Monday 24 September 2012

The Taming of the Hen

Me making friends with our four hens
What is the best way to tame a chicken? They can be flighty and scared of sudden movements. And slow movements. And, well, any motion at all. Our girls are no different. I have seen them panic at passing house sparrows.

We wanted our hens to be pets as much as we wanted egg-producers, which is just as well as they have yet to lay an egg! Watching them from a distance is good fun, but we want to be able to interact with them properly too.

Bribery. As far as I can tell, bribery is the answer. To be more specific, food is easily the quickest way to a chicken's heart. We enter their run each day armed with a pot of mixed corn. A small scattering to get them interested, and then start keeping the corn close to us in an attempt to persuade them closer. We are even more popular on the days we present them with a grape each. Fizzy and Pepper quickly learnt to accept offerings straight from our hands, and even Frog lately has gained enough confidence to join them. Sadly, Lemon keeps her distance a little, but we try to throw her some corn while the others are distracted to make sure she gets her share.

Our real aim however, was to tame them enough to be picked up. Plenty of other chicken keepers will testify to their girls loving cuddles. So, after a couple of weeks, we started a routine of catching each of them on a daily basis, and rewarding them with food. Panic and mayhem followed. Pepper and Frog seemed the most calm while being held, but after only two days all four would barely leave their coop if we were in the run with them. Not even for corn. We gave up. We had no desire to turn them against us, and this tactic was clearly not working.

It didn't take long of just sitting in with them quietly for the girls to regain their former enthusiasm for all things edible. Did we give up too soon, I wonder? What do you think? Will it get better? 


4 comments:

  1. Maybe it's the pink crocs at the route of the problem... :-) Nel

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    1. Pink crocs, blue wellies - maybe its just footwear in general?

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  2. Can you stroke them while they feed from your hands? Maybe a few weeks of getting them used to being touched affectionately like that might help? I have no idea though! But carrying on picking them up when you'd scared them away from you probably wouldn't have been helpful! I'm sure you'll get used to each other in the end. Perhaps when they're laying they might get more touchy-feely?

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    1. Thats roughly the approach we're going for (stroking while feeding), but they don't really like even that at the moment. I'm sure they'll get there though - its just a question of time I think.

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