Will chickens follow you to a pen in the morning?

[sierrarod]

I have a very large grassy area I can fence in for the chickens, but it is a ways away from the shed I want to use as a coop. Is it possible to lead them to the grassy area every morning and put them in the shed at night?

Thanks!
Kisa

 

[Mrs. Fluffy Puffy]

Do you chickens like treats by any chance? How many chickens do you have?

 

[sierrarod]

No chickens yet. In the planning stages.

 

[maizey]

I can get my chickens to follow me to the moon for meal worms and scratch. They even come when i call them with a certain word/tone because they know I have treats..they actually lift off the ground in chicken flight to get to the treats. Choose a tasty treat and serve it up for a while in the same type container and make the same noise each time and they will get the idea.

 

[TigerLilly]

For a few treats, my chickens will follow me anywhere!

 

[Mrs. Fluffy Puffy]

If you only have a "Few" then you could just carry them over to their garden spot.

 

[franklinchickens]

I have 4 backyard chickens and when I open my back door, the alarm door beeper goes off ("beep beep beep back door" it says). All of them come flying down the hill and mob me at the door because they know that when I open the back door it usually means I have treats. You can associate a call with treats - like training a dog - and they'll figure it out. They'll want to go to the shed themselves as soon as it starts to get dark. My coop is in the yard and they just hop up in it when it's time.

 

[Royd]

I use my own variation of the eggsong, and they recognize it, as a call to food...It's quite funny to watch them come scrambling, from every which direction.

 

[centrarchid]

Quote:
That is arrangement I use now. Roost / coop ~ 120 from feeding area and birds must walk or fly distance each day, even through > 6" deep snow. They can cover twice distance easily. Point to be stressed is to have cover from elements (wind, rain, sun) and some predator protection (vegetative cover) near grassy area. I place feeders of feeding station at border of cover and open grass.


First make certain they are using coop as roost. Then to get to desired feeding area, start at coop and move feeder incrementaly / daily about 20' feet in desired direction. If cover lacking, then getting birds to move a longer distance will a problem. Keep predator problems in front of mine with this at all times.

My preference is that chickens do not follow me daily for food. Such activity is to be reserved for days when under fed, thus provides guide for making adjustents in feeding rate.

 

[Sir Birdaholic]

My chickens meet us at the gate & walk us EVERYWHERE. They crowd around , like a wave of chickens, thus, CHICKEN SURFING, as DW calls it.