How to teach hens to be gentler when eating from my hand?

[Sparklewina]

I have one large Rhode Island Red (Hecubah), two 3.5 month old Black Australorps (Effie and Tallulah) and one wee little Aracauna Bantam (Boudicca). They are all relatively tame and all but Boudicca will eat from my hand. It makes it easier if I need to catch one of them, so I have been doing this every morning with them. The problem is the Australorps are really rough, particularly Tallulah. She is the smaller of the two so I think she feels like she has to sneak up and get a big bite, which inevitably turns out to be a big bite of the flesh of my palm! I have been closing my hand when they are too rough and then reopening it but that just seems to make them want to eat faster and more aggressively. Today one of them actually drew my blood!

I am thinking maybe some kind of clicker training method might help them not try to eat me when I am feeding them their crumble. Has anyone had any experience with this? Anyone have any tips to offer? Hecubah is as gentle as can be, and is also the Alpha hen. I keep hoping she will teach them the proper way to not bite the hand that feeds them!

 

[devora]

I suppose you could try to retrain her, but it seems to me the way a bird eats is the way a bird eats.

Observe how she behaves when you put out a plate of food. Does she pounce? Maybe it's just her way. Scarf scarf.

As for picking them up, if you don't have a roo you can easily pick them up after they start squatting for you.

 

[Fierlin1182]

Unfortunately, that might just be to do with the chickens' personalities. I have one chicken who nips my hand every time I feed her, and just seems rough in general. I used to try to get her to change, but it generally doesn't work. It's probably just how they are.

 

[Birde]

Ppl say I have the tamest chickens they've ever seen but there are always times they don't want to be caught. I tried the hand feeding method for a short time but in time I realized its all about earning there trust & the more you handle an older bird the tamer they become.( I mean just picking up & showing it love) You can over handle chicks though. I've had better success with the training after they are 6 months. I have a rooster that comes when I call his name. He was under a year old when I trained him.

 

[sourland]

"The way birds eat is the way birds eat." They peck and grab at their food. If they get your palm in the process, it is inadvertant.

 

[K-12 Chickens]

One of my Isa Browns is very aggressive when she grabs food out of my hand, while the rest aren't nearly as bad. You could try placing a cloth flat in your hand and then place the food on it before hand-feeding your hens(a glove would work too).

 

[RedDrgn]

There's nothing you can do about it except not feed them from your hand, or offer larger items that you can pinch in your fingers and they can pull at rather than peck from the palm.

We've got an EE and a DOM who are vicious eaters that pinch skin when eating out of hand all of the time. There's no way to teach a chicken to be gentler, but I can say that while these two will often pinch, they are so much WORSE when they are feeding with everyone else. For example, a pinch now and again when giving them treats alone is no biggie. If you're being inundated in a chicken feeding frenzy when they're ALL there, they peck even harder and faster. Just their competitive nature and the way they try to get more food than the rest.

 

[Sparklewina]

I'm really surprised that the general consensus is that "the way they are is the way they are". I have been looking into chicken intelligence and it rivals that of parrots (of which I have several and have had success with clicker training and other training methods).

Over the last few days I have had some success in encouraging more gentle eating behavior. I do truly believe chickens are as trainable as dogs, parrots and other more conventionally trained animals. I have altered the way I hold my hand when feeding them and when they get rough I pull my hand away. They prefer eating out of my hand over eating off of the ground. When they are gentle I congratulate them, when they start to get rough I admonish them "gentle" (as I do my dog) and they are starting to respond to the command. I was envisioning setting up an elaborate training method involving $1 food and $10 food (a concept used in dog training - offering a normal treat and if they take it gently, "jackpot" them with a more valuable/yummier treat) but that would involve working with them one on one and they don't focus well when they are separated.