Total newbie question- how do you round 'em up?

[lovemychix]

YOu run around the yard and catch them and open the door to put that one in and two more get out.

Quite the workout.
I found that putting treats in the run will get them in sometimes. Usually I just let mine go in when they want in the evening. I only let mine out in the evening when I'm working outside and then they go right in and I shut the door behind them. I keep telling myself that I'm not letting them out anymore after I spend 2 hours raking mulch back in my flower beds and fixing everything they have destroyed in the 1 hour I let them have freedom.

 

[Granolamom]

If I want mine to go back into their run before their own body clock tells them too, I take a can of catfood out there, show it to them, let the roo and one of the hens take a peck at it, and then run like heck towards the henhouse. They all come charging after me, yelling and screaming. Works almost every time. My husband, on the other hand, has his own way: Picture a 6'5", 350lbs, bald-headed, black man with arms outstreched, running towards them, yelling "CHEEEEEEKCHICKCHICKCHICK!!!!". They run like heck, away from him, and into their yard.

 

[congdon476]

Quote:

 

[walkswithdog]

I KNEW I was going to love this thread.

Mine go to coop for two reasons --- Me yelling HAWWWWWWKKKK! Which they've figured out.

And for corn/food. I never feed them outside their coop/run. Scratch offered at the end of a long day makes good birds out of all of them. I yell chick chick chick if I don't see them all and they come running like Ninnies. Or yell coooooorrrrnnnn and that's it. Here they all come.

Most of the time, if you tend to bring them treats when you come out the harder thing is getting them to GO AWAY. Every chore I do where they can get to me has at least two chicken cheerleaders riding my lap or shoulder trying to see if I'm doing it right or something. I get no peace. It's wonderful.

Trying to build anything with two to four chickens helping is just a tad more complicated than I'd imagined. They get HEAVY!!! Then there's the few boogers who have to inspect and peck your clothes while you're working.

I need to rent the 350 lb bald guy just to get something done!!!

 

[Teach97]

I've got a couple banty roosters I would put up against him!

I'm a 240 lb 6' flat topped white guy and there is one that is totally unimpressed with me!

 

[Granolamom]

Quote:
Okay, no problem. I just told him about it, and he said to tell you "it's all about the attitude!". He's up for the challenge, no doubt about it

 

[vermontgal]

Both dog and chickens know the word "treats." When I really want the dog to come, I abandon the word "come" and call out "treats."

It's easier for me if I have a consistent vocabulary across the animal kingdom, otherwise I forget who I'm talking to.

Chickens still don't know how to sit and stay, however.

 

[cmom]

When mine were little I put them in a chicken tractor. When they get to be about a month old they go into the nursery coop which has a run attached. I found the best way to get them in is to bribe them. I experimented with treats and found out their preference and then scatter it around their feeder in the coop when I want them to go in. It may be instinct to go into the coop and roost but my little ones don't know it yet. My older girls do, they go in ok. So, I given them treats in the evenings when I want them to go into their coop. The older girls are funny. Now they go into their coop and squawk until I give them some treats too like to tell me "ok we're all in now so where are our treats?” I have to laugh. They have me trained.