My chickens hate to be held or touched- what did we do wrong?

[saginawmom]

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[woodmort]

I don't expect my chickens to be pets, never have, but invariably there will be one or two in every batch that will decide I'm a pretty safe guy and will come to me to be picked up. Guess. regardless of what you do, there are some than will and some that won't.

 

[wsdareme]

I selected breeds (the MyPetChicken breed selector is great) that would 1) make good pets, and 2) lay brown eggs. In that order. I handled my first batch of 12 chicks a lot. Now that they're 3 months old and in their Big Girl coop and run, I try to spend time with them every day. I find it curious that my most friendly bird, Nikki the Dominique, will fuss and squawk one day when I pick her up, but be fine with it the next. I have several that are always under foot, but they don't want to be touched or picked up. And then there's Elsie the Easter Egger, who is kind of leery of me, who flew up and sat on my shoulder (surprised the heck out of me, let me tell you!) while I was holding another bird. When I sit in my chair in the run and have food (food seems to be the key to all interaction with chickens), several will hop up in my lap and eat whatever I'm offering. I would like for all of them to want to be picked up and cuddled -- maybe they'll get friendlier when they start laying as I've been hearing some people say in their posts.

 

[noodleroo]

My suggestion is to get down on their level. Put down a towel and sit on the ground with them. Makes everything for them lots less scary. I put some info on my page to help with taming older chicks and chickens that might help. Just be consistnt and gentle and most will gentle down.