Please share your tips-getting your chickens to eat from your hand??

[BlueBetween]

mine love mealworms - I just started hand feeding them because two of them got shy after flying out of the brooder box while I was putting in water or something... one came face to face with the dog, and one landed behind the bag of wood shavings, trapped between the bag and the wall.. they have both been extremely timid ever since, so I started feeding them the meal worms and keeping my hand in there while they ate them, then feeding them from my hand and they are both getting much friendlier again and will let me pick them up again without too much fuss.

if yours are outside, you could start with feeding them on the ground while you sit there and building up the trust while they get used to you.

re: potatoes - I had read that potatoes needed to be cooked?

 

[triplej]

Thanks about the warning about the potato peels. They were the red new potatoes and they were raw. I missed the part about them being cooked. I was careful to not gave them any that had green underneath the skin but didn't see the cooked part. CRAP!!

I hope they will be okay!! I feel bad now. I was trying to give them treats. It was only about 6 red potatoes but Biscuit ate about half those peelings because she was the only one coming and eating out of my hand and I was just so tickled that I had one eating out of my hand. She was fine this morning.

Thanks again. Off to research someone about the toxicity of tater peelings. I feel like a bad mom now.

 

[connerscroft]

Mine go CRAZY when I bring out the grapes

 

[gordonburrito]

I agree with the other. Use treats they really like. Its easy if you have had the opportunity to start as chicks. However, all you really need is one brave chicken to break ranks. The others will not stand idly by and watch a single hen get all the good stuff. Jealousy/Envy > Fear in the chicken world.

 

[mamabahre]

Raisins are hands down my birds favorite treats.
As far as hand feeding you've only had them for a day so I bet they will warm up to you, just keep offering them treats from your hand.
My girls come sprinting when I walk out on the deck and yell girls now, all but one of them will eat from my hand.

 

[pixiedouglas]

Don't feel bad everyone here has made a mistake with their chickens at some point in time. No one is perfect.

I don't know if this would work with grown chickens, but I taught my girls that when I make a certain sound that means treats. I always make the sound (kind of a clucking sound, like buck buck buck or book book book) anytime I give them a treat and when I first started offering them I would also "peck" at the treat with my finger. Now if I find a bug in the yard I can make the sound and peck the bug with my finger and they will run to eat it. If I make the sound and stand inside their run they will all come running and go inside. It makes it easier to put them in quickly if I need too leave or if my idiot neighbors dog across the street gets loose.

So you might think about making a clucky sound when you give treats, then they'll know when you've got a treat for them!

Mine love stale crumbled bread, corn, watermelon, peas, stale tortillas, honeydew, scrambled eggs, slugs, bugs, and greens.

Whenever we cut up watermelon now we save the rind and let them peck it dry, they love it.

 

[AlienChick]

I have a small bag of chicken scratch grains that I shake and call "Chickie - Chickie"
and most of them come running and fight to sit on my lap.

I don't give mine a lot of treats; I just do this mostly for the socialization and the Chickie cuddles.

 

[diggergal]

My chickies LOVE mealworms. In fact my one speckled sussex is soooo anxious to be the first one to my hand she nearly jumps into me! She is getting so aggressive that when I lean down to grab the waterer she jumps up and pecks my hand. Of course, even though I know she may do this, I get startled and drop the waterer almost every time!

My chicks are 4 weeks old. I have been feeding them occasional mealworms since two weeks. I decided I had to settle my little aggressive SS chick; so when ever anyone feeds her by hand they are to try to pick her up and get her settled down. Well she wants NONE of that. She is much more cautious now. No more jumping up and pecking my hand, she does NOT want to be held. I am wondering if this "pullet" will turn out to be a ROO.

I have two Black Austrolorps that are much more mannerly. Catching them when feeding them does not discourage them and they never jump up and peck at me! My three cuckoo marans are pensive and cautious. I have two Rhode Island Reds and one of the RIR is much more friendlier than the other.

I just can't believe what different personalities all the little chickies are developing.

 

[Miss Lydia]

All i have to do is whistle and they all come running, they know it's mealworm time..

 

[galanie]

Quote:
I say "Come on, Girls!" and they look like fat ladies in spandex, running for all they're worth to get the treat. They're so hilarious!