How can I get my chickens to like me again??

We knew she was close to laying but we didn't know she was this close!


A nice brown egg :) we had to wash it though because she laid it in a very very dirty spot so we will use it today or tomorrow. But that is from Ms. Princess. Now Ms. Owly is starting to squat!! :) The two of them are much friendlier now as well! :)
 
Agreed. I have some Buff Orpingtons. Most of them will put up with being handled and all are so friendly that they are constantly under foot and some get a kick up the backside, by accident, because they like to be in front of me while walking the yard. 2 of the 10 are so cuddly they will want to be picked up and will stand in front of me and look (sideways with 1 eye) until I pick them up or I walk away.

I find that they love it when you gently pull (run fingers over a single feather) on their feathers behind they necks and "shoulders"? I find this really calms them down and they coo in response to me talking to them. I do not name them but calling them chicken seems to work for them and me. The younger ones that do not like it, I hold them and do what has been already said, limit wing flapping, be gentle and talk to them and pull lightly on their feathers and when they are happy, gently let them down on their own. The food situation helps too. make sure to carry treats for them all the time and simply drop some each time, even if it's just a small amount.
 
Just want to say that the comments that detail techniques for getting your chickens to allow you to hold them are so helpful! Mine are definitely not human-averse and really like to be near me. They seem to think that eating out of my hand is the proper way to eat basically everything and will try a new treat only if I hand feed it to them. But holding is another matter. I did have the basic instinct to keep their wings under my hands to eliminate flapping while being held, but the process seemed to stress them out so much that it I had kind of given up. The ideas about calm release, etc., however, are so useful and make me want to give this another try. Mine are 23 weeks, and one is doing the egg squat so I think she's really gearing up to start laying, so the teenager issue might also be at play here.
 
I have the same behavior from ours. They have a full run of the yard, almost 3/4 of a acre but they will still hang around and get in the way. Here is picture I took last year when they were about 5 months old. I was cleanup piles of leaves and dead grass, when I turned around to fill the wheel barrow, this is what I saw.



I kept working a little more than found another 3 had joined in.



Went we sit down at the picnic table for a cool drink in the shade, they like to sit next to us.


I never thought of them as pets but I enjoy it when they like to have you company.
 
I sweet talk my girls whenever I'm in their area. I also mimic the sounds they're making. My husband and I are in with them many times a day. But I also think the breed makes a slight difference. I used to have Rhode Island Reds. They were nice enough; but my Buff Orpintons are the nicest chickens I've ever been around. Even the roosters were sweet natured.
 
WTG Margy1, Get your hubby busy making those nesting boxes quickly. I told ya squatting was a sign. The first egg is always the best ever ! My girls eat all kinds of things and they free range too. I have 23 hens and 1 happy Roo named Cogburn ( like the John Wayne movie). Most all summer I got 20 - 23 eggs daily and sell my eggs for profit all the time. It makes you feel good to be able to always keep animals for food purposes. You know what you feed them and how the animals are treated. Treats I feed mine are : Veg all but Avacado 's and Potatoes unless cooked, All fruits, but mine frown at citrus,lemon,lime,oranges, they love grapes(all kinds) and raisins.,cantaloupes, kiwi, apples( take out seeds, contain arsenic ) all leftovers , all bugs even stink bugs yuck ! Worms, love meal worms, small snakes, frogs, they even eat their own feathers during molt for the protein ,grubs, I'm not sure about this but we no longer have moles and my neighbors sure do, go figure. Good luck with your new layers and enjoy eating some farm fresh eggs for a change.
 
Congrats on the egg. :) Always cool to get that first one ever.

@1chickendog142 potatoes are fine raw as long as not green. In fact they're a good liver support, very healthy for them. Can be too hard for some chooks to peck, though others will eat raw carrots and potatoes just fine.

As for avocadoes, like mangoes and some other foods including grapes, the 'toxic' aspect is not proven to apply across the board. I'm as yet unaware of any studies proving they're lethal, I suspect perhaps they've got this reputation wrongly, i.e. someone accused them for causing a death they could not pinpoint the cause of, or perhaps someone had severely deficient hens which then had access only to green mangoes, or unripe avocadoes, or the leaves of either tree, any of which if eaten in excess could be fatal. Another theory is that someone had recently sprayed with pesticides and someone let their chooks eat the fruits or leaves, which could easily be fatal.

When it comes to appleseeds, the toxicity potential is over-hyped as well. 'Only 7 seeds can kill someone' they say, yet when you're drinking whole apple juice, you're consuming often far more than that per two liters. Often we consume much more in apple pie and other sources too, cooked or raw.

I get boxes of apples and smash them on the ground for the chooks to have free choice, and one of the first things they go for are the seeds and I've never had a death or illness due to it.

Lettuce also contains arsenic, many things do, yet nobody's careful about feeding large amounts of that due to the arsenic content.

Better safe than sorry of course, but many of us find out sooner or later that we're being overcautious in some area. Then again some of us get away with seriously dangerous things for a long time that others do not find themselves so lucky with; just recently I saw a woman recommend giving chickens polystyrene foam to eat to distract them from feather picking. She thought it was fine, never had a death due to it, and the breeder she got her chooks off did the same thing and recommended it to her in the first place, also no deaths. Yet every year many animals die from consuming polystyrene foam.

Eating feathers generally means they need more protein, feathers are another dangerous thing which can block them up and kill them.

As always, some individuals are far more sensitive than others and a very hungry animal restricted to only one or two feed items is always at risk and it almost doesn't matter what you're feeding. Seasonal variations are behind many deaths, even normally safe foods can be unsafe at certain times, and there's a heck of a lot of other factors to consider as well.

Taking it slowly and carefully with introducing new foods or even allowing them access to non feed items they've never seen before is always a good idea.

Best wishes.
 
Hello! I only have 3 chooks right now but I have noticed that they were very skittish right before they started squatting. I hope your birds start to get friendlier for you. Good luck!
 
Well we have another chicken that is laying but we didn't raise her she just showed up at our house one day Lol. It was an awesome feeling though seeing these chickens that when we got them were small enough to fit in the palm of my hand now giant birds able to lay eggs! We have gotten two eggs so far I can't wait to get more Peckers squatted earlier when I when to touch her!! They are definetly getting friendly I held Princess Owly and Peckers today! :) Peckers did NOT like it at all Princess and Owly were okay with it though. We have a makeshift box in there for now until after Christmas when it settles back down and we can get out there and make them a box, hopefully tomorrow.

Where would be the best place to put their nest box? Here is a very old picture of their area
now in the back where there is a solid wall there is their coop where they sleep it comes down to where the red 2x4 going across the middle is there is a nice big area underneath, I was thinking of putting their nesting boxes underneath their coop. How does that sound?
 
Well we have another chicken that is laying but we didn't raise her she just showed up at our house one day Lol. It was an awesome feeling though seeing these chickens that when we got them were small enough to fit in the palm of my hand now giant birds able to lay eggs! We have gotten two eggs so far I can't wait to get more Peckers squatted earlier when I when to touch her!! They are definetly getting friendly I held Princess Owly and Peckers today! :) Peckers did NOT like it at all Princess and Owly were okay with it though. We have a makeshift box in there for now until after Christmas when it settles back down and we can get out there and make them a box, hopefully tomorrow.

Where would be the best place to put their nest box? Here is a very old picture of their area
now in the back where there is a solid wall there is their coop where they sleep it comes down to where the red 2x4 going across the middle is there is a nice big area underneath, I was thinking of putting their nesting boxes underneath their coop. How does that sound?

We have raised coops as well, and so far the only problem we've had (and we fixed it) was when a skunk managed to dig under the gate to the run and was eating eggs during the day. It's funny though because we put 5 nesting boxes in and all of our SS Hamburgs wanted to use the same box. They'd line up to use it, or just get in while someone else was already occupying it. So funny!
 

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