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

[Margy1]

LOL!! That is hilarious!! The only thing we have around here is raccoon's, which I know are very dangerous for chickens, luckily there is a lady on the next street who feeds the birds all day and the raccoon's stay by her house usually. We are very careful and keep the chickens locked up tight at night. I hope we don't put a bunch of work into making nesting boxes and they only use one! But as long as they quit laying them in the coop or in the dirt ill be happy!

 

[chicksurreal]

I actually really like having the nesting boxes under the coop, they're easy to gather eggs from because we have a door that flips up on the outside of the run and it's nice and dark for the girls. We make sure and lock ours up tight at night too, we've never lost one at night to anything.

 

[1chickendog142]

WHat I have seen is they like to share the nesting boxes. I would recommend that you have the nesting boxes lower than the roost. That way they won't be trying to sleep in them and poop in their sleep in the boxes. Everyone learns as we go along. Try to keep as natural as you can. Less chemicals is better all around for everything. Everyone on here has their own ideas but we all learn thru trial and error. Good luck and best wishes chicken people.

 

[Margy1]

New development................ When I pick up one of the babies, Peckers who is the top of the pecking chain, will peck the one I just held. Only once or twice, doesn't seem to hurt the one that is being pecked. But will do it everytime....any ideas?

 

[binky1902]

Well I've about stopped trying to get my Easter Eggers to be friendly. The other breeds always come see me, fly up on my back and look around at my face, let me hold them, etc. The EE's aren't scared of me, but don't want to come too close either. I just leave them alone now and take it as just being their personality. As the others are eating out of my hand, they come in and get the stuff that makes it to the ground. If you want some friendly chickens I recommend getting a few Buff Orpingtons, they are like little lap dogs.

 

[aart]

New development................ When I pick up one of the babies, Peckers who is the top of the pecking chain, will peck the one I just held. Only once or twice, doesn't seem to hurt the one that is being pecked. But will do it everytime....any ideas?

I've seen that happen, it's just their way.
I've had them peck at the bird I was holding, I just push away the one doing the pecking.

 

[oklip955]

My little Leghern is real friendly and went there are treats, she lets me know when her beak is empty. She thinks I there to just to give her treats. Yes she eats out of my hand and have had her fly up to my hand. Even my Guineas are eating out of my hand now. They see the hens eating out of my hand and don't want to miss out. I try to make sure everyone gets the same amount. It usually apples of grapes. With the apples everyone gets their turn to take a bit.

 

[chooks4life]

New development................ When I pick up one of the babies, Peckers who is the top of the pecking chain, will peck the one I just held. Only once or twice, doesn't seem to hurt the one that is being pecked. But will do it everytime....any ideas?

I used to have some hens and roosters (and juveniles too) that would come running to attack any chicken that's complaining or being held, or caught in something, or mating, almost always with the one on the bottom copping it.

It's a victim-attacking trait which demonstrates why most people cannot leave injured or ill birds among the flock. It is, however, not endemic to the species to just become obsessed with attacking a vulnerable animal, it's another domestic neurosis we've bred into them. Cannibalism is the same, under intensive commercial conditions it's an adaption which increases odds of survival. In the wild, attacking and killing (whether or not they end up consuming) ill or injured flockmates increases the risk of transmitting disease and receiving injury themselves, it's not a wild trait due to the risks.

This mentality shows up in even newly hatched chicks if present in the family line. Until one's had a clutch of chicks attacking and destroying their sibling chicks, sometimes while their victims are still hatching, days before actual hunger has become part of their life experience/motivation, or just massacring one another, it's easy to dismiss these traits as not being a problem due to apparent mildness of expression, but they are not worth breeding on unless scalped and mutilated chickens are part of the overall chicken keeping experience you're willing to have in future.

Mildly expressed negative traits in my experience are not to be tolerated (as I once used to) because they strongly trend towards suddenly becoming far more severe in expression over time, either in the actual individual that first shows it or in their subsequent generations of descendants.

The less vicious pecking, (not outright bashing/tearing/ripping at) of targets identified as vulnerable, while just a milder variation of this mental trait, still indicates that this is a chicken that has the trait to bully hurt or sick animals. May or may not be linked to the cannibal trait depending on the chook in question.

I find most negative traits are linked, they're an expression of an aberrant mindset and warped instincts as a whole, not in isolation. This trait's a risk because last thing you need when trying to help a damaged or entangled animal is another animal jumping in there and raining down punishment. At first I tolerated it but chickens with this mentality often attack humans too, either deliberately or accidentally in their eagerness to damage the already upset victim target, so children picking up chickens to hold were being attacked, and roosters or hens would come over and savage hens that were in the process of mating, risking their eyes... Not a trait I put up with for safety reasons. I bred these animals to begin with and found negative traits, no matter what they are, tend to snowball in future generations, for whatever reason. Culling it out works amazingly well for permanent removal.

I culled out that attack-the-vulnerable/assisting-in-victimizing trait years ago, and don't have it anymore, it's been quite a few generations since I last saw it. It's very much just another heritable negative trait, easily removed. Those that don't do it won't breed it on. Now I can rest assured that ill or injured animals are safe to remain among the flock without bullying because it really is just a mental trait of some lines, not an inherent instinct present throughout the species.

As far as the 'lapdog' mentality goes, choose your breeder wisely to get the birds you want, don't pay any mind to breed claims about temperament if the breeder you're buying from doesn't. You can get known aggressive breeds from someone who doesn't tolerate that mentality and find them as docile as any other breed's best expression. I've known plenty of unfriendly examples of various supposedly docile, tame, friendly breeds. It all depends on what the breeder of the last few generations was selecting for. Family line, or strain, over breed itself, is the biggest guarantee you get on temperament and performance.

As 1chickendog142 said, nests should be lower than the perches otherwise they sleep as high as they can get usually, that's a common instinct, but not too many of my hens actually want to lay on the ground. (Which is acquired behavior since they're obviously naturally a ground nesting species).

I find mostly only sick hens lay on the ground, or those under sufficient social stress to drop the egg anywhere rather than run the gauntlet trying to get onto the preferred nest (yep, often it's not a shortage of available nests, just favoritism lol) but I do provide a range of nesting areas just in case. Broodies or nest-possessive hens can cause some issues there.

Best wishes.

 

[chooks4life]

Should add, while my experiences were obviously predisposing towards me culling this trait out of all lines it showed in, there is always an exception to the rule, so if you don't feel inclined to cull it out and would rather see if it remains mild permanently in this individual and any offspring she may one day have, then best wishes with that, and good luck.

I know I sometimes sound too harsh to some, culling for this and that and the other thing, but I did experiment for years with managing, training, breeding and even feeding multiple negative traits out of families before resorting to culling for most of them since nothing else worked sufficiently well. At first I too tried working with/against it.

Culling so harshly isn't for everyone, especially not newbies, and I totally support and recommend everyone experimenting to find what suits them and coming to their own conclusions regardless of my opinions on it. Sometimes newbies feel peer pressure to manage their flocks according to others' preferences which isn't correct.

Much depends on your environment, your strains, what you want them for, what you're emotionally and financially able to cope with, etc. The temperaments of your birds makes a lot of decisions for you too. Many people find it easier to put up with vicious birds than cull against it, finding the culling too harsh, while others experience their flock's mentality as something akin to emotional terrorism, always awaiting that next mutilation/cannibalism episode.

The few brushes I've had with cannibalism in my early flock, combined with reading about the horror stories and finding out it's not just a trait endemic to the species, made me really put my foot down against it, and I'm glad I did. So are my chooks.

Best wishes.

 

[Mars13]

All,

Each of the replies have been so very helpful as is the case here on BYC. And Margy1, I'd like to tell you that I've had the same experience as others here in that our EE's are the least friendly, by far, of our little mixed chicken family. We have several different varieties and several of each type. None of the EE's are friendly, so it might be a breed-specific trait. I am new to chickens, so please understand that this is only from my limited experience.

Best wishes to you and your chicken family!