had a problem. I still get curious pecks at my shoes or if I have nail polish on but even my broody didn't break my skin when she went after me last week for handling one of her chicks. Obviously that ship has sailed so try the recommendations above but with your next chicks maybe try my method and see if it helps.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

I don't have this problem yet - my current crop of "littles" are just coming four months of age and I don't hand feed, but the idea of pecking with a pen or pen cap kinda makes me cringe - I'd worry about damaging anyone's eye. I really like @aart's suggestion of "pecking" with thumb and two fingers and will use that if I need to. One of my BCMs gets a little impatient when I toss out scratch and has both grabbed at my pant leg and jumped up at the bowl in my hands if she thinks I'm not tossing it out quickly enough. Little Miss Greedyguts!