Is it possible to tame down grown chickens? My chickens that I bought grown are crazy and I think they have made the other 2 crazy. My roo goes crazy and get the hens all shook up whenever I go out around the pen. I want to get rid of him but am breeding him to my hens right now.
Not sure how long you have had them. What I did was go into the pen with treats and throw them close to me and allow them to get used to me being near them. they are still not real friendly but they don't jump around when I come in the pen and will take treats out of my hand now. good luck.
it depends on the breed. Some are just more jumpy than others. Try the treat thing though - each & every time you go out there call to them - then sprinkle good treats. Tomato's, bread, corn, peas - things they will go nuts for. Do this daily or even twice a day for a couple weeks & they will come running when ever they see you. You still will not be able to just pick 'em up. They generally don't like that unless trained from the egg. But they will like it when you are around. Heck - mine will follow me around
Mine are Americana's. I got them from a woman who had all kinds of animals and chickens running around every where.
I know your pain. I have to travel to work some times and when I come home my chickens treat me like a stranger they have never seen and run frantically from me. One of the men I work for has 7 chickens that they hardly ever mess with, all they do is feed them....no treats, no special treatment of any kind and you can walk right up and pick every single one of his chickens up. When I am home I feed mine daily with something from the house and they still will keep their distance....so I just catch em and hold them whether they like it or not I do have one buff orp that likes to be petted and if you go out in evening and feed the ladies scratch for bedtime snack. I will save a little in the cup and go sit on bench on other side of the yard and wait. She will eventually come over, jump up on the bench and slowly crawl into my lap and lay down while I pet her. She is really cool, if only it would catch on with the rest....like maybe one day she will go in and tell them all how cool I am (haha) and they will just mob me for attention......aahh chicken dreams.
Chickens are actually quite intelligent in certain ways. You just have to teach them that when they see you, it means good food. Buy a bucket of mealworms and be patient; it shouldn't take long before they connect you with goodies. Not all chickens will be lap pets, though. And they're not like dogs or cats.