Will chickens love you more if you hatch them yourself?

[Teresaann24]

I feel that chicks hatched by yourself are more tolerate of people.

 

[BayouPoules]

Quote:
That's exactly what I was thinking,.. chickens "love"you more,. if you feed them treats,..if you are the treat machine,.. you are their everything!


Mine think of me as..." The Giver of Grapes"

 

[Gypsy07]

I think it's more down to the breed, personally. I've never had hatchery chicks as you can't get chicks posted to you in the UK - I think it's maybe illegal? - but I have bought young pullets raised in big sheds along with 100s or 1000s of other birds and almost no human contact. They're much friendlier than my incubator hatched and handled daily from 'birth' Maranses and Leghorns.

Also a lot of it does come down to individual personalities. I recently bought two birds of the same breed, from the same breeder. One 3 year old, settled into the flock okay after a few weeks of being pushed around, not overly friendly, protests like mad if I corner her and pick her up, runs away from me when out free ranging. One 10wk old chick, now 21 wks old, hasn't been handled much at all, comes up to me in the yard and lets me pick her up no problem. Another funny thing - she's the smallest and youngest of the whole flock but in the two weeks she's been in with them all, she's already well up in the pecking order. Obviously a bossy little madam!