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Book said:
[COLOR=EE82EE]Oh Oh Oh GREAT NEWS! [/COLOR]

[COLOR=EE82EE]It took a week in the coop/run but the last two night the chickens have been putting themselves to bed in the coop without us having to put them in there and close their coop door! Now we just have to close the door and open it in the morning! So happy about this! They are learning! :) [/COLOR]
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I was coming on here to say the exact same thing! 2 nights in a row our girls have out themselves to bed!! Although they have been out there for a couple weeks.
 
Question:

Some of you say that your chickens are friendly and come up to you. At what age do they do that? I tried to choose friendly breeds and our girls are 8 weeks. I have 1 speckled Sussex that is pretty friendly and doesn't run away and will walk up to us. Of course they all come running when they see me with the treat pan. But I want chickens that want to hangout. Haha
 
LingaB said:
Question:

Some of you say that your chickens are friendly and come up to you. At what age do they do that? I tried to choose friendly breeds and our girls are 8 weeks. I have 1 speckled Sussex that is pretty friendly and doesn't run away and will walk up to us. Of course they all come running when they see me with the treat pan. But I want chickens that want to hangout. Haha
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Unfortunately, that's not very likely. Chickens follow the food, and that's pretty much it. If you have treats, they'll be friendly. If you don't, they will find other things to do (like forage for more food). My friendliest chicken was Buddy (who died to a predator recently) and I raised her on treats. I also picked her up, and brought her inside to the mealworm colony sometimes, so she learned that being picked up was a GOOD thing. And up until the day she disappeared, she would still let me pick her up, even if it was just to show interested parties that I had one who would let me do so. She didn't mind, she knew I wasn't going to hurt her, and she MIGHT get a treat for it. Maybe.

But it still depended on the availability of food. If I had just put starter crumbles on the ground (which they favor over layer pellets any day), or the neighbor had just tossed them some bread that went out of date, she'd fuss until I put her back down to eat. So she was friendly, but she still wanted to follow the food.

The best chance you'll have, is tricking them sometimes into thinking they might get treats, but not really giving them anything. Just pet them if they'll let you, and hang out with them until they realize you have nothing for them and start to walk away. Then alternate with treats off and on, and pick random times to come out with or without the treats. Eventually they may do like Buddy and trust you because they MIGHT get a treat for it. Maybe....
 
And here we go... my first venture into TURKEYS!

Geese turned out really well (for the eggs that didn't arrive scrambled) and Hope took her first trip to the Post Office today to meet the co-workers! I had to show everyone the turn-out of the eggs I received two months ago, and gave her diaper a test-run too. It didn't work very well. But I picked up my Royal Palm Turkey eggs while I was there, showed my boss some paperwork she wanted to see, and let Hope meet the staff! She was a major hit, lol

And one of my co-workers already wants babies next spring!

Then I brought the turkey eggs home and candled them. Only one had a moving air cell at all! HOW RARE IS THAT! Out of six eggs, too! I couldn't tell if it was just detached or actually split, because those eggs are kinda hard to see into, but it did move around the entire egg fairly easily, so I'm guessing split air cell. But I didn't see other moving objects, like I would expect to see with a scrambled yolk, so I'm hoping it will still work out. The others didn't show any movement at all, so it looks like five with air cells completely in-tact!



NOW let's just hope they are FERTILE, and that I can care for the POULTS well enough to keep them from doing dumbass things like looking up at the rain...
 
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LingaB said:
Question:

Some of you say that your chickens are friendly and come up to you. At what age do they do that? I tried to choose friendly breeds and our girls are 8 weeks. I have 1 speckled Sussex that is pretty friendly and doesn't run away and will walk up to us. Of course they all come running when they see me with the treat pan. But I want chickens that want to hangout. Haha
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Kind of like CR said, they mostly love you when you have edible things. ;) I only have one hen who seems to truly hang out, but here starts as a run to me to check for food, then lingers out of pure curiosity for what I'm getting into, as opposed to any feelings toward me.

But sometimes I like to pretend. ;)
 
LingaB said:
Question:

Some of you say that your chickens are friendly and come up to you. At what age do they do that? I tried to choose friendly breeds and our girls are 8 weeks. I have 1 speckled Sussex that is pretty friendly and doesn't run away and will walk up to us. Of course they all come running when they see me with the treat pan. But I want chickens that want to hangout. Haha
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You need to sit with them and feed them not necessarily for long periods. I usually carry some kind of food with me. if I am working outside I sit down and take a break and scatter a little food for them. They have to get comfortable with you and anticipate a little food. I feel like the Pied Piper when I go outside. The whole flock comes running after me.
 
But as far as coming up to you, even if just for food? That will come with time.. It takes a bit but once they associate you with good things.. I can walk out and call and mine will come running from across the pasture in a race to be first.
 

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