First of all let me say i'm not trying to discourage you getting close to your chicks but keep in mind the tamer and more freindly they are the more likely they are to be eaten by predators... i learned that the hard way But they are so much fun to have whall they last!
Bassically just do everything with it! And above all feed it feed it feed it! mine got to the point where it would drink out of my cup (as long as it was glass) and i could tuck her in my sweater and carry her around! Sigh my poor Roadrunner
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you can do it.....i have 4 LF girls that are a month old and they will sit on my lap (especially Cricket - my Silver Cuckoo Marans, and Audrey - my white EE) when i go out in their run to be with them. i love those 4 girls, and they love me....i picked them up a lot as babies....but NOTHING like i do with Sweet Pea. i know i wouldn't hold Sweet Pea so much if she/he weren't the only chick. but i wouldn't have it any other way now. i remember before she hatched thinking "i sure hope at least 2 eggs hatch so each chick can have a friend...i'd rather have no chicks hatch than just ONE".....but now that it turned out like this, i LOVE it!!! i am so bonded to this chick! i just went to PetSmart today and bought 2 "little dog carriers" for her. u know the kind that women will put their small dogs in....it looks kinda like a purse and the dog can stick it's head out, and it has screen windows on each side of the carrier? well, i bought one those in mint green. then i bought a carrier for her that's kinda like a baby carrier except it's meant for little dogs....it's like a backpack, except it's worn on the front, and you can put your little dog in there and it's head can stick out of that as well. i know Sweet Pea can't stick her head out yet cuz she's too small....but now she can pretty much go anywhere with me. tonight i had to go to my friend's church to help her cook and bake and i was there for 4 hours. i brought Sweet Pea with me.....packed her some food....bought her a portable water and food dish (really just those plastic lids u buy to put on dog or cat food cans)...i DID bring her heat lamp cuz i knew i couldn't hold her all the time while i was so busy. she did great!!! peeped a bit here and there, but for the most part, slept, ate, and i brought her out to drink outta her dish....and cuddle her every hour or so.....clamped her heat lamp onto a chair and put her little carrier on the floor. i just don't want to leave her cuz i feel so darn bad for her! she doesn't have a chick friend....u know? and like i said....i wouldn't have it ANY other way! i LOVE that only one hatched!
how many chickens are u wanting to tame? if there's too many, u may get overwhelmed. if you only have a few, i would tame them all, but maybe pick a "favorite" to really cling to. cuz honestly....for ME anyway, even if i had 2 chicks hatch, i wouldn't have bonded as much with Sweet Pea, and i'm sure if she could talk, she would say the same thing on her side. Oh, i sent her egg in to Avian International (something or other) and they're gonna DNA sex test it so i can know if she's a boy or girl. it cost 25 bucks....but hey, i think it's worth it, especially since Sweet Pea is a silkie and they can take FOREVER to find out what sex they are. good luck to you!!!
We had a single chick hatch out of our first real attempt at hatching our own eggs last summer, and I was so worried cause my other chicks were all 4 weeks or older at the time, so my little Indie went into a brooder by herself in the bathroom with a little stuffed animal, but she was so lonely. Every time someone came in the bathroom she'd run up to them and cheep like mad, so it got to the point where we held her constantly. It was myself and my two daughters holding her all the time. It was the intention that she would be our house chicken since I tried to add her to my flock of standards and they nearly killed her (she's a Welsummer mix). So she came inside to let her injuries heal, and she lived in the house for about 5 months or so, but the brat refused to wear her diaper, and she got into EVERYTHING, worse than the human kids, lol, so we knew that she absolutely HAD to go outside. Another factor was that she suddenly didn't want to be picked up, she would run the opposite direction if she saw people coming. So I made the decision to add her to my Bantam flock, and she got beat up a little at first, but she fit in pretty fast, and now she's an integral part of the flock. She's a little small for a standard which works out perfectly. For a long time while she was inside the house she was rather high strung. I've noticed that it seems to be a Welsummer trait since I have more than a half dozen birds/chicks that are Welsummer mixed with one thing or another, and that particular trait drives me nuts, HOWEVER, they do seem to mellow out as they get older. Indie is now 10 months old and she has calmed down tremendously. Funny thing is, if you take her out of the chicken yard and set her down, she still follows us around like a puppy dog, and will come running into our arms when we call her. She came up to me last night, and again this morning just to get her hugs and kisses. I wish she would have worked out inside the house, but I'm now glad that she's happy outside with the flock. I have not had luck getting a chicken to wear their diapers yet, cause I've tried repeatedly, so I guess inside chickens just aren't meant to be for me. At the moment I'm brooding some 30+ birds, but one in particular has stolen my heart, it's my BR pullet Hope. I actually bought her and 6 other chicks last month. The rest I hatched out, but Hope has stolen my heart. She is the calmest chick I've EVER had, and loves to sit with me and snuggle. She is awesome. I hope to have a strong bond with her for many years to come. Good luck with your little Sweet Pea. I love that name, by the way. Had the sweetest little Chihuahua by that name, but some ignorant person decided to poison my dog last summer and she died. It's a perfect name for a tiny bundle of joy though. Good luck with her. Oh, and by the way, about 8 years ago I had a chick that my ex just came home with one day, and I knew NOTHING about chicks or how to care for them, and he stayed in one of those little plastic carrying cases you can buy at the pet store at night to sleep, with a heating pad under him, but at all other times I held him. We lived in the suburbs of Chicago at the time, and chickens were illegal to start with, and he turned out to be a roo and we had to get rid of him, but he was a joy as a chick with all the snuggling. Just keep her warm, and she'll be fine.
awww, i loved your stories chinamom! yeah, i'm gonna play it by ear with sweet pea. i hope it works out.....i ordered a diaper from MPC (expensive, but i'm hoping to nab the design and make my own). if that doesn't work, i saw some diapers on the "house chicken" thread and they were made outta t-shirt material and she said the chickens don't mind that material. of course sweet pea has quite awhile before she can fit into them! lol! i really do hope she's a girl simply cuz if worse comes to worse and she HAS to go outside (like your situation)....then i would be able to do that if she's a girl. if she's a roo......i'd hate to think of what i'd have to do. from what i hear, silkies are pretty laid back....so maybe things will go just fine. that's HORRIBLE that someone would poison ur dog!! how hateful!!! how can that person LIVE with themselves??!! there's some sick people in the world!
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I normally keep a "chicken bucket" in the kitchen with a scoopful of scratch in the bottom which during the day gets all the kitchen scraps and leftovers added to it. In the morning when I let the chickens out of the coop, I have that "chicken bucket" which I toss out for them to eat. The chickens (and guineas) have imprinted on a person carrying a bucket--------anyone carrying a bucket on my property gets surrounded by squawking chickens and guineas------hahahahahahahahahahaha.
Chknut: I had 8 feather legged bantams, mixed breeds but all "supposed" to be female. I lost one though, a tiny runt that was my favorite. So now there are seven. I tried taking them all out at once the other night to watch TV with them, but that was a disaster! They were leaping around, trying to jump off my lap, etc. I have two "interested" cats who worry me, so they all went straight back into the brooder. Since then, I have been taking them out one by one. I hold them in my hand for a little bit, but I work from home and need to use the computer, so I started sticking them down my shirt, lol. They sit there just below my shirt line, and settle right down. Then I can talk to them, and they can be up against me, but I can still work at the computer.
I know exactly what you mean about the carrier that has the screens and is like a big purse, I have one of those!! Mine is dark green and I used to use it for my Guinea Pig, but she passed away a few months ago, and I didn't have the heart to throw it away. I should dig it out of the attic, that's a cool idea.
Right now the chicks seem to have mixed emotions about me. They don't want to be picked up, but once I catch one, it chills out pretty quickly and looks at me curiously. If I stick it in my shirt, or tuck it in my bathrobe, they will go right to sleep. Except for one, which screams bloody murder every time I hold it. Squawks loudly and constantly, until it finally wears itself out. Have not been able to bond with that one yet. She is very different looking than the others too. I posted pics when I got them and a couple people guessed a D'Uccle. The others are Silkies and possibly a Cochin.
Some people say that chicks dont im print on humans only hens.But i think in my expireance that chicks do imprint but not as easy as geese or ducks
in my experiance chicks have to heir the sound of your voice regularly when there still in the egg and then when they come out and see you and hair the sound/voice they will remember that voice.But i had a couple chicks that i bougth a day old they used to follow me everwhere i think its personality and just knowing your nt going to hurt them
In my experience a chick from anywhere will bind tightly to you if it's the only one you are raising. Being social animals they need contact and interaction with someone. They will always prefer other chickens their own age if given the choice. I raised one separate from some other chicks that were older for 2 weeks. Ended up being our friendliest bird. As a peeper she would follow me everywhere, peep loudly when I left her alone, scratch and look for food anywhere I scratched and often Peck my fingers for food all the time.it was really cute but I know she was unhappy when alone in the brooder.
I also thinks it depends on breed. Some are automatically friendlier based on years of breeding to make them so. My Hatchery mix came with a speckled Sussex and right from the start if I put my hand in their brooder she would jump or squirm her way in it.that said, she did become very flighty during her "teenage phase" but now is our friendliest most curious girl. I cannot recommend this breed enough!
awww, i loved your stories chinamom! yeah, i'm gonna play it by ear with sweet pea. i hope it works out.....i ordered a diaper from MPC (expensive, but i'm hoping to nab the design and make my own). if that doesn't work, i saw some diapers on the "house chicken" thread and they were made outta t-shirt material and she said the chickens don't mind that material. of course sweet pea has quite awhile before she can fit into them! lol! i really do hope she's a girl simply cuz if worse comes to worse and she HAS to go outside (like your situation)....then i would be able to do that if she's a girl. if she's a roo......i'd hate to think of what i'd have to do. from what i hear, silkies are pretty laid back....so maybe things will go just fine. that's HORRIBLE that someone would poison ur dog!! how hateful!!! how can that person LIVE with themselves??!! there's some sick people in the world!
is an old thread and im probably useless speaking on it, but you can acctually make chicken diapers out of socks! I just read this entire thread, and it is so awesome! I have 4 Cochins, and am getting 4 more chicks... hoping to imprint on one or two!
But they are so much fun to have whall they last!
Bassically just do everything with it! And above all feed it feed it feed it! mine got to the point where it would drink out of my cup (as long as it was glass) and i could tuck her in my sweater and carry her around! Sigh my poor Roadrunner
