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

[featherbaby]

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!

That's hilarious! Now I can't get that mental picture out of my head!!! HAHAHAHA!

 

[Netherworldtaken]

Ours were handled a lot when they were little so they are pretty used to us. To get them to eat out of our hand we have to walk out the back door. They go nuts as soon as we walk outside. Although getting them to follow us around the backyard with a green picnic plate is almost more fun.

 

[LilyD]

I have to say what worked for me was hard boiled egg. I held it in my hand and put my and all the way down on the floor. I started doing it on the first day I got them home. Now they are almost 3 weeks and they walk all over me and roost on me. It's so cool.

Good luck with your babies!

 

[spotstealer]

Mine just started feeding from my hand after a little bit of time. They also loved sweet potatoe (cooked) including some peels. Does the toxicity apply to the sweet potatoes also? They are just fine, and it was a week or so ago.

 

[karlamaria]

we hand held our chickens every day as chicks, yep we loved on them LOL,

so when we let them out now, they come running to us, and they stick to us like glue. we love pulling up a chair, and sitting amongst them as they eat from our hands, and if we sit on the ground, they hop on us to be held. they love eating out of our hands, in fact insist on it LOL, or they peck at us until we do.

 

[onthespot]

buy one of these, and pour feed on it several times a day.

http://cgi.ebay.com/Phony-Rubber-Ha...794?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item19c390d34a

 

[galanie]

Quote:
LOL I need that now! They peck my hand pretty hard wanting that extra nugget of treat from somewhere. And if it's empty, I get the stink eye!

 

[triplej]

Over the weekend I tried grapes. They were so funny with the grapes!!! I bought big grapes so it took me a few to realize I needed to break them in half and then I had to throw a few around the pen for them to figure out what I had but then after that ....wow...did they love those grapes.

Biscuit, my biggest Dominique, came and ate from my hand!! She had begun to eat out of my hand with the potato peels and she is quite the little piglet. This was on Friday. On Saturday I went down to the pen with all kinds of treats (just a few of each) and their regular morning ration of feed. I had some wild strawberries, a few cicadas and some fresh off the tree plums. Biscuit, of course, was the first one at the door to the pen, waiting on me, making those cooing noises, that chickens make, that I translate to mean "woman, get your behind in here with that bowl and feed me....now!!!".

I have to throw out a handful of feed just to get through the door!!! So I sat down on my overturned 5 gallon bucket and proceeded to try and hand feed them thinking that at least Biscuit would come. They all did!!! It was just like a previous poster said. All my other ladies were tired I guess of Biscuit getting most of the goodies so they just all gathered around me and ate the treats and even the pellet food out of my hands.

I think I'm in trouble here!! This was a ready-made flock. I don't think the pen I have is big enough for anymore, so I am already trying to figure out where I can put some more. Is this what the board calls "Chicken Math"???

 

[Mama Austranought]

Sweet potato (the orange type - kumera) - is fine - it is actually nice raw (on a chip and dip tray) but I don't know about the white fleshed variety. One of our girls comes running "like the fat ladies in spandex" but shes even funnier coz shes got these big feathery thighs and her big bulgy crop is swaying from side to side...

My experience with eating out of my hand is - you have to have a bit of pain tolerance because they forget where the food ends and the fingers start! and if they are very abitious then they try and take a whole chunk out of your finger! I often get mine jumping up to peck my ring.
You've definitely discovered the meaning of chicken math!

 

[Sassafras]

Watch out! If they get into a "feeding frenzy" they seem to bite wherever in your hand. I gave up hand feeding treats almost entirely. Ouch! My black sex links love to jump up and snatch the treat from your hand when you aren't paying attention. It is pretty funny though watching her run around with a big chunk of bread making those "oooh, oooh, oooh" noises.