How to Carry a Chicken

[3KillerBs]

And what I did wrong last night that let Red get away last night.

This is how it should be:

• Head tucked under the elbow with the tail out and the weight of the body held on the arm.
• Feet secured in your hand.
• Other hand over the wings to prevent flapping.

What happened last night was that I had to take my hand off his wings to close the door and clip the carabiners in place. That let him flap, which loosened my grip a bit so that his claws caught in my knitted gloves.

When I attempted to shift him to free his claws and prevent tearing my gloves he had enough leverage to rip himself free.

Tonight I had my son handle all the doors and now Red is safe in the bachelor pen.

When done correctly this is easier than wrestling a protesting chicken into and back out of a pet carrier, but last night I was a little too confident after having carried my persistent escapees back to their pens so often and didn't think about the difference knitted gloves would make.

If I've got to carry a bird in weather cold enough to require gloves again I'll wear leather ones.

 

[casportpony]

Great advice! I'm gonna put a link to this thread in my oral medication article.

 

[sdm111]

You're holding him exactly opposite of how I carry them all tje time. Chicken in my left arm with its head under my arm by my bicep and holding its feet with my heft hand right hand and arm totally free. My two middle fingers splitting his toes and gripping his feet

 

[3KillerBs]

Great advice! I'm gonna put a link to this thread in my oral medication article.

Thank you.

I forget which BYC member told me how to safely carry a chicken years and years ago when I had my first flock.

You're holding him exactly opposite of how I carry them all tje time. Chicken in my left arm with its head under my arm by my bicep and holding its feet with my heft hand right hand and arm totally free. My two middle fingers splitting his toes and gripping his feet

He is in my left arm.

I presume that handedness would matter and that a lefty would just mirror-image it and carry the chicken on the non-dominant side.

I've got his ankles rather than his feet themselves because I've been scratched up by the claws often enough to prefer to keep my hand out of the way.

Leaving my right arm free to do the doors was where I got overconfident last night and lost the bird. Yellow, the persistent escapee, is so used to being caught that he doesn't even struggle (and he's also smaller and not as strong). So I wasn't expecting it when Red wrenched a wing loose and got leverage.

The relative size of the person, the chicken, and the person's hands all matter too, I'm sure.

 

[casportpony]

The relative size of the person, the chicken, and the person's hands all matter too, I'm sure.

It really does. With smaller birds I can do the one handed method, but larger ones, like 12+ pound muscular Muscovy drakes, or 9-15 pound squirrelly peafowl, they require both hands.

 

[Folly's place]

And leather gloves! Nasty dirty scratches from those claws aren't fun. I have scars...
Mary

 

[aart]

I 'football' them, wings held by my body and arm, fingers wrapped around their breast bone. Tilted to keep feet from grabbing/touching me.
Usually once the wings are pinned they stop struggling.

 

[KyCoop]

I have small hands so I have to grab and "football" as quick as possible. I can't hold the wings down with just my hands. Once tucked into my arm I can hold feet or shut doors or wave at the neighbors.

 

[3KillerBs]

I 'football' them, wings held by my body and arm, fingers wrapped around their breast bone. Tilted to keep feet from grabbing/touching me.
Usually once the wings are pinned they stop struggling.

Head in or head out?

It's quite likely that you have larger hands and longer arms than I have. Most people do.

I have small hands so I have to grab and "football" as quick as possible. I can't hold the wings down with just my hands. Once tucked into my arm I can hold feet or shut doors or wave at the neighbors.

That's what I thought before Thursday night when Red broke loose.

I'd been carrying the persistent escapee, Yellow, around that way for several weeks without any risk of losing him. But Red got away as described.

 

[aart]

Head in or head out?

It's quite likely that you have larger hands and longer arms than I have. Most people do.

Head in front, pooper in back.

I could barely get both hands around my full grown males,
luckily have had little need to handle them often.
I suppose my hands are larger than many women.