keeping my girls friendly

[momleininger]

So we have 6 hens that we have raised from 3 days old, they hear us come racing to see us then we bend down to pet them and they peck our hands. We held them everyday as we were brooding them. Any ideas of how to make them not peck us ?

 

[Frost Homestead]

I've never had a bird really peck at me like that unless it was pecking at a speck or dirt or a mole or something on my hand that got their attention.

This is my completely uneducated suggestion but maybe try hand-feeding them. That way they get used to your hand and look at it as something positive when they see it reach down into the brooder. this might also make em not pay as much attention to pecking you as they will be excited to see what treats your holding. couldn't hurt to try

 

[dianaross77]

First of all,

. Now that that is done, we can get down to business. If it's just pecking and not charging or flogging, they probably associate hands with food. I have one girl that is more rough than the others and she's grabbed my painted fingernails a time or two. I just give her a peck back on the head with my finger and she's figured out to leave me be. But she will grab anything on my legs she can see. She got a scab on my daughter's knee the other day. OUCH! Anything that deviates from a perceived pattern is asking to get pecked, along with anything red or green.