My rooster sounded an alert and disappeared after I caught one of our baby cockerels yesterday and put it in a cage to give away.I didn't see my rooster for 4-5 hrs so I went looking for him and found him with his favorite hen hiding in another chicken coop (not their own) He remembered me giving his brother away a year ago in the same cage
I had to tiptoe in the chicken run anytime I entered when my leghorns were baby chicks. I had a couple welsummers the same age with them.They didn't panic so that helped keep the leghorns calm.The leghorns reacted to the birds around them.If one took flight others took flight for no reason lol My main flock took an instant dislike to the leghorns for being loud and flighty(disruptive)I call them my little drama queens
No, not the oil or preen gland. We are referring to the pygostyle, which is the tailbone protrusion that the tail feathers grow off of.
Chickens are smarter than people give them credit for. I have one cockerel right now that is from a feral hatch. A game hen hatched him this spring and he has never been held by a human. He is wild but comes right under our feet at feeding time. If you start acting like you are trying to catch him, he bolts. He is smart enough to have picked up on our body language and knows when we are trying to catch him. He is gone before you can even get near him with the net. They are dang smart.
I've never been able to catch a chicken with a net but a plastic milk crate type box can work well for the ones that will walk right under your feet but run as soon as you reach to touch them. Just carry it around sometimes, let them get used to it being in your hand - even use it to nudge them out of your way at feeding times if they're really skittish - and then drop it down on top of them when you need to catch one. Your posture doesn't change in the same way as catching one by hand or with a net, so they don't get as much warning to run. The holes in the side should be big enough to stick a hand in and get a hold of the bird before you lift the crate.
Our White Leghorns stop acting spastic as they mature, but the hatchery Brown Leghorns have not. My husband plans on breeding his accidental WL rooster, Foghorn, he got in our order of pullets this summer to his WL hens. They are his favorite, so it was kind of a happy accident he got a rooster. Having the White Leghorns in with docile breeds like the Ameraucana hen and some Sussex hens have helped to calm them down I believe. They have learned to not fear us because the other birds do not fear us. Hopefully your Leghorns calm down a little as they mature.
I have only half-heartedly tried to catch him as I'm not ready to butcher him yet. I will butcher him and several others once I am finished with school in December. We can throw feed into the chicken house or an empty pen and close chickens up in those when we need to catch them. That typically works. He roosts way up in a tree like the games, so too high to catch with a 2x4.
The silver Ameraucana are getting better because they are with my Spitzhauben. The Spitzhauben are flighty when young but as they get older they get curious and like to be near people.
Chickens definitely feed off the energy of other birds around them. If the other chickens are acting like the human is going to eat them, they will all be panicking. If the other chickens act chill, the spastic chickens learn that people are not a big deal. *Most of the time*
