my chickens are scared of me:(

[MildlyOffensiveChicken]

My Icelandics still act like I’m killing them if I dare touch or hold them.

The Swedish and BCM will sit on me and fall asleep.

 

[Zoologist]

I’d say when they are 4-6 months old is when I can remember mine completely trusting. Sometimes it may take longer or shorter it depends on the personality of the bird. Some birds just aren’t going to be cuddly and may not like attention.

 

[Zoologist]

when do they grow out of that stage?

 

[McChooky]

we have five chickens who are ten weeks old, and they are very skitterish. they live outside in the coop, without any other chickens. Once they are picked up they love it. They let you pet them and hold them when they’re on the ground. They are scared of you though, and always run away from you when you walk into the run and don’t come close to you. If you try to pet them, they run away unless you are already holding them. How do we make them? Trust us more and not be scared of us being near them, or trying to pick them up? They hate being picked up most of all.

A good clue of what chickens act like 90% of the time is exactly how yours are acting now.
Mine are waited on hand and foot and always run out to greet me until they figure out I want to hold one then they run like I'm a cold blooded killer. Welcome to having chickens!

 

[McChooky]

Chickens instinctively know we're predators . They don't know whether we're going to pet them or kill them and eat them. Dogs recognize us as another predator and don't fear us.

 

[vandambo]

when do they grow out of that stage?

I have an Easter Egger (?). She’s a Wyandotte and Ameraucana mix and she was like that until last weekend and just the other day, started squatting when I go to pick her up. Today she laid her first egg. From what I’ve read and learned, she sees me as the dominant now and submits. She still flails a bit when i find her roosting outside and put her in the coop. It’s been hot the last few nights. I like the previous comment about it’s like their “teenage years”. When i left her alone, and started gping to the garden to leaver her some treats like worms and berries…she’d come running and now it’s like clockwork…whenever she sees me now, her head pops up as if to say: “The Food Bucket has arrived with Nummies!”