How often do you hold your chicks or chickens to make them love it?

[NatJ]

4 of the 5 are Silkie chicks. Should I bathe them? If so how often? Should I also bathe the 5th chick? It is a Lafleche/black mottled d’uccle cross.

Should you bathe them?
Yes, if they get lots of oil all over themselves.
Maybe, if you're going to take them to a show.
No, in almost all other cases.

As several other people have said, chickens like to take dust baths. They lay down and scratch around on the ground and get dirt all through their feathers, then lay there and take a nap and look dead for a while, then get up and shake off the extra dust and go on about their day.

 

[Hopeful homesteader]

I have 12 2 week old chicks, got them a week ago. Every time I walked in my bathroom they'd all scurry to a corner scared so I'd just talk to them the first few days and only pick them up to check for pasty butt. Then started putting my hand in the brooder for a few days until they stopped running away, offering mealworms helped a lot and then using a finger to scratch at the bedding and tap the floor of the brooder and they'd all run over and eat the starter feed they spill from around my finger. I've now been picking them up to sit in my lap for a few min at a time, half of them don't seem phased by me picking them up but the other half scream bloody murder so I put them to my chest near my heart and talk to them and they settle down but clearly want to be put down so I'm not pushing it more than 5 minutes at a time unless they are completely content to hang out in my lap. 1 fell asleep on me but she was so tired the other night while everyone else was trying to run and play that she kept dosing off standing and everyone kept bumping her so I pulled her out for a nap, probably the best nap she ever had. 1 in particular will keep coming back to my hand to be picked up, idk if she likes being held or likes being high enough to see the whole room. I would say no bath unless they're really messy/poopy and even then only spot clean as necessary. I had one get poop stuck to her butt fluff, cleaned it off before it became an issue but I just wet a cotton ball and held it over the poop to soften it and then used q tips dipped in water to work it off the fluff and clean it up as best I could then a dry cotton ball to dry the area. That was enough to chill her as it felt like she was shivering in my hand, I checked again an hr later and it was fully dry and fluffed up and never had a problem since.

 

[mhami]

Why do you need to bathe them?

My chicks are handled whenever I want, broody chicks, incubator chicks... I don’t really feed them from my hands, so they will stay on my hand to preen themselves and rest, but will want off once they are bored

I do have a satin that will sit in my lap forever, but I honestly don’t know how she got that way...

The d’uccle/d’uccle mixes I have right now have been the sweetest chicken ever. Just very very gentle souls...

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I think that holding them, gently petting them and making them feel comfortable in your hand is a great thing. I have a special ISA 2 week old that loves for me to hold her. Just like any baby animal, foals, calves, etc., the more they associate you with something nice, and the earlier you start, makes it sooo less stressful for all involved.

 

[olivigus]

I have a reliable broody Buff Orpington who has now raised three batches of chicks over the years for me. I let her sit on ceramic eggs for 3 weeks then get day-old babies to slip under her at night. It's worked every time and she is an excellent mother. This year, really for the first time, she has become super friendly with me. When I go into the pen and sit on the ground, she bustles over and wants to sit on my lap and have me pet her. I'm not sure what changed, but it's been fun and has made taming and bonding with the youngsters really easy. They see mama connecting with me and they come over and want to sit on my legs and be petted too. Although, as others have said, the degree of friendliness seems to be both breed and individual personality dependent. For example, I got two cream legbar chicks this year and had read that they tend to be rather skittish. One is indeed quite shy, but the other is the friendliest of the bunch. She was jumping up to perch on my hand just a few days in, and continues to be very interested in interacting with me and having her feathers stroked.