How do you get your chickens to come to you in the yard?

[healingdeva]

What a cool picture.

I wonder if its a matter of time and patience. We have four we've had from the start (now 7 weeks old) and two we got about a week ago (8 weeks old). The ones we've been around are pretty friendly but the other two are somewhat standoffish. I just talk to them when I go into the coop or the run and act like I belong there. They are getting better and two of them will now come up to me.

My husband has had a tougher time with them but he's less patient. He's getting the hang of it and said something the other night about how the two friendliest ones came up to him. My hope is that as they get older, they will become more accustomed to us.

 

[Buff Hooligans]

HealingDeva, I think that they will get more mellow with age. My girls didn't care for me at all until they were about six months. Before that, I was despairing of ever having them sit in my lap voluntarily. And I had read all about other people's friendly, sweet, affectionate chickens and wondered what was wrong with mine, or was I doing something wrong. They just needed to grow up and chill out.

(Even though little chicks are adorable, I prefer chickens when they're all grown up.)

 

[healingdeva]

I love watching the transformation from chick to pullet to... The last time I was really around chickens, I was about 5 years old... and I'll be 50 this year, so it's all relatively new and fun!

 

[brettnreno]

My hens and roosters follow me around the yard just like my dogs. Then again, so do my goats and pigs and ducks. Funny when you turn around and you have 30 some pair of eyes watching you.

 

[Critter Crazy]

All i have to do is walk outside, and they are all on me like Cockroaches in a NYC Apartment!!

 

[nmred]

We currently have 6 layers. The one we've had the longest, Snow (a white leghorn, of course!), comes running when she hears the back door open and close. It doesn't matter how many times she's disappointed, she comes running anyway. She knows that eventually we'll have treats for her when we come out. The others all follow her. What's really fun, is that they have now started recognizing our neighbor. She comes over from time to time with treats for them. The last time she did so (last week) they all came running when they saw her. It was really cute, and I think she really liked it. Hey, so do I!

 

[Matt A NC]

Typical treat time when the lots are open:

Matt

 

[luvmychicknkids]

Mine, too, come running the second they think I am coming. They don't even seem concerned about treats. They just want to all try to "talk" to me at once and get my attention....even my "don't hold me" chickens want to be with me. They were NOT this way as babies or juveniles, however. As someone else said, they just had to grow up.....maybe one more reason I LOVE grown chickens so much. They definitely know the difference in people, which i think is so cool. My cousin's son tried to pick up one of my hens recently (the chickens don't know him). My rooster ran him out of the yard and refused to let him come back.

He was fine until he touched one of the girls...that was jsut more than he could tolerate from a stranger. LOL

 

[Rafter 7 Paint Horses]

My youngsters that we recently moved to our hoop house all came running to the house when DH was calling the sheep the other day!
It sure was a site to see over 200 young chicks running as fast as they could to the house!

I sent him back out the gate to call them back into the pasture, I really don't need any more chickens camping out on the front porch!

Jean

 

[StellaRella]

All I have to do is go outside with a bread bag. I have a RIR hen who comes onto the deck and looks into our sliding glass door and watches us. It's kind of creepy..lol. They also come to "here kitty kitty"