petting chicks

[CStulceSmith]

Mine took til 4 weeks before it has trusted us enuff to let us pet more than every once in a great while.

 

[CStulceSmith]

So trusting now.

Hanging out relaxing.

Good morning greeting. Flew right to my daughter when I opened the cage door.

 

[azygous]

i am having a problem with ours running to the opposite corner of the brooder...the only way to get them is from the top...how else do we try to give them the loving we want to if they r always scared of us? my first batch r three months old and we had the same problem now three quarters won't come near us....I just got four more chicks and don't want this to happen again! what should I do? please help....we got the chickens for the egg production but also for the pet angle too...I would love for my kids to be able to interact with them without the chickens being so fearful

The ONLY way to solve the problem of chicks being fearful of your hands being thrust at them from above is to change your brooder. When I figured this out, I took my brooder box, which was an old cardboard TV box, and I cut a little access door into the side and found a table to put it on. The top was still open so the heat lamp could warm them from above, but all ministrations were done from the side. From the very start, the chicks were calm and trusting.

As the chicks become more active, and my month-olds are at this stage now, it's very easy to pick them up by training them to come to you. You do this by sitting down on the ground and offering them treats such as meal worms, calling to them to come get them. Soon, all you have to do when you wish to pick them up is to call that special word, and they'll jump right into your lap, making it easy to catch them.

Mine are spending all day long in their grow-pen outside in the run with the adult chickens. They're safe and have a great time running around. But they have to be collected each evening to take them back into their brooder to spend the night. This technique really makes it simple to bundle them back into their carrier when the time comes to do it.

 

[eyotig25]

Thank u azygous that is very great idea....I will talk to my husband about getting a different kind of box....one question how do u keep the door of the box closed?

 

[eyotig25]

U said u let them with the other chickens in your flock during the day? Where we purchased the chicks they said they had to be the same size....did u have problem with acceptance? How did u get thru it if u did?

 

[azygous]

When I cut a door into the side of the cardboard box, I left the bottom uncut, simply scored. You make a cut on one layer only of the cardboard. That permits it to be folded, like on a hinge. To keep it closed I took two ice cream sticks or tongue depressors and attached them to the upper side of the opening with simple wood screws. The sticks swivel to act as latches, keeping the door closed. Leave around six to ten inches of space between the bottom of the door and the floor of the brooder so the bedding doesn't all fall out.

To answer the question about putting four-week olds out in the pen with the adult chickens, they have their own pen with partitions that keep the big girls on one side and the babies on the other. Yesterday, I just finished installing pop-holes in these partitions that are about eight inches high and four inches wide so the big girls can't fit through them. The babies will be able to go out into the big girls pen when they feel like it and pop back inside their pen when they get pecked and chased. I put a pop hole everywhere a chick might get boxed in and trapped. Injuries happen mainly when babies get trapped and have no means of escape.

Inside the chick pen is their food and water. I've used this method of integrating four-week olds into the main population for the past five years, and it works great. My chicks have already spent the last two weeks out in the pen during the day, so they're known by the adult chickens as belonging to the flock by this time. All that's left is for the babies to learn their status in the pecking order. I'll referee at first, but the chicks learn very quickly how to navigate the run with all the pop holes at full throttle, and it's fun to watch them outwit and outrun the big girls.

 

[eyotig25]

Thank u for all this knowledge !!!!!! We r new to chicken raising and r just going mostly by what the farm supply store has told us....my husband is going to finish our permanent run next week so it should be thw right time for us to try that kind of intergration right now thy are in a playhouse that has one side open....I separate the chicks byplacing the house up against the temporary run and added an extra small holed mesh layer between them and the regluar chicken wire cause the babies ran thru that and it also kept the big girls from reaching in with their heads and pecking them....but I am definitely going to borrow your idea to help the intergration go faster.....when can we put them in the coop with the bigger chicks? If u don't mind me picking ur brain

 

[CStulceSmith]

New pix.

 

[CStulceSmith]

Today. 4 wks. Chickadee.

 

[CStulceSmith]

Chickadees 1st tomato.