training chickens for voluntary flight

[centrarchid]

Yes, Holts Summit, Missouri.

Typically I teach courses dealing with fishes. I do guest lecture in companion animal (pets) and introduction to animal science (production). Trying make effort more memorable with "show and tell".

 

[Organics North]

Interesting thread.
I have done some "fooling around" training with my chickens. I wanted to demonstrate a chicken was as smart as a dog..

I have one white EE that flys up or flys over to me from say 10 feet. She usually never flys more than 50 feet. All the chickens are trained to follow a white pail. Bang the spoon on the side to get their attention and the birds come a runnin.

Did not have any luck with name reconition and calling an individual chicken to come..

ON

 

[centrarchid]

I assume since they can be "voice activated", they can detect differences in at least some components of human speech. What may be the overriding problem is the herd or flock effect where if one responds, everyone else reponds in kind to that individual.

 

[Gallo del Cielo]

All my chickens know their individual names (they are 8 months old). Whenever I hand out treats I make sure to say the name of the bird I'm giving the treat to just before it eats it. I make sure all the birds get roughly equal exposure to their names. Early on though, I couldn't tell my two BOs apart and I couldn't work with them until they were several months old. It's great when I want to get one bird's attention without alerting all the other birds. That's useful when I'm plucking hornworms out of the garden and I want to give it to one bird without the other's seeing and mobbing that bird. Of course all this is rather easy with just 6 birds.

 

[centrarchid]

Quote:
How long did it take to train? Unless mealworm small, it is soemtimes difficult to ensure only correct brids gets eats. This makes my training difficult if bird other than targetted thinks it has a shot at getting eats.

Did you use morsels other than hornworms? Grains not good motivator for my birds, especially when offered peicemeal. I think the birds are also going to tell me that for longer flights, the meal is gonna have to be bigger or they won't fly.

 

[Gallo del Cielo]

Quote:
How long did it take to train? Unless mealworm small, it is soemtimes difficult to ensure only correct brids gets eats. This makes my training difficult if bird other than targetted thinks it has a shot at getting eats.

Did you use morsels other than hornworms? Grains not good motivator for my birds, especially when offered peicemeal. I think the birds are also going to tell me that for longer flights, the meal is gonna have to be bigger or they won't fly.

I started from the time they could take treats. The trick is to never make mistakes, that is, don't say one bird's name and give the treat to another bird. So, don't say the name and present the treat unless you know one of the others won't get it, just wait for your moment or turn to another bird that's open. It's actually easier than it sounds (at least with 6 birds). I do this almost daily with most treats, mealworms, bits of cheese, spaghetti, peanuts, etc. Mealworms are the best because it is their favorite. Cheese is a close second. Pulling them away by calling them and giving them things like hornworms serves further strengthen the association between name and (mega) treat. Use their favorite treats, it's a better motivator.

 

[centrarchid]

Gallo del Cielo,

How fat away can you be from birds and still command their attention?

 

[Gallo del Cielo]

Hi centrarchid: I can be across my yard for sure. It really didn't take all that long. I think maybe a week when they were a month old or so. It was pretty strange when I left them for a couple weeks and they completely forgot their names. It took only a day or two for them to re-learn them though. Really, I just use it to separate individuals from the flock without attracting the others, just so that individual birds can get large treats (e.g. hornworms) without the others mobbing and stealing it from them. I have two birds that will steal a worm from the other birds every time if they see them trying to eat one. I also occasionally use the trick to surprise visitors. They can't believe a chicken could know its name.

 

[centrarchid]

Gallo del Cielo,

I am going to restrict my traing efforts to a trio (one male and two females) so when birds are adult social problems will be reduced and I can manage better. Females will be selected from an upcoming hatch. Chicks working now are giving me good 10 foot horizantal flights when launching from staircase railing. Now that longer flights made, landings are more gentle. Siblings not being used do not fly anywhere near as well. Conditioning is a factor.

For fun I am gonna set a couple landing perchs, each with feeding platform. A different type of morsel wil be placed on each when calling chicks. I am interested in seeing if chicks will invest more flight energy for some foods versus others. Would be cool to see if meal size also a consideration.

Centrarchid

 

[Gallo del Cielo]

Quote:
Sounds perfect. Smaller size rewards will allow greater numbers of trials, you have to find that happy medium. Good luck and let us know when you have some videos posted!