i somehow acquired 2 runaways and i have questions. please help

[pollipazzi]

I had a bald eagle high up near the chickens a couple of days ago and I kid you not, I stood at the base of the tree and explained how delicious it would be to eat rat instead of chicken!

i hope your neighbours can't hear you like mine can

 

[RoyalChick]

this is probably a stupid question, but do you throw the treat in before they get there or wait until they can see you do it? and if they don't come when you call, would you take the treat away?
if i bring a treat out and they don't come when i call (ignore me) i take it back. but they'd have me in and out a hundred times until they felt like coming.

I call for treats and hold on to the treats until they come for them.
I have a bench and I sit there until they show up. But a couple are pretty speedy to the treat call so my issue is saving enough for the laggards.

 

[RoyalChick]

i can try this! thank you! this is not what i have been doing.
before i got the automatic door, i would let them right out into the yard and they would bypass the pellets and look for their morning treat. now when they come out when the door opens and i am not there, they will go to their feed. i would still give them the treat though. if i keep them in until after the crows have eaten all the bread in the green, and they have eaten feed, maybe they won't be looking to jump the wall. i will try it.

i keep thinking about some kind of fence leading to the run or even to make the run bigger, but the shed where the lawnmower is would have blocked access. there has to be a way. i just haven't thought of it yet.

My ‘call’ is a rattle of the treats tin (seeds inside a jar) and a shout chick-chick-chick. Original I know!
The treat I have may not be seeds - it may be mash from their regular feed with some kitchen scraps - but I still shake the jar for the call.

 

[pollipazzi]

My ‘call’ is a rattle of the treats tin (seeds inside a jar) and a shout chick-chick-chick. Original I know!
The treat I have may not be seeds - it may be mash from their regular feed with some kitchen scraps - but I still shake the jar for the call.

but what if you need them to go in and you don't have the jar?

 

[BDutch]

yeah. i don't know what may have happened to them before they started staying here. louise had a big hole in her beak when she arrived. it must have had a scab on it and, well, i didn't know anything about chickens and thought maybe she just had a weird beak. but after the scab cleared up, there was a hole. it must have been very painful. i don't know what happened because she just arrived that way. that has completely healed now and she has a normal beak but i always wondered did something really traumatising happen and that's why she is the way she is. i imagine it wasn't easy how they were living.

A traumatised chicken never forgets ( my experience) .

as far as living here, if it isn't the cat that traumatised them, can they sense the foxes while they are in the coop? nothing has happened that i am aware of since they have been staying here besides those things.

Chickens can coop with predators. If something has happened they go back to normal within a week or 2.
Getting chased by adults as a chick, for many weeks, can traumatise a hen for life imo.

 

[pollipazzi]

but what if you need them to go in and you don't have the jar?

i would be forever going "now where did i leave that jar?"
i have to bring my face with me wherever i go, unfortunately, but i can make the sound that they ignore anyway.

 

[RoyalChick]

but what if you need them to go in and you don't have the jar?

I always have the jar. It lives in the coop/run.

 

[RoyalChick]

i would be forever going "now where did i leave that jar?"
i have to bring my face with me wherever i go, unfortunately, but i can make the sound that they ignore anyway.

Literally the jar is by the door I would close to lock them in.
The only issue is when I need to refill it and I forget to put it back.
I found a solution to that though: 2 jars.

 

[pollipazzi]

A traumatised chicken never forgets ( my experience) .


Chickens can coop with predators. If something has happened they go back to normal within a week or 2.
Getting chased by adults as a chick, for many weeks, can traumatise a hen for life imo.

oh! i didn't even think of the guy chasing them! also the school kids would chase them when they'd be walking home from school. it's no wonder they ended up in my garden. it's sort of set back away from the road a good bit.

 

[pollipazzi]

Literally the jar is by the door I would close to lock them in.
The only issue is when I need to refill it and I forget to put it back.
I found a solution to that though: 2 jars.

clever! 2 of everything is always good!