question about chicken behavior.

What breeds do you have? Some are more calm than others.

 

Are you raising them from chicks? Usually, when they are chicks is when they get used to being handled and get to know you and your scent. We keeps ours in the house for 8 week before putting them in the hen house for a nother 4 weeks, then add to the flock. Every chick we have raised this way acts like a kid in a candy store when they see me......

Are you maybe not handling them much? We have our first 6 that we purchased as adults and they don't come near me.

 

When it came time to select which 4 pullets out of 10 would be allowed out of their pen and off onto the road to being our backyard laying hens, we had some choices to make .

I told Dear Wife that the 2 Barred Rocks were calm and fairly friendly. One didn't mind being held and the other seemed to think she needed to teach the world to sing (or "peep," as it was ).

One of the smaller Black Australorps was very curious about me and had always, always, always been the first one to walk over when I put my hand in the brooder box. If I left my hand in the box long enuf, she would crawl under it and fall asleep. I knew she would be a safe bet out in the yard just because she trusted me .

"Well," DW says, "bring out the calm ones. We don't want them flying over the fence." So, out came Olivia the BA, and the 2 BR's who I named Spring & Edna. Edna was easy to pick up and really didn't seem to mind being handled. Spring, was a little stand-offish but calls to me constantly when I'm out in the yard - whether she's inside or out of the pen.

We agreed to keep 4 out of the 10 and after a month or so of having the other 3 on the lawn part of each day, I let Yvonne out. Yvonne is another BA but is rather suspicious of me. It was easy separating "the 3 Amigos" from all the others so that they could scamper about the yard every day but Yvonne didn't like to be touched. It wasn't really until the remaining 6 were gone that she was able to enjoy daily excursions on the lawn.

All this was back during the Summer. Six months later, and after laying for the last 2 months, Olivia always wants to be closest to me. I can reach down and grab Edna any day, at any time. Spring still sings to me whenever she sees me. And Yvonne, doesn't really want me to touch her but I can if there's a treat involved .

These pullets are now nearly 8 months old and I don't expect their personalities and our relationships to change much from here on out. They have really been the same since they were day-old chicks.

Steve