Pest, but not of any conventional kind.....

[harveyhorses]

They will get used to it. If it makes you jump DON'T stay with them. My horse has never been afraid of anything since the day he was born, he would stand at the fence and watch our fireworks, I can shoot a gun off his back, the woman who is boarding him now throws hissy fits when foreworks start going off and now he reacts like a twit. Until I give him the 'what are you doing,?' and then he looks ashamed of himself.

 

[breezy]

Just a thought but have you tried feeding them treats when the noise is going on? If you can get them to associate mealworms or some other special yummy with the thing scaring them they will soon ignore the scary thing and look for the treats. Works well enough with some dogs and fireworks might work with chooks too.

 

[Crazy4mypeeps]

Quote:
Yeah, they all ran under the shed. On the up side, I did get 6 eggs (thats the max for us right now) the next day, so it must not have rattled them too bad.

 

[flnatv]

I am sorry to hear that... I completely understand and I feel for the animals. I have one scaredy dog.

The first 4th of July in this house my neighbors started shooting fireworks in the backyard... (never had neighbors this close before) and it spooked my HORSES something awful.
The biggest problem, other than them being 1200 pounds and scared to death, my neighbors didn't stop shooting them when they saw us trying to catch the horses and put them up in the barn!!! Still not very fond of my neighbors sometimes, but I am now prepared for fireworks around 4th of July and keep an eye out for when they start.

They don't do this with guns.. my son shoots trap, but I think it is the bright lights, etc of the fireworks.

I don't know how it is going to be this year with chickens...

 

[bobbi-j]

I think your chickens will adapt. My sons and their friends shoot fireworks and guns out here every chance they get. All my animals have adjusted to the noise. The chickens, truthfully, are far enough away from the house that it doesn't bother them. My horses come running TOWARD the noise to see what's going on (I've never tried shooting off either of their backs), and my dog - who loves to hunt has tried to retrieve bottle rockets. He needs to stay in the house when they're blowing things up....