Things young chickens should be taught?

[chickengeorgeto]

Previously, I've adopted adult chickens. I've got 2 young girls (9wks, 12wks) and I suspect that I've still got the opportunity to imprint some behaviours on them and make sure they grow up "well-adjusted". I've only had them a couple of days, I'm just trying to get them used to me and not to freak out when I go near them. They seem quite tame and don't take too long to come out and have some food with me there and tolerate my presence. I can pick them up if I am able to grab them (they won't walk up to me and let me pick them up).

Are there other things I should be trying to train them to do/tolerate/accept? At the moment, they are confined to their house/run. I haven't let them roam about in the bigger run, I'll give them some more time to settle in and then let them look around. Up to what age can they learn things and when are they "fully-formed adults"?

I think that you are over thinking the whole thing. You will find that there is little worthwhile behavior that a chicken can learn.

I don't doubt your ability to teach, but I also believe that you will find chickens to be poor learners of complex concepts..

 

[azygous]

hahaha, poor Irene, I feel for her. (I have visions of Gloria Swanson in Sunset Boulevard)

Oh YES! Irene was a real diva in her youth. I thought she resembled that girl Nelly in the "Little House on the Prairie" TV series with the perfect curls, impeccable clothes, but who had a really loathsome personality. Irene is a GLW, and even at age six, she's a stunning looker. But her temperament, which used to be heavily overbearing, has been severely curtailed due to her low rank in the pecking order.

It's a very good example of the fluid nature of the pecking order in a flock. People who have a timid chicken they're worried about or an aggressive one that is driving them to consider culling, I say, wait. Chickens can change. This is especially true of the lowest ranking members who were picked on mercilessly until new chicks arrive, then they are likely to be the ones doing the bullying.

 

[User395221]

I thought she resembled that girl Nelly in the "Little House on the Prairie" TV series with the perfect curls, impeccable clothes, but who had a really loathsome personality.

That character was also spoilt rotten. I'm sure you don't indulge your chooks like that

It's like people I suppose.... relationships change for all sorts of reasons. I hope they'll all get on and won't hate each other. (and anybody planning on acting like that horrible Nelly character had better watch out, I'm not having that.)

 

[User395221]

me again. Do chickens learn how to go around things or does it remain haphazard as to whether they get where they are trying to go? I had one little girl on the inside of their yard and one on the outside. The one on the outside just kept going back and forth until finally I managed to herd her around to the other side where the gate is.

I've noticed with my older girls that they don't seem able to see/understand that mesh is a barrier and that they try to go through it, but do they "suss out" how to problem solve their way around something as they grown up/experience it more often or do they remain "clueless" their whole lives?

 

[azygous]

Yes. They do learn. They aren't complete morons, though sometimes it does take a while.

I have a run that's more like a coop, and it has one big conventional type door, and on the opposite side of the run, a pop hole door. They both required a long learning curve for the chickens to learn how to get back inside once they had gone out.

At first, chicks will get trapped behind the propped open big door, as they work their way along the outside wall searching for the way back inside. The same was true for the pop hole on the opposite side, although I installed it right in the middle of the outside wall. Watching them working their way through this process of learning is both interesting and tedious. But then we need to remind ourselves that chickens' brains are wired much differently than ours are.

But once they learn something, they remember it, and improve on their knowledge, getting better at figuring out stuff. They really do have smart little brains for the size of them.

 

[User395221]

and tedious.

Thanks, azygous. This is how I was feeling yesterday* as she kept going back and forth (away from me, of course lol). I was thinking I'd just not let them out any more, but realising that they have to be exposed to things before they can learn how to overcome them, and reading your reply has stopped the defeatist thoughts.
Thanks!

*I've got a sore leg and it's REALLY hot at the moment, so the last thing I wanted was to be rounding up chickens who weren't participating in the process.

(My "little" girls are getting so big. Every day they seem bigger than the day before)

 

[azygous]

Yes, they do grow up so quickly. And when they finally "get a brain", they'll really make you proud! (Sounds sort of like when we're trying to get our human children through adolescence, huh?)

 

[User395221]

(Sounds sort of like when we're trying to get our human children through adolescence, huh?)

I feel like they are still toddlers... I think it's harder to appreciate how young they are because they look the same as grown-up chickens. With small people, they are small and their young age is obvious. I am too sensitive, I can't stand it when one is "crying" and the other one is trying to find its way back. It's really sad. Poor little things.

 

[RuthGracey]

I love the Sunset Boulevard reference.

 

[pawl]

This started me thinking... I can't say that I've taught my girls anything since the day they got here and I introduced each of them to the water and food. From that time forward they've been training me. Lesson one, don't wear shorts in the coop if you have varicose veins that could be mistaken for yummy worms while you're working on something. Followed quickly by lesson two, we are decedents of T-rex and we know it. This is funny now but last June it surly wasn't. Other lessons included "I fly better than you thought I could","I bite the hand that feeds me" and my son's favorite "latch the gate."