Voice Commands

[brendapa]

Does anyone train their chickens to respond to voice commands?

My silkies were all trained to go up into their own coops/hutches when we said "UP! UP! UP! UP!.
The women who bought my PQ pairs was very impressed.
They'll do this even if they've only been out an hour and we have to go out. This training came out of neccessity due to hawks.

I now have chicks and I can't even get them to go into the coop at dusk yet but as I put them in they hear UP! UP! UP! UP!
I forgot how much work chicks are. And how long this training takes. I should have kept a hen instead of a rooster, to help me.
Now, if i can just get them to not be afraid of the piano....

Brenda

 

[wegotchickens]

There are a couple of others that have had their chickens respond to voice commands. Mine 'herd' well, but won't go in just because they're told to.

I think once you get the birds into a routine it makes a difference. We patrolled the edges of our yard and shooed the hens from the neighbor's yards. Now my birds stay inside their territory almost perfectly. And when they do stray, I can yell, "Hey hey hey!" and they act sheepish and casually stroll back into our yard again.