Respecting The Stick

[CapeReds]

Our 15 year old son, the Chief Herder, discovered the virtues of the herding stick. We let the girls out to free range almost daily. Using the stick has made the round up extremely easy to control the direction and movement of our flock. During "Share the Run With The Little Ones" time, keeping "The Herding Stick" present helps the assimilation time remain non violent.

 

[GoldenSparrow]

Thats really cool!
How did he learn to do that? did he have to some how train the chickens? How many chickens do you have?

I live in Sandwich MA cape cod too!!!

 

[gritsar]

I have a stick, made of plastic, we call the evil stick. If for some reason I need to get my flocks back in their coops early all I have to do is pick up the stick.

 

[ECBW]

A friend has a fish net that would send the flock scurry back to the safety of the coop.

 

[stoopid]

I used a broom with my guineas. Boy, did they give me a hard time.

 

[RedDrgn]

Nice!

Ours are never out without my DH or I (or both) being with them. Too dang many loose dogs in our area and that doesn't even account for the large population of nature predators. So ours will generally follow us where we go, so if we walk into the run, they come with us. The run is as secure as the coop once we shut the door, so we don't have to direct them further.

 

[GoldenSparrow]

I just call them and they all come a running to me!

 

[SteveBaz]

AMEN to the stick

 

[geekgurl]

My bird's brains must have grown overnight because today was the first day my little flock disrespected the stick. They figured out they can go ahead of the stick and then around it. Stinky little hens!

. Took me forever to get them into the run.

 

[stilldeb]

I use an old pool net. I don't 'net' them, just 'encourage' them. They will climb in my lap for mealworms, but then I have a lap full of chickens that don't necessarily want to go in the coop.