008 - Breed Overview

For a much larger list of breeds with more technical information and less personal experience, please visit this website: Henderson's Chicken Breed Chart

In this journal I will be documenting the various experiences I've had working with different breeds of chicken. I have only worked with a handful of breeds of chicken in the past two years, but of those I worked with:

* Ameraucana / Easter Egger
* Australorp
* Blackstar ( Barred Plymouth Rock crossed with Rhode Island Red )
* Campine ( possibly Egyptian Fayoumi )
* Cochin
* Japanese Bantam ( Chabo )
* Orpington ( buff )
* Plymouth Rock ( barred )
* Rhode Island Red
* Silkie
* Sizzle ( a breed in progress that is a Silkie crossed with a frizzled Cochin )
* Welsummer
* Many mutts as a conglomerate of breeds listed above ( namely, Barred Plymouth Rock, Rhode Island Red, and Welsummer ), as well as some that are either Dutch Bantams or Old English Games bred to something like a Sebright or Mille Fleur-like breed.
* BONUS: a Turkey

Before I really delve into this, I would like to make it clear that the experience I have in judging breeds is very limited. I have only owned a handful of any given breed, and some breed experience I have is based on brief interactions with birds that I never actually owned ( working with other people's birds ). For instance, my house mate is the one with the Blackstars, Rhode Island Red, Barred Plymouth Rocks, Auracana, Cochin, and the Welsummer. I also don't have gendered experience with the breeds - the Campines were two cockerels, the Welsummer was a rooster, the Blackstars were, of course, females, who knows what the Cochin is, and so forth.

However, understanding that, I will go through the list alphabetically, as it is listed above. I will start with a small history of my experience, and what I have observed and come to hypothesise through the interactions Someday, I would love to have the time, space, and experience to really experiment with a much larger sample population of chickens to have an even better, more complete knowledge for this list. Until then, though, here's the best I can give you!

AMERAUCANA / EASTER EGGER

I have owned six Ameraucanas. I purchased them as day-old chicks at Del's Farm and Feed Store in two groups of three - about two weeks difference between the two batches. Four of the Ameraucanas have ended up in my house mate's flock, so I didn't work with all of them for too long, but two of them are still in my flock of five. The two Ameraucanas in my flock are Eddie and Ziggy, females. All six Ameraucanas are females.

One thing I would like to make absolutely clear here is that Ameraucanas and Easter Eggers are NOT the same thing!! An Easter Egger is a chicken that is a hybrid or a mutt of either an Ameraucana or Auracana - in other words, a non-pure bred chicken that still lays coloured eggs ( blue, green, yellow, purple... ). Ameraucana is a relatively new breed that some people still don't consider a "real" breed. Most Ameraucanas sold through hatcheries or feed stores are not well bred, and thus can be considered "Easter Eggers" instead of true Ameraucanas, which is why I have coupled them together in this post since my girls came from a feed store. However, the history of the Ameraucana states that Auracanas, due to their ear tuft gene, have lethal genes that make it so that 50% of the chicks make it to term and then die either shortly before or after hatching. That's half of your chick turn-out dying for no apparent reason. The Ameraucana was bred to keep the coloured eggs but eliminate the lethal gene. Breeds such as the Rhode Island Red and Plymouth Rock were used for this project, so if someone refers to your Easter Egger as a "Red Egger" they're using a term from when the breed was first in construction... or the few people from older generations that I've heard use it in that context are unique in their choice of dialect.

So far as temperament, I would love to rank these guys at the very top of my "desirable temperament" list. They're calm, affectionate, easily trainable, tend to be on the submissive side of things, don't pick fights, and all around very well-mannered. All six of my chicks were this way, and I keep hearing similar things from other owners of Ameraucanas. I have, however, heard that Auracanas are very feisty and difficult to work with. This all depends on the luck of the draw - genetics might make an animal more inclined to behave a certain way, but it will in no way guarantee that behaviour.

I would strongly recommend bantam Ameraucanas for starter flocks or for children - but NOT Auracanas for the reasons stated above. Since Ameraucanas are already very docile, the process of making them bantams is only going to enhance that since bantams are typically bread as ornamental varieties of their standard counterparts, and thus made to be even more docile and able to be handled. On the plus side, your chickens will lay unique, green eggs. They won't lay as much as breeds that are bred for laying ( though Ziggy gives me about an egg a day ), but they'll give you more than the Auracana. Moreover, their eggs will tend to be smaller than production-quality hens. However, with this batch even your roosters should be calmer and friendlier on a whole - but ONLY if you're treating your chickens as chickens, as this blog has preached from the beginning.

AUSTRALORP

I have owned two Australorps, both female. Australorps are related to Orpingtons, their name meaning "Australian All-Purpose Utility Orpington", but their temperament is drastically different. I have not had very good experiences with Australorps and ended up giving both of mine away when they were very young to people looking for chickens reputed for a high egg production.

Australorps come in black, grey, and now blue varieties. They hold the record for most eggs laid in a year at 364. However, no Australorp before or since has EVER been able to get anywhere near that number, and as far as modern breeders know, the strain that produced that bird is gone, so don't hold out hope for your Australorp to out-lay your Blackstar. Australorps are, however, renowned for just how LARGE their eggs are, especially in their third and fourth years of life.

I did not like the temperament of my Australorps. They bullied the other chicks, plucking out ALL of the feathers on the backs of my Ameraucanas, but left my buff Orpingtons alone. I sold one at two weeks for 5$, just to get rid of her since she was the one instigating the bad behaviour, and tossed the other one into my flock of much older chicks before selling her once she just came into lay. If I had known then what I know now, I most certainly would have worked on correcting the behaviour, but at the time the whole situation was just way too much and I only wanted calm, personable birds to build my starting flock with.

I would not recommend Australorps to beginner chicken owners. They take a little more time and discipline than most other chickens, and seem to be more defiant. My flock is made up of chickens that have had calm demeanour from the start, so the two Australorps I raised were set to be adopted out from the start once I got to know their personalities. I do not consider this breed untamable or at all impossible, and they are perfectly capable of being good pets to people with the right demeanour. They need someone more energetic and structured, willing to spend lots of time with them and lots of exercise. Hens may also end up needing special care due to the size of their eggs later in life, though I did not keep my Australorps long enough to find out.

BLACKSTAR ( barred Plymouth Rock x Rhode Island Red )

A Blackstar is a sex-linked breed of chicken of the barred Plymouth Rock variety. Plymouth Rocks - specifically the barred variety - tend to be able to be bred to other breeds of chickens and create what are called "sex-linked" chicks meaning that males and females can be told apart from the moment they hatch due to colouring. Other sex-linked breeds are Amberstars, Bluebells, and Whitestars. The benefit of hybrids is what is called "Hybrid Vigour" which means that as hybrids, they have a little more of just about everything. Longer life span in some cases, MUCH more egg production, much more vivid colours, and so forth.

I have not dealt with any sex-linked males as males tend to be destroyed immediately. Males are not desirable in hybrids since they cannot breed true - which is to say a Blackstar male bred to a Blackstar female will NOT produce colour-coded chicks - and they do not produce eggs, which is what hybrids are for. The males can, however, be harvested for their pretty feathers to be used as crafts and fly ties for fishing. I have, however, dealt with three Blackstar females and a few offspring of Blackstars of both sexes.

I have found Blackstars to be on the higher end for energy levels, but calmer to handle and work with. I have also found Blackstars to be more inquisitive and quicker to learn when training. This is probably likely due to quicker ability to learn means longer-lasting and more predator-savvy birds, which would be valuable in an egg-producing flock - especially free range egg-producing birds which is where Blackstars are usually found. Similarly, I have found them to be much more adapted to being human friendly. Out of my house mate's mixed flock, the Blackstars and offspring of the Blackstars are the most common to come running right up to me. The Ameraucanas are the second friendliest in that flock.

CAMPINE ( possibly EGYPTIAN FAYOUMI )

Now here's probably one of my favourite breeds that I've worked with, and I am very, very sad that I was not able to keep my two boys. I have not dealt with Campine females, but I had two silver Campines ( which may or may not have actually been poorly bred Egyptian Fayoumis ). Campines are bred from Egyptian Fayoumis and are not very different in physiology and temperament, so for all intents and purposes I tend to group the two together, though Campines tend to be more "tame" than Fayoumis - but not by much.

The Egyptian Fayoumi is an ancient breed, remains found in ancient Egypt that seem almost unchanged from today. They were bred to be completely independent and people would just walk around the town and find eggs wherever the hens decided to plant them. These chickens were not penned at all, and would often simply wander the streets. Due to this purpose, the chickens were bred to not be very dependant upon humans. Campines were bred from Fayoumis that were imported into Northern Europe environments to keep the black and white colouring and independent temperament but to eliminate the larger combs and wattles indigenous to warmer climates. A golden variety would be created later.

My Campines I have found to fit the "independent" criteria - they keep themselves occupied, they are intelligent, learn very quickly, even experiment, and they're very high energy. This behaviour, however, translates into something else that people who have herding or sled dogs might recognise: An eagerness to please their dominant member, strong loyalty to their group, and a constant need to have a job to do. Left to their own devices, animals of this nature can become very aggressive and protective of their territory - including their people - and incredibly destructive. Most owners of Campines compensate for this simply by giving them huge roaming space since these chickens are known escape artists ( Huskies and Border Collies, anyone? ).

However, just like Huskies and Border Collies, these chickens can be given jobs to help redirect that behaviour. I gave my Campines agility courses, strict rules and boundaries, and worked with them extra hard on command phrases, socialisation, and frequently took them with me to events such as carnivals and street fairs. Giving them something to do really helped curb their negative behaviours ( aggression, crowing, tearing apart their enclosures, trying to escape, etc. ). When they came to understand that I was dominant, they became extremely loyal, affectionate, eager to please, calm, and were constantly checking in with me to see if their behaviours were accepted or denied.

I would not recommend Campines for beginner flocks, simply because they take so much time and energy. They require CONSTANT attention, rules, and reinforcement. For those content spending a lot of time with their chickens, Campines can be a whole lot of fun. They're energetic and easy to train, eager to please and quirky. They enjoy playing, and were some of the quickest of mine to catch on to harnesses and leashes. They loved riding my bike and seeing all the people in downtown Olympia. Hens will lay small, off-white eggs, but ALL Campines and Fayoumis will fly, and a standard seven-foot fence will NOT keep them contained. They MUST be trained to stay close to home, or kept on a leash. Campines do not come in standard OR bantam variety - but rather have a constant size right between the two.

COCHIN

I have dealt with a couple of bantam Cochins, and met a couple of standard Cochins. The Cochin I owned was a mixed bred with a Silkie and frizzled, thus part of the Sizzle breeding project, but I've helped raise a couple of bantam Cochins non-frizzled and non-mixed bred. Cochins are ornamental chickens, known for their extreme fluffiness and feathered feet. I have known many people who refer to Cochins simply as "those funny little chickens with fuzzy feet." In all fairness, their context may also have been referring to Brahmas, and standard Cochins are HUGE, sometimes used for meat production, but not commercially. Due to being considered an "ornamental" breed, Cochins are bred to have calm temperaments towards humans and each other.

Cochins are sometimes called "Pekins", but the Pekin bantam is a true bantam that is unrelated to the Cochin. Cochins are not known to be good layers, but my Sizzle, Mop, laid about an egg a day for me once she started, though it took her awhile to start laying compared to the rest of my flock. Cochins are known to be quiet, scarcely crowing or clucking, but this has NOT been my experience. Cochins that I have personally worked with have been VERY vocal - perhaps not loud, but vocal.

I would strongly recommend Cochins to beginner flocks. Even the large varieties tend to be incredibly sweet and affectionate. They need less boundary reinforcement than other breeds, but never take this as a free card NOT to give your chicken boundaries and rules. Cochins are simply less apt to challenge a limitation. Most Cochins are not good layers, and lay medium-small brown eggs. Due to their calm temperament, Cochins are great for children, able to be handled and cuddled without much complaint.

JAPANESE BANTAM ( CHABO )

Japanese Bantams, also sometimes called "Chabo" which means "dwarf" in Java, where these chickens are also quite popular, are a very, very old breed. Recently, the Chabo was used to create a new breed now known as the smallest breed in the world, the Serama. Seramas were almost wiped out a few years ago when a hurricane hit the Malaysia area, then followed by the avian flu which ended up slaughtering the Serama population so low that breeders had to start the breed anew with Chabos once more. One large difference between Chabos and Seramas is that Seramas are known to be much, much more vocal whereas Chabos are known to be very quiet. My own boy, Sindri, only crowed thrice that I know of. The other Chabos in my flock - one male, one female - behaved much the same.

Sindri was a very, very special boy to me. My house mate purchased he and his mate at an auction, and then tossed he and his mate into a shed with about thirty or forty chicks ( mostly bantams, and about ten turkeys ) and several bunnies. Her plan was to let these two breed and make a profit on their chicks simply for the "cute" factor. However, when I went in a couple of weeks later, I found the two of them were grotesquely underweight. I took them out, fed them, and gave them some time alone, away from the chicks and bunnies. Unfortunately, when they went back in, they were so bullied by the week-old chicks that the female starved to death, and since they weren't my birds there was little I could do about it. My house mate expressed disinterest with the male if he had no female to breed with, so I took him and he became part of my flock, put weight back on, and perked up a great deal. I do think, however, that he remained ill from the event if not from literal disease, from loneliness and the trauma of leaving his home, going to the auction, and all else. He was perky and peppy around me, but whenever I left for more than a day he would become lethargic, stop eating, and just sit in a corner. Twice I came home to him being almost dead, to the point that when I picked him up he was limp, and both times I revived him. Then I left for a weekend and wasn't able to bring him with, and he passed away.

Sindri was extremely friendly and loved cuddling up with me when I was on my computer, watching a movie, or just about anything else. He took to riding my bike very quickly. He would get up on my hand and just hold onto my biking gloves. He would watch the world go by then eventually huddle up and go to sleep - yes, on my hand, while I was biking on the bike trail and through town, he was asleep. He would snuggle up on my shoulder right up against my cheek and coo, coo, coo almost like a purring cat. I could pick him up, look at his wings, his feet, open his beak, whatever I wanted and he would grunt and chortle, but put up almost no fight at all. A couple of people who were Chabo breeders said that he behaved exactly as the typical male Chabo would. It's the ones that have gotten a little bit of Serama in them that are the ones that are noisy and energetic.

I would strongly recommend Japanese Bantams to beginner flocks. With four Chabos - two of each sex - I have found them all to be very calm, complacent, affectionate, and trainable. They are gentle and sweet and love human interaction, having very little to say against it. They are quiet and great for indoor flocks, but DO NOT leave your Chabo outside unattended. Chabos are some of the smallest chickens, and make for super easy targets for predators of all kinds, including neighbourhood cats, a danger seldom thought of for other chickens because they're simply too large for a cat to think of as prey, usually. Chabos also have short legs that make it difficult for them to run away from predators, and they trip over themselves easily. Same goes for Seramas. Chabos lay tiny, off-white eggs, but they don't lay often.

ORPINGTON

Orpingtons, most commonly known for their buff variety ( though there's also black, white, and blue ), so much so that other varieties can be incredibly difficult to come by in some parts of the world, and in many areas it's often thought that the "buff" is part of the breed's name, similar to "Barred Rock" for the barred Plymouth Rock and "Black Australorp". I raised two Orpington pullets who ended on bad terms in my house mate's flock. In fact, those are the two featured in my profile picture!

The two buff Orpingtons I raised were very sweet and affectionate, with hardly a struggle or a peep in defiance when I wanted to handle them. They would cuddle up with me , and were always fairly quiet - and good, golly, gosh they were soft! Orpingtons are very common chickens for backyard flocks due to their larger-sized brown eggs, and frequency in laying.

I would strongly recommend Orpingtons to a beginner flock. They are gentle and easily trained, with the added bonus of being extremely soft to the touch. These birds are great with kids, as they tend to be easy to pick up and carry around, and extremely responsive to human attention. Orpingtons are considered "utility" birds which means that they're good for eggs and meat, so after your hen's egg production goes down, you can still get a good meal out of her.

PLYMOUTH ROCK

As above, Plymouth Rocks often times thought of as "Barred Rocks", but that barring is only a colouration. Plymouth Rocks also come in white, buff, silver pencilled, partridge, columbian, and blue. They are extremely common in backyard flocks due to their production of large, brown eggs, and their gentle temperament. Plymouth Rocks are utility birds, as stated above meaning that they have a fair amount of meat on them in order to make a good meal after their egg production starts to go down. However, within modern day, the Plymouth Rock has stepped aside from its duel-purpose roots and leans more towards the side of egg production strictly.

My experience with Plymouth Rocks tells me that the are very energetic, inquisitive chickens. They love to learn and are eager to please, even the males being gentle and cooperative. They can be aggressive towards other chickens, and I have heard many, many complaints about Plymouth Rocks being aggressive specifically towards other breeds of chicken in mixed flocks. I, personally, did no experience the aggression, but I was dealing with chicks for the most part. I have heard other people state that their Plymouth Rocks deal just fine with other chickens, and when I was young I knew a barred Plymouth Rock in a mixed flock who was just fine.

I would recommend Plymouth Rocks to beginner flocks since they are so prolific and thus bred for being able to be handled and human dependency However, know where your chickens are coming from because breeds that are over-bred can come with added medical problems and behaviour problems tend to start cropping up in "cash crop" breeds. When people will pay for the breed, it's not uncommon for a breeder to care very little for the health of the animals and just try to produce as many chicks as possible. Do some research into where your chicks are coming from and other people's experiences with chicks from that source, and you should be good.

RHODE ISLAND RED

Rhode Island Reds are some of the most common chickens in the world. They lay lots of large, brown eggs, tend to be cold resistant, and also duel purpose utility birds. There is also a Rhode Island White, but it is considered a different breed. My experience with Rhode Islands is mostly limited to mutts and males, but all of my boys have been absolute dolls. Bo is my eldest chicken right now, and he has proven himself as an alert animal, alerting me to anxiety and panic attacks, starting when he was about five months old! His brother, Socrates, was also a very enjoyable friend to have while he lived with me - he now lives with a woman out on a large farm, where he sleeps indoors and sits on her lap every morning while she gets ready to tend the farm, then follows her around while she does her chores.

Bo was the first of my chickens to really get into bike riding with me. Socrates was soon to follow. Perhaps because he's the oldest, and thus has the most life experience, or perhaps simply because he's that awesome, I find Bo to be the most trainable and socialised of my chickens. He is very gentle and even when eating out of my hand, he never pinches my skin. He was rough when mating the hens at first, but I quickly deterred that behaviour, and now he is much nicer.

However, next to Plymouth Rocks, Rhode Islands are probably the ones I hear about the most as being aggressive towards other chickens in mixed flocks. I have even heard of Rhode Islands going so far as plucking other, non-Rhode Island flock members bald! No one is quite sure why breedism exists in chickens, but it seems to manifest in similar ways all across the globe. Albeit, I have typically found this behaviour to only be evident in unbalanced and unhappy flocks.

I would recommend Rhode Island Reds to beginner flocks. Such as the Plymouth Rock, since they are so popular they've been bred for good temperaments, but as with the Plymouth Rocks, "mean" strains have been created due to bad breeding habits. Educate yourself on where your chicks are coming from and other people's experiences, and you should do well to have a good experience.

SILKIE

Silkies are well-known as soft feathered chickens with blue skin who are rather funny-looking. Way back in the 1200s, Marco Polo described an animal from his Asian expeditions as being a cross between a chicken and a rabbit - many historians believe this to be a reference to the Silkie chicken. There are also legends in China about Silkies being akin to Phoenixes. Silkies are considered a delicacy for their unique blue skin and bones. Silkies do not lay many eggs, and their eggs are small and creamy coloured.

When owning a Silkie, frequently check to make sure their feathers are not growing into their eyes. This is also an exercise that should be done with Polish chickens, Houdans, and any other "top hat" chicken whose feathers grow over their face. If this does happen, clip the feathers away from the eyes. If the feathers are not trimmed, they can grow INTO the eyes and cause blindness.

I have found Silkies to be incredibly gentle and tame, affectionate and eager to please. My Silkie, Liza, was very quiet and loved to cuddle with me. She, Mop, and Marshmallow ( a Dutch Bantam mutt ) all live with a wonderful woman who takes very good care of them, and frequently spends time with them in the garden, and frequently sends me Emails about their well-being. Liza is very observant and inquisitive, learning quickly about the world around her. She loves people-contact and she loves other chickens. She would follow Mop around and do whatever Mop did, and the two of them were rough on Sindri when I first introduced him to the two, but after establishing the order of things, they all got along quite well, and I would see all three of them roosting together frequently.

I would recommend Silkies to beginner flocks. Silkies need special care with the feathers on their face, and also to keep their feathered feet clean. Due to their funny feathering, some people report that Silkies have a harder time keeping themselves insulated against heat or cold, and they're also much easier picks for predators. Always keep your Silkie in safe sight, and make sure their perches aren't too far off the ground since Silkies CANNOT fly like regular chickens - they can't reach the usual recommendation of three feet off the ground. However, they are extremely affectionate and eager to learn. They make for wonderful indoor chickens.

SIZZLE

Much of what I have to say about Sizzles will be similar to what I have to say about Silkies. Sizzles are bred by breeding a Silkie to a frizzled Cochin. "Frizzle" is when the feathers bend outwards and towards the head - hence my Sizzle's name, Mop. The actual "breed standard" that Sizzles are aiming for is for the skin colouration and comb, wattle, and feet of Silkies and the feathering of a frizzled Cochin. The Sizzle is NOT a recognised breed yet, and all Sizzles are currently "in progress".

Keep in mind that you should NEVER breed a frizzle to a frizzle, as it causes feather brittleness and can cause skin problems and other genetic maladies for life. A frizzled bird is a bird with a GENETIC DEFORMATION that is considered "cute", but in reality can be devastating to the animal. It takes away the chicken's ability to fly or maintain its own body temperature, thus needing extra protecting during cold winter or hot summer temperatures, and thus robbing the bird of its basic instincts and needs to roost on high perches, to jump off of things without getting hurt, and so forth. I DO NOT CONDONE THE BREEDING OF FRIZZLED BIRDS. PERIOD.

That in mind, I did not know that Mop would be a frizzled bird when I adopted her. I purchased her in a "Bantam Bundle" which was a straight run of random bantam breeds, and she won my heart by being the first one to jump out of her enclosure, run across my room, and snuggle up in my lap. She has always been incredibly affectionate and eager to please. She always loved going out with me to meet other people, too, and loved being pet.

I would recommend Sizzles to beginner flocks. Sizzles need the special attention noted above due to their genetic condition, but so long as you are concious of their special needs, they tend to be incredibly easy to handle and trainable. Frizzles can be of ANY breed, and are NOT a breed themselves - it is simply a way to describe the feathering. Again, make sure you know where you're getting your chickens, because a poorly bred frizzle can cost you in vet bills or just be outright totally not worth it as soon as they start growing feathers, and may need to be slaughtered outright simply as a humane thing to do.

WELSUMMER

Welsummer is probably the most recognisable chicken out there. The Kellogg's rooster for Corn Flakes, Cornelius, is based on a Welsummer rooster. The Robin Hood and Rock-a-Doodle roosters may have also been based on Welsummers ( though I personally think Chanticleer was based on an Auracana with those silly ear tufts ). The Welsummer rooster is your typical story-boo rooster with the large, green-purple tail, bright orange neck, red wings and back, with a black breast and belly. He also has a large comb and large wattles, and typical yellow beak and legs. Welsummer hens lay lots of dark, chocolaty-brown eggs and speckled brown eggs.

My experience with the Welsummer breed was a poorly bred, human aggressive, young cockerel. He came from a chicken farm that was commercial production and quality, thus most chickens were not treated well at all. My house mate was allowed to take him home because he had escaped the pen, and the owners were tired of catching him, so I was given a rooster to work with. The first time I met him, he puffed up, then tried to run. I grabbed him, hugged him, and carried him around with me. I got a towel and set it on my lap, had him sit, pet him, hugged him some more, and watched The Green Mile with him in my lap. By the end of the week, he was sleeping on the foot of my bed.

This Welsummer was not aggressive due to plain being mean, he was aggressive out of fear. He was terrified of humans and felt the only way to get away from them was to fight them. When shown kindness and rules, and the fact that I am dominant thus alleviating him of his role, he calmed right down. He was energetic and perky, and very excited to learn about new things, and go to new places.

Due to my limited experience with Welsummers, I would neither recommend nor discourage this breed. I know they're not too uncommon a breed in backyard flocks, and I know they lay well, but trying to pin the personality of a breed due to experience with one extremely abused and neglected male is difficult. He was able to overcome is past pretty easily once given a chance, but most animals are that way.

MUTTS ( DUTCH BANTAM, RHODE ISLAND RED, barred PLYMOUTH ROCK, WELSUMMER, etc. )

Most of the "mutts" I have experience with are Dutch Bantam mutts and the two batches of chicks hatched from my house mate's Blackstars - one batch of eighteen with a Rhode Island Red father, and one batch of five from a Welsummer father. The Dutch group was a great group to work with. Unfortunately, out of six, only two are alive today. Millie passed away under mysterious circumstances, Mocha died I think due to heat exhaustion, and then I accidentally squished Miles and Artemis. The ones alive today are Bowser in my flock and Marshmallow who currently lives with Mop and Liza with a nice lady who takes wonderful care of them.

The Dutch batch were a bit aggressive with each other once hormones began to take over, but it took naught but a bit of boundary-setting and discipline to ebb that behaviour. Bowser, Miles, and Artemis used to love to crow during that adolescent stage of finding their voices, but just before Miles and Artemis were squished with Rutherford ( a suspected Belgian D'Anver ), they had begun to crow much less. Bowser is small enough that I can easily scoop him up with one hand, and as time has progressed, he's gotten used to the scooping so much that he will more often not struggle at all - no flapping or grappling with his feet - when being picked up. Marshmallow currently spends her days following her person around, and has trained her person to let her in at night, where she sleeps on a perch in a big, wire dog crate. Marshmallow also crows occasionally in the morning - AND is laying eggs!

ALL of the Blackstar chicks have been absolutely wonderful in temperament and egg-laying. Bo and Socrates have both been absolutely wonderful, and the last I heard of Socrates' new mum, he's as sweet and affectionate as ever. The group of five bred from the Welsummer dad, however, are ALL screamers. Faust and Maximilian in my flock ( Max was adopted out last summer, but his owner lost track of him, and he ended up in the humane society and no one told me until about six months later! ), and Janet in my house mate's flock. The other two chicks were victim of opossums in the yard. ALL of them, however, would scream bloody murder whenever you approached them too fast, or tried to pick them up or restrain them. Faust still screams sometimes, and Janet seems to scream if you look at her funny. Then again, I've worked with Faust and haven't worked with Janet.

Mutts are difficult to determine whether or not they would be good for someone since they are inherently unpredictable due to their mix of breeds and inherent traits. If you choose to pick up a mix-bred chicken, ALWAYS expect the unexpected, because they WILL surprise you. I have been very pleasantly surprised by all of my mutts, but then... that's what I do.

TURKEY ( unknown breed - mutt, likely )

I have had brief interactions with my house mate's ONE turkey poult. I must say, I have NEVER met a turkey in person before this little girl, and all I knew of them is that they'll stand in the rain looking up with their mouths agape and drown themselves, or that toms will do whatever it takes to mate SOMETHING, or the turkey was otherwise dumb or aggressive.

When I first met all the turkey chicks, I was amazed at how much they looked like chicken chicks with little nubs atop their beaks and more slender heads. As they grew, they also seemed to have longer necks, but that was about the only distinction! But also just like chicken chicks, they were extremely inquisitive about the world. What's this?? The turkeys are curious, thinking creatures? Well surly they would grow out of it and dumb down, right? Nope! They showed no signs of slowing down their ingestion of information from the world around them.

I've even seen the surviving turkey poult out in the rain multiple times, and not once have I seen her looking straight up! She just goes about her business as usual. She's a little special, and she's blind in one eye, but she's nothing like those rumours we've always been told about how dumb turkeys are. Sometimes she'll get stuck in the fence when all she has to do is step two feet to the side, and sometimes she seems to forget how to eat, and sometimes she even seems to forget that the chickens aren't like her, and she'll knock them off the perch when she jumps up at night!

I think the most amusing experience I had was when she got out of the pen one day. I heard her crying and crying. She was saying, "Where is my flock? I don't understand where they have gone!" I stepped outside and saw her not in the driveway as I had anticipated... but in the street! Fearing for the worst, I trotted on down the driveway and entered the street. Sure enough, a car was approaching. A man and a woman were in the vehicle and they slowed down and approached me as I followed little Turkey, who wasn't sure what to make of me walking up to her, and slowly walked away. The car stopped, and the couple started asking directions, in which I replied, "I'm sorry, I really can't help you, I'm trying to catch my turkey before she gets hurt." The couple looked confused, until I pointed out the turkey who was now about four houses down in a neighbour's yard. With a disappointed "Oh" they moved on.

I continued to walk after the turkey - I have found NO good to ever come of chasing my birds, scrambling to swipe at them or scoop them up. I only ever walk after them. After entering the neighbour's yard and walking up to the back fence, their next-door neighbour comes out and asks if he can help me with anything. Sheepishly I inform him that no, I'm just trying to catch my turkey. He looks suspicious and comes over to see what I'm doing, which is when the turkey gets caught in the hedge. I lean over and wrap my arms around her huge breast ( well, huge in comparison to a chicken ), and stand up, holding my house mate's nearly full-grown female turkey. She tries to struggle a little and cries in distress, but calms down quickly as I stay calm and don't let her go.

"Oh my goodness, you actually DO have a turkey," the older man says, shocked.

"Yeah," I say, embarrassed, "She got out of her pen, and was in the street, trying to find the chickens. Figured I'd help her home."

I turned and left the man scratching at his head over the strange event that just took place. He watched me walk home with the turkey, her head pressed against my chest, and her long legs dangling in front of mine as I hugged her close. When we got to the coop I set her down between my legs so I could keep her from running off while I was opening the door to the coop, and it was then I realised she responded to me much the same way the chickens did. With a little pressure on her back, she sat for me, and with some scritches under her chin, she closed her eyes and gave me a quiet, happy coo. I opened the coop door, ruffled her wings and scratched her blading head, and she trotted on into the coop with high, happy chirps.

MISC

As mentioned in the Welsummer advert, another famous rooster is Foghorn Leghorn based on a leghorn rooster. White Cornish chickens crossed with Sussex are what we know as "broiler birds" or in other words, every single chicken you have ever bought commercially. Leghorns are the chickens used for egg production, and once they have reached their peak to lay eggs and their production begins to dither, they are slaughtered, ground up, and sent out as such things as nuggets at your local McDonald's.

I absolutely DO NOT suggest for anyone to just go out and expect their chickens to do exactly what they want just because they read this blog. Try techniques, see what fits you and what works best, but don't think that just because it's possible you can do it, but by no means should you just give up, either. Just be patient and persistent, and if you have ANY questions DO NOT hesitate to contact me or your local chicken gurus.

If you have any questions, comments, or concerns over this latest post, feel free to Email me. Leave a comment if you would like, but if your inquiry is urgent, make sure to Email me for a quicker response.

006 - How to Deal With Skittish Chickens

I have had several people Email me recently with inquiries on how to approach their skittish chickens, so I figured my next post should focus on that! That means today we're going to focus on how to catch that one hen that hides under the coop and cries when you try to catch her, or the rooster who screams, flails, and cowers in a corner when you try to pick him up. Let's even talk about the chickens who will eat from your hand, but high-tail it out of there if you so much as raise your free hand to pet them.

Let us first look back on some thoughts previously encountered in this blog. Firstly, that an animal feels safest and most comfortable when in a submissive position built on trust. That means that you, the owner of your flock and dominant being of the flock, have taken the time to convey to your animals that none of them have any reason to want to take control of any situation and that, in fact, you can and will handle it. This helps relieve much of the stress the animal feels in a dominant role when it comes to trying to supervise and micromanage everything going on around it. All of that constant vigilance will only lead to stress, distrust, and ultimately aggression. When someone else is taking care of that, the animal can let go of needing to take care of every situation, feeling calm and safe in a lower position. Remember, humans have created an idea that dominance is power and that power is desirable - this is a human concept, and animals perceive their positions in social orders very differently.

Building off of that idea, let's say that any animal who is skittish is living in fear. No one wants to live in fear - this is a horrible state of living, and it, too, can lead to aggression. Fear-based aggression. Where the other type of aggression manifests as a need to keep one's social group safe because the individual feels that no one else is doing a good enough job on that front, this type of aggression manifests as a need to keep one's self safe because they do not feel that the environment in which they exist is safe enough to let their guard down. Once you take hold of your position of dominant flock member, you should be able to eliminate fearful and dominant behaviour in your chickens, essentially eliminating fear and aggression.

So now that know the importance of how to convey dominance, and you've learned in previous posts how to be dominant... how do you build trust? Trust is built by a series of positive events... but not random positive events. The positive events must always be associated with something specific - in this case, good behaviour. Never give your chicken a treat "just because". Always ask for something. You can ask for your chicken to come to you, for them to jump, for them to follow your hand, or to peck at a certain trigger ( such as target training with dogs, many people use post-it notes or stickers ), or in the case of this post, why not use treats and praise for being pet or tolerating being picked up?

If a treat should be given upon the basis of a desirable behaviour, let us now ask ourselves...what is a treat? A treat is anything that can be associated with a positive emotion - a release of feel-good chemicals. For many animals, physical contact releases these feel-good chemicals. Without spoken language, there is no other way to truly communicate with another sentient being, so physical contact says everything a complex being needs to say in the whole spectrum of positive to negative feelings. For this reason, I often times use petting and scratching instead of edible treats for my chickens - that and it is much, much cheaper. Another way a chicken conveys positivity to another chicken is by making a long sometimes very high-pitched, sometimes very low-pitched coo. So when I say, "Oooooooh~, who's a gooooood booooy?" I am mimicking that safety sound and reinforcing a positive association with myself. Sometimes, if my chickens have been particularly good, I will take them out and give them whole body massages. I push my fingertips deep into their muscles and rub all over - up and down, around in circles, in and out... I rub their heads, their necks, backs, tails, thighs, knees, legs, wings... especially in areas with joints and where lots of movement takes place, and especially on large muscles where tension can build up. Lastly, many people will swear by food products. Many animals, and many people, are very food driven, and animals have a good reason to be food driven - it's in their instincts much more than it's in ours. However, food treats can lead to obesity and other health problems if overused, but ALL treats can lead to unwanted behaviours if not used correctly, too.

With your chickens, it is okay to make a big deal out of good behaviour. Conversely, you should never, ever make a big deal out of bad behaviour. Discipline for the bad behaviour, but be quiet, calm, and quick while doing it. Never put emotion behind your discipline, or you will begin to slip into the territory of punishment instead. As a reminder: Discipline is something your animal can understand ( speaking in their language such as pecking ) whereas punishment is actions that they do not understand ( such as hitting or shouting ). Even if your chicken just pooped on your favourite dress shirt, your wife's wedding dress from fifty years ago, if he accidentally knocked a precious china off the table, or even if he attacked you for coming into the coop - NEVER shout at him, and NEVER hit him. I will use a loud, firm, "HEY!!" when I'm not happy with a chicken's behaviour, but that is a single noise used as an alert to get attention. All chickens know what a quick, loud sound means - that means look at it to observe it any make sense of it. However, if you continue shouting, it will only frighten the animal and confuse it. When I shout "HEY!!" I make certain to come over there and correct the behaviour right away, but that sound is a way of indicating that something happened right then as opposed to the little while later when I actually reach them - in other words, it's an alert used to reinforce immediate feedback.

On the flip side, when you coo to your animal, pet it, and cuddle it when it shows a negative emotion ( fear, stress, anger... ) you are reinforcing it to feel that way. You are praising the animal for being stressed, thus encouraging it to continue being that way. When you say, "Oh you poor thing," or, "I'm so sorry," the animal has no idea what you're saying. All they really know is that while they're upset, their person is being nice. Consider that chickens catch on to patterns very quickly, and we can clearly see how easy it is for them to correlate negative behaviours - especially skittishness - with our own desire to be comforting and reassuring in the only way we know how - the human way, which is not the way that our animals know.

On that note, it is also a bad idea to put too much emotion into correcting a nervous-based negative behaviour. NEVER coo over your chicken and say, "Oh you poor thing! Are you alright??" while snuggling and petting it. This gives positive reinforcement to be afraid of a situation. When I accidentally bit my rooster's comb ( I fell backwards while holding him, and he threw his head back, sticking his comb into my mouth right when I bit down ), I felt AWFUL about it - he has two huge, deep scars on either side of his comb to this day - but I did NOT fuss over him. I checked the wounds to assess them, then I quickly cleaned them and patched them up. I was quiet and calm the whole time, and he let me handle him just fine, even while I was holding big wads of toilet paper onto his comb in order to stop the bleeding. THEN I told him I was sorry about what I did, petted him, and gave him a big hug - because he had been such a good boy, putting up with me even after I hurt him like I had. To this day he has no lasting psychological damage from me biting his comb - he even lets me nibble at his little spikes without fear of them being chopped off despite my track record!

When dealing with chickens, especially roosters, many people will choose that trust is impossible so fear is the way to go. They also choose to believe that a rooster that is submissive to you will not protect his hens. Neither of these statements are true. Some people also say that allowing a rooster to mate will up his aggression! The truth of the matter is that when an animal still has its testes, the testosterone in the body will either manifest as a sexual drive or a fight drive. Even in real, wild flocks of jungle fowl the lesser males will sometimes mate with females without upsetting the order of things - after all, the dominant male can't service all of the hens in sometimes gigantic flocks. You can ALWAYS teach your rooster that you are not a threat to his flock and to respect you without forcing him to fear you, which means nobody gets spurred and your chickens aren't stressed with you around. Even if your solution is to eat the offending animal, a stressed chicken is not as good for us because of the stress chemicals in the meat and it doesn't taste as good.

Many people will suggest kicking your rooster if he is aggressive, but this is a very, very bad thing to do. He doesn't understand what a kick is, and since it is physically painful and very frightening, he will perceive it as a threat. He may leave you alone after that, but that is ONLY because he is more interested in trying to find a way to get near enough to attack again without being punted across the yard than any real respect. In fact, he does NOT respect you or see you as "alpha" when you hurt him - he sees you as a THREAT that he doesn't know how to deal with. This seems very illogical to me since most people who have roosters have them to protect their hens, and then they become angry when the rooster attacks them despite the fact that due to previous encounters, they have clearly labelled themselves as a threat to the rooster's hens! Needless to say, violence begets more violence.

Speaking of roosters, most of the Emails I have received have focused on skittish roosters, and at least one Email stated that their rooster became skittish "once hormones came in". Skittishness is just the opposite end of the bad behaviour spectrum as aggression - and as stated above, it can even lead to aggression, even so far as the rooster that attacks people on sight! More often than not, the rooster that attacks on sight is a very fearful rooster, indeed. But let's talk hormones. Your rooster's testes are located in the middle of his back under his rib cage. Due to this neutering him ( or "caponizing" as it's called in the chicken world ) is VERY dangerous since it's an internal surgery on a small animal - and a bird, no less. There is only about a 25% survival rate for capons ( roosters that have been neutered ) due to how little it is practised in this time and area. This means that unlike dogs, cats, and other animals with external sexual organs, neutering is not an option. Now, when we neuter our dogs, we do it to make them MORE controllable... which means, they were controllable to begin with, just not as much as they would be without their sexual drives. What this means to the chicken owner is that even if your chicken has a sexual drive, it is NOT impossible to modify behaviour, even with hormones in the body. Each and every time you find yourself frustrated with your animal, before blaming the hormones, or the animal's mental capabilities, take a step back, a deep breath, and remind yourself, "This is NOT impossible! This is going to take a whole lot of dedication, continuity, and patience on my behalf, but I LOVE my animals and that's okay! It is possible to help my animals even if difficult!"

Techniques

Here's the part you all came for, right? Well, first let's look at what's really needed in your techniques. The common factor in skittish birds is humans. Each and every one of these chickens is skittish around humans. Whenever their human approaches, touches, holds, or even speaks to them, they run, flail, scream, jump, fly, dig, or otherwise try to escape. So clearly the solution to these birds being afraid of humans is to add more humans into their lives! We want to desensitise these birds to humans, while training them that humans are good. This means associating positive experiences with humans, and encouraging the release of feel-good chemicals in association with human interaction. You cannot FORCE an animal to feel good, so this is going to be ALL about patience and perseverance - and remember that you are solely responsible for your animal's ability to feel good from their environment to the food they eat to they way they perceive you.

First we have to catch the birds, though. I have heard a net on a stick like you buy for fishing works great, and I personally have used the stick-string-box method where you have a box held up by a stick with a string on it, and when the bird walks under the box you pull the stick out and the box traps the bird. I only used this method as a child on the songbirds in the backyard, but if it worked with them I don't see why it wouldn't work with a chicken. Alternatively, put something the chicken likes in a kennel, and when they walk into the kennel to check it out, snap the door shut. You can even tie a string to the door to close it from afar! Those are a few immediate methods to capturing your chicken, but slower, trust-building methods can be used, too, such as just going out and hanging out with your chickens every day to get them used to your presence. Walk around with them, follow them, do some gardening with them around to build up trust from afar.

So now that we've talked concept and catching, let's look at some different methods on working with shy birds, and hopefully one - or a combination of methods will work for you.

Human Overload

The common factor amongst skittish chickens is one thing: Humans. This clearly means the animal needs to be exposed to lots and lots of humans without anything bad happening. Like dogs, you can help your chickens calm down by touching them in certain ways that help the muscles to relax. With my rooster, his "calm button" is for me to hold him with my hands around his wings and chest, and his feet just barely touching the ground. He stands straight-legged for a few seconds, and quickly I can feel his entire body relax, and if I kept hold of him he would slowly lower right into a sitting position for me. He also relaxes if I slowly but firmly take two fingers on either side of his back and trace from under his arms down to his tail. My little rooster calms down if I scratch him on the underside of his wings. Almost all chickens will not like having their back touched at first, but once they get used to it almost all chickens will calm down when their hind end just above their tail is massaged. One rooster that I rehomed awhile ago really, really loved having the bottom of his feet massaged. Chickens respond really well to physical contact when that physical contact is coming from a calm source.

One way I would suggest exposing your shy chicken to lots and lots of people is to get a large dog crate - one that is wired on all sides, so your chicken can see what is going on around it at all times - with a kennel in the middle so your chicken has a place to feel safe, and place the crate in a main thoroughfare such as a living room or by the front door. It water bowls become an issue ( and the will because your chicken will want to stand on them ), either train them not to stand on dishes, or use a water bottle such as the ones used for guinea pigs. Provide your chicken with only a small amount of water in bowl form when introducing it to the bottle, and twice a day ( morning and night ) take your chicken and gently shove their beak into the spout of the bottle until they get some water in their mouth. You can even do this repeatedly every few minutes, or every few hours if you have the time and energy. Every single one of my chickens caught onto the water bottle in no more than three days - and after my first set learned, it seldom took more than an hour for a chicken to observe the others using the water bottle and figure it out. Now, it HAS taken about a year for my chickens to learn a method of using the water bottle that does NOT include biting the spout, shaking it, and splashing water everywhere... but it's still MUCH less mess than a bowl being flipped every few minutes.

Each time you pass the cage, maybe say your chicken's name, elsewise just be quiet and calm. When the chicken is still nervous and not sure what to make of the situation, do not touch the cage, talk to the chicken, or even look at it - you do not want to associate yourself engaging with your animal with fear and discomfort. Your chicken is going to look up to you as a role model, and if you have another member of the flock who is nice and docile around people, maybe room your skittish chicken with them so that they have another role model to work off of. When your skittish chicken sees that they're getting along just fine - and maybe even getting treats for being so calm - he'll start to behave that way, too.

Another good reason to have your skittish chicken roomed with someone else is because when you go to integrate them back into the flock, they have someone who can, in a sense, vouch for them. Always take one of your calmer members of the flock and place them in with the chickens that are going to be introduced for a couple of hours ( or until you feel the ambassador chicken is content with its guests, and everyone is calm and trusting around each other ) before introducing new chickens to a flock. With the ambassador chicken, the new chickens have a right of passage from an existing member who is able to say to the others, "No guys, really, they're cool. They're with me." It might not eliminate fighting and establishing a pecking order ( which does not need to be made or maintained by the chickens - check out previous posts about how to make your own pecking order based on good behaviour ), but it will definitely ease the transition. You can even try little by little adding one chicken in at a time of the existing flock, until you have a good five or six who are interacting well with the newcomer, and then add all of them into the larger flock at once.

In theory, the massive exposure to humans in this new setting should desensitize your chicken to the presence of humans. The next step is to reach into the crate and pick up your skittish chicken, therefore desensitizing him to physical contact as well. If he's still skittish of physical contact, read on for ways to slowly introduce physical contact as a good thing...

Controlled Feeding

This method works because you are asking the chicken to eat from something you are holding WHILE touching the bird, getting across that food comes from YOU and not the ground, feeders, jars, or what-have-you. Respect shall be given unto the food giver... if they understand that the food comes from you!

Basically, what I do in this method is I get a jar and fill it with chicken food. I place the chicken I want to socialise into isolation, and reach in past the chicken to fill up a food bowl. Since the isolation chamber is so small ( I did this particular method with a very skinny, bullied bird that was isolated for only about two weeks, so I wanted a small holding area so that it could build up weight without overexerting itself ), the chicken is forced to put up with you mussing about its enclosure. Once the chicken figured out that food came from the jar to the bowl in the back, she was soon at the front of the cage when it came time to feed her in the morning and evening. I would only give her enough food that it would have JUST run out by the time I came to fill it up - to give them any more would take away their motivation to come forward to the proffered food - or at least, it would take longer. Once she came to the front, I would hold the jar there for her so she could eat out of it, but only while I was holding it. After she would eat from the jar for a short while, I would then pour her food into her bowl and let her be.

Once she was comfortable eating from the jar while I was holding it, I began to use my free hand to get her used to physical interaction. I started by holding my free hand open-palmed towards her next to the jar. Then I gently touched her side or her breast, and would hold my hand there until she ate some and I would empty the jar into her bowl. Alternatively, you could put your free hand on the mouth of the jar so she has to eat through your fingers, or so that she has to push up against it in order to get to the food. Then I slowly moved my fingers just a little bit on her breast when giving her the jar. Then little strokes. Then I worked my way up her head until I could have my finger on her little pea comb and she didn't mind. Then I worked my way down her back, to her tail, to her legs and fluff. As I mentioned before, most chicken's DO NO like having their backs touched until they learn to accept it as a positive experience, but once they do trust it, they really seem to enjoy it.

Ultimately, I could pick up this chicken and feed her while holding her and petting her. This method takes awhile and requires daily upkeep, but it's a sure-fire way to build trust with a shy chicken. The only thing I don't like about it is the reliance on food as a source of positivity. Your ultimate goal should be that your presence, touch, and voice are just as desirable praise as food, if not more so. In that, it would seem that food is only a tool - and a crutch at that... but still, a good way to bridge the gap of trust when you don't yet have that solid of a relationship with your birds.

Watch Movies

This method is sort of like the human exposure method, except with this method you don't have to house your chicken indoors - he can still live outdoors, but gets the indoor human exposure at the same time. This one is a little different, however, in that you'll begin your tolerance training with a direct confrontation, forcing your chicken to be in a calm state of mind immediately as opposed to working into it. Another thing to consider is that chickens process what they see very similarly to us, which means unlike many other animals, they can actually view a television or computer screen and see it about the same way that we do. It has even been proven that chickens can learn by observing the actions of another chicken on a television screen.

With this method you start at night when your chicken that needs social work is in the coop, roosting for the night. Go out and grab this chicken by slipping one hand under their belly, and sliding their legs between your fingers. Make sure you grip near the body so that you're not putting undue stress on the tarsus [hock]. With your other hand on his back, holding firmly ( perhaps even holding their wings between your fingers so they can't flap away and hurt themselves ), pull the chicken off the perch. At this point, I expect that they'll make an uproar. My solution is to flip the chicken upside-down and hold them like that until they relax. This position is naturally calming to the chicken, but be careful as it's also a very dangerous position. If held upside-down for too long ( I've mostly read about a half hour ), blood can rush to their head and kill them, their lungs can collapse, and if something happens to be in their mouth at the time, they can choke on it. Despite all of this, I have NEVER had a fatal or even casual injury or accident holding my chicken's upside-down.

When your chicken starts flailing, hold his legs firmly and using your whole hand ( unless he's a bantam ), grip the skin on the back of his neck just under his comb and pull the head down. Do not stretch his neck. This should almost immediately stop any and all flailing, and it prevents you from being bitten. If your chicken stops flailing, release his neck. If he begins to flail gain, grab his neck and hold him down again. When he's ready to stop flailing, you should feel his body relax. When this happens, flip him rightside-up. If he flails, it's back to being upside-down. Continue this until when rightside-up he is calm and not struggling. Re-situate so that you are holding onto him in a more comfortable manner - hug him, or hold him under one arm, and whenever he tries to flap or kick just restrain him until he calms down. Since chickens are good at picking up patterns, this should fairly clearly illustrate that when he is not nervous, he is not being harassed.

Take your chicken inside and set up to watch a movie. With my first human aggressive rooster ( which I rehabilitated to sleeping on the foot of my bed at night, and during the day he did a great job looking after his ladies, and was still very docile when I entered the pen ), I did all of this mentioned prior and then commenced to watch The Green Mile with him the first night. I chose a long movie just to really drill it in that this is a calm, safe environment. He sat on my lap the whole time, and any I never took my hands off him. When he tried to escape, one hand would pinch his neck and the other hand and arm would restrict his body until he calmed down again. The whole movie I pet him, too. I scratched his head, comb, and wattles, I pet his back, and placed with his wings and toes. I watched a movie with him in this manner for about five days, and then I caught him during the day and brought him in the house where I set him on the floor and walked around him. I even had the dogs walk around him, and invited them to come sniff at him. I picked him up and carried him with me while I went around the house and did some chores.

By the time my house mates chose to slaughter him, he was so docile that we grabbed him, tied his feet together and his wings to his body, tossed him up in the air a couple of times to make sure the twine held ( don't worry, it was small tosses and I made certain that I was able to catch him ), and then we hung him on a hook outside and took a knife to his throat. Not one moment was he scared, and not one moment did he make a sound of protest or fear. He was easy to catch, easy to handle, and died without the usual stress and fear building up to slaughter, meaning none of those nasty stress chemicals like adrenaline in his meat when it came time to eat. His meat was sweet and tender, and I firmly believe that to be because he was a calm and relaxed rooster.

Quick and Active

So many of us have seen those Dog Whisperer episodes where Millan walks into the house, and bam, the dog is acting totally different in a matter of minutes, right? This is sort of the equivalent to that method. This method is ONLY for those of you who have the time, energy, determination, and patience to be an active flock head and already spend a lot of time with your flock, or you're willing to make an exception for a shy chicken and spend lots of time with it in order to help it overcome is fears. The basic idea here is that you pick the bird up, hold them until they calm down, set them down, and repeat until the whole procedure can be done with a bird that's essentially a little rag doll, and this method ONLY works with lots of repetition over time - days, weeks, however long it takes to build that trust-based relationship.

To make this work you are going to need a firm hand, patience, calmness, and the ability to read when your chicken is truly calm and submissive to you. You should not speak to your chicken while they are struggling - ever. Only speak and praise when they have calmed down. When the chicken begins to flail, hold them so that they cannot do damage to yourself or themselves. I try to hold the legs and the neck on chickens I don't quite trust, and I wrap my hands around their wings and breast on chickens that I know won't bite me. Either way, when an animal is restrained they only have two options: flail or relax. Take away the option to flail, and they are forced to relax. HOWEVER, don't even use more force than necessary!! Sometimes animals will fight being restrained simply because they are being restrained too much, and as soon as you let up a little, they'll calm down. This is something I have learned working at a veterinary office, and spending a year training to become a certified veterinary assistant: "Only use as much restraint as necessary."

When you pick your chicken up, they must be absolutely calm and relaxed before you move. Then you can begin to let them down, but if they tense up again, stop your movements and just hold them there until they relax again. Soon they will learn that the more relaxed they are, the closer to the ground they get. As a modified version of this method, I pick up my tiny rooster when he's being a snot, bop him on the head, then commence to rub him against my face. I especially rub his head under my chin. It is getting across that I am boss, and there's nothing he can do about it while simultaneously encouraging calm behaviour no matter what happens to him.

Miscellaneous Tips and Ideas

You can always try to start with training chicks, but unless you know what your chicken is trying to say to you ( see my older post "What is My New Chick Trying to Say to Me?" ), it is likely that you will accidentally harbour negative behaviours. Many of these behaviours look cute when the chick is small, but manifest into larger problems as we grow. If you ever cooed around your chick when it was startled or hurt, you unintentionally encouraged it to behave that way. If your chick tried to get out of your hand once and made a fuss about it, and you let it go, you unintentionally trained your chick to WANT to get out of your hand, and if you ever pet your chicken and cooed over it while it was cowering in a corner, trying to calm it down like you would another person, you have unintentionally trained your chick that it is encouraged to be fearful of people.

However, do not fret, and do NOT hold any guilt over this! You did not know any better, and you were just trying to be a kind, sweet person. Animals see the world in the present and ONLY in the present. They have memories of traumatic events, but if you're willing to walk forward and show them that there's nothing that being calm can't fix, those memories will fade much quicker than with any human. Perhaps even in minutes! Just keep at it, keep up the good work, and even if you do screw up, make the next moment count in that you will do better and learn from it.

I would like to close by once again stressing that if your chicken is cowering from you, it does not respect you, it is not calm and in a stable sense of mind, and it is only a matter of time before it tries to aggress you again. Even hens can feel this way. Many of us have heard of "fear biting" in dogs - that's when the dog is nervous, and bites out of fear because it does not understand what is going on around it, or associates pain and fear with a situation. MOST cases of chicken biting and spurring is fear-based.

Before you get angry at your rooster and threaten to make stew, ask yourself if YOU have done anything to encourage this behaviour? Have you shouted at him, hurt him, or otherwise encouraged him to fear and be confused by you? Have you accidentally cooed at him and praised him when he was startled or upset? Are YOU upset? Remember, he's going to be reading your body language and behaviour, and he relies on you being a calm, reliable, trustworthy leader. Also remember that having a rooster that is submissive to you ( and CAN be trained to be submissive to ALL humans - children included ) does NOT mean that you'll have a rooster that won't protect his flock in your absence, and even in your absence, it's still his job to alert to danger.

Any questions, comments, concerns, or requests of a topic to be written about, please feel free to Email me or leave a comment. Please do not hesitate to Email me if your query is urgent!

I've already planned out my next post, and it's a post that MANY people have asked me about: House training. Stay tuned! I should have this one out sometime soon!

004 - How I Raise and Bomb-proof My Chooks

One note before I open this post that I forgot to mention in the last post: The crop. The crop is an organ birds use to digest food by swallowing rocks and allowing the rocks to mash up the food before it is passed on to the stomach. However, you can easy feel the crop at all times, and it is especially prominent and even looks and feels frighteningly like a tumour to the novice bird owner. It lies right on the breast, below the neck, usually off to the right side and NOT centred. Don't worry about this, it's normal.

And with that, onto the post of the day...

This post will be on how I have raised my chickens from hatching to where they are now - well-behaved, well-mannered, quiet, pleasant, happy animals. The two topics I'll discuss are raising and bomb-proofing. "Raising" refers to only what they need to learn to live healthy, intellectually stimulating lives, whereas "bomb-proofing" refers to how to desensitize an animal to various stimuli that might frighten them - children, fast movements, loud noises, other animals ( especially predators if the animal you are bomb-proofing is typically a prey animal ), so on and so forth.

I use bomb-proofing because my goal for my chickens is to have them obtain therapy licenses to be able to go into hospitals, retirement homes, schools, etc. and be able to sit on someone's lap and be otherwise handled. I also want them able to go into a veterinarian's office and be handled when in need of medical procedures if needed, so being okay with restraints is a must for my chickens.

Raising Chickens Healthy in Body, Mind, and Soul

Humans aren't the only ones who need soup for the soul - many animals, including chickens, need it as well. However, the soul isn't the only part that needs tending to - there's also a very intelligent, intellectual side to chickens and, of course, the physical aspect that keeps them alive.

Body

The first thing I consider when raising my chickens is where, or where to put them! I have jumbo dog cages, huge aquarium tanks, tiny bird cages, but no matter what I know I need to put them somewhere that's warm ( or at least capable of holding in heat ), and has room enough for food and water as well as the chick[s].

For chicks, I tend to lean towards aquarium tanks. The tanks are made of waterproof sealed glass, which I can fill with a thin layer of sand, dirt, or any kind of litter, and while being able to watch my chicks easily through the glass, the glass also helps keep them insulated much more than a barred cage would. Tops to aquariums also tend to be easy to find, but I usually use some form of bird netting, mesh, a grate, or a blanket. Aquariums also come in a wide variety of sizes, so I can start my chicks in the smallest one ( give your chicks too much space and they tend to huddle in one corner, but give them a small cage at first, and they'll be more adventurous right off ), and work up as they grow until they're old enough to go into the large dog cages, and finally, a coop when I get one.

Now, chick starting enclosures vary about as much as coops and tractors ( a smallish enclosure, typically without a bottom, that you can cart around your yard so the chickens always have fresh grass beneath them ). I've seen one that I absolutely adore, and wish I had - it's a stilted enclosure put in someone's living room. It's very long, and fairly wide, and quite tall. The top of the enclosure is probably about up to the shoulder of an average-height person, and it has a mesh top that locks into place with a heat lamp on one side, and a little mini-coop ( also called brooder boxes ) under the lamp. There's plenty of room for food and water, and litter is easily cleaned. One side ( the side facing the living room ) is made entirely of glass, so you can always watch your chicks and their antics. I do so want this starter enclosure.

Now, most people use heat lamps to keep their chicks warm, and I used heat lamps for quite awhile, but I found that the light made it hard for me to sleep at night ( my chickens are all kept in my room ), and my chicks often became grumpy and upset when they were exposed to light for days on end. To remedy this, I often carried my young chicks with me in my scarf or in a satchel, allowing them to sleep during the day, and eat, drink, and play all night.

However, as I complained about this to a house mate, she gave me an electric hot pad, which I have been using quite successfully with my newest batch of chicks. They go to sleep at night, wake up during the day, are on the same schedule as everyone else, and seem generally much happier than previous broods I've raised using the heat lamp method. Using the hot pad, they also get to experience the world from day one much more as a normal chick would with their mother - their mother gives them warmth once they have had enough frolicking around outside, but they still experience the normal temperature of their environment while away from their mother. Using the hot pad, I'm able to simulate this by giving them an area that is consistently warm to their liking, but also enabling them to run around their tank at a normal temperature.

It seems to me that they have developed temperature tolerance much quicker and without the various complications that using a heat lamp can cause. With the heat lamp, I have caught enclosures on fire ( and the chicks inside - no worries, they all survived with no lasting damage ), caused hypothermia when a bulb has blown or when having difficulty finding an adequate bulb, caused hyperthermia when using too strong of a wattage, having to monitor temperature very carefully, and monitor reduction of temperature week by week, and many, many other aspects. Using the hot pad, the chicks self-regulate and during colder nights I turn the heat up by a notch or two, and during the day I have it on its lowest setting. The chicks have also done a very good job telling me if they are uncomfortable, and I have had less complaints with the hot pad than I have ever had with the heat lamps.

Also with the hot pad, I've had less need to constantly refill water due to evaporation - and for some reason, chickens burying their water dishes. Now, the one thing I dislike about the aquariums is that I like to train my chickens to drink out of water bottles like the ones that are put into rabbit or guinea pig cages, and in an aquarium, there's not really a grate that you can clip your water bottle to. I have, however, put a small section of grate into an aquarium, burying one end in the litter and taping the top end to the side of the aquarium, and that way I can hang my water bottles, but it is tedious to clean and maintain.

For chicks I usually start with a very, very shallow bowl or even something as shallow as a jar lid. I usually take my smallest chick when first introducing them to their water dish, and stick them IN the dish, while full of water, to see if they can make it out easily had they accidentally fallen in, themselves. If they have issues getting out of the dish itself, or if the dish is deep enough that the water level touches their belly, I find a new dish. I have only ever had one chick drown, and that's because I was rooming thirteen little chicks with four chicks that were about two weeks older than them, so the bigger chicks and the sheer number of chicks required a larger water dish. And even then, only one fell victim.

I have tried placing the bowl above the level of the litter to avoid chickens burying their water dish, as has been recommended to me, but I generally find that chickens try to stand on the edge of their dish and therefore knock it over, causing litter to quickly become a disgusting quagmire, and emptying their water even quicker than had I not even bothered to raise it. What I have found works, however, is to bury it slightly, which allows chickens to treat the dish as a puddle - no need to stand on it and knock it over, and though it WILL become buried, I find this method much better than letting them knock water all over the place.

Now say you have money and are able to buy fancy water dishes. The best dish I have found is a deep bowl with a large cannister of water placed upside-down on one end of the bowl - this works in a similar way as water towers work. The cannister of water continuously fills up the bowl, but only to the point that the water becomes level with the spout, until the water falls out. The base tends to be broad and well-enforced, with broad, tall edges. This covers ALL bases that I have found recommended for water dispensers - it is raised, yet with such broad edges and base, and especially with the weight of the water cannister, it does not knock over when chickens decide to stand on it. Due to being raised, it does not get litter in it as chickens scratch for food, and I have found that something about it makes it unpleasant for chickens to roost or otherwise drop stool into the water, so the water stays fresh and clean.

Still, I swear by water bottles... so long as they don't leak. Water bottles hold water until a chicken wants to drink from it, there is no way for dirt or stool to enter the water supply, they're quick and easy to maintain, and keep water for quite some time before needing to be refilled in most cases. My chickens have stayed best hydrated when using water bottles, and, being chickens, they don't forget how to drink out of dishes or puddles if the need arises.

I have found it quick and easy to teach my chickens how to drink from water bottles. I take a moment to take each chick ( or even full-grown chicken ) and place his / her beak INTO the spigot, and repeat until they tip their head back and acknowledge that water comes from there. I do this twice a day, until they catch on - usually within about four days. One of my broods I introduced to water bottles from day one and they were learning really well, but the bottle I had leaked very badly. I had them on bowls until recently when I found a new water bottle, and due to their knocking over and burying their bowl, they were quite thirsty so the moment they saw a drop of water fall from the water bottle, they all automatically knew exactly where the water was and how to get it. For the first couple of days they were clumsy, pecking the spigot, and trying to bite it, until they finally started tipping their heads, pushing their beaks into the spigot, lapping up the water, then tip their head back and drink. Now everyone has the water supplier they need, and everyone is quite happy.

As for food, I like to stick to dishes when I can, but as with water, dishes can be knocked over, and some chickens even think dishes are nests to be sat in. I worked hard training my chickens NOT to sit in their food dishes ( give them a light bap on the head and prod them to move ), and now none of my chickens try to roost in their food dishes anymore, but it still takes a very specific dish to hold food. The only dish I have that can withstand being stood on is a large bowl I made in pottery class.

All other cages, I toss food in on the ground ( other cages are enclosed tanks, so chickens scratching for food isn't an issue ). Chickens have fun scratching for their food, so it's not too much of a big deal. With young chicks, however, I tend to use dishes until they start tipping over or burying their dishes, just so they have one uniform location to find food until they learn what food is ( usually the dish is retired within a few weeks ).

My house mate feeds her chickens compost. Anything from vegetable matter to grease and gristle and coffee grounds. I personally support giving chickens compost, but I don't do it myself because, well... I'm not going to tolerate rotting food matter in my room. If they were outside, they could have all the compost they would want, but since they're not, I, personally, do not use compost. I will, however, occasionally ( I try to aim for once or twice a week ) go outside and pick fresh grass, dandelions, and clovers for my chickens. Chickens allowed to free-range tend to get well over half of their essential nutrients from grass, and fresh grass tends to help keep my roosters from crowing ( likely, because they are happy ).

To spice up my chickens crumble diet, I also top off with a couple spoonfuls of cat food - generally, Friskies or Fancy Feast brands. I don't worry about chicken or turkey-flavoured cat food because naturally, chickens tend to be cannibalistic, and if it's in a can, it's unlikely they'll realize that their room mates would taste the same. The cat food is a real treat, and the chickens love it. Some people use meal worms or grubs for treats, and I have heard great things about that, as well - especially grubs since you can grow and cultivate them on your own.

When my chickens seem to be feeling down or a little ill, I have brewed them a cocktail of yogurt, crushed garlic, vinegar, and rolled oats ( or plain oatmeal ). I try to avoid anything with sugar, because animals ( including humans ) aren't built to deal with sugar, so I would advise plain yogurt and plain rolled oats. Despite what you might hear about birds being lactose intolerant, I have found little to no issue feeding my birds yogurt from time to time to help boost their immune system.

In this cocktail, the benefits include:

* Yogurt - helps add good bacteria to the digestion tract that fight and consume other bacterias

* Garlic - an overall immune-booster like vitamin C ( be careful not to add too much! Only about one clove per ten chicks, or one clove per two or three full-grown, standard-sized chickens - garlic CAN be detrimental to chickens in large quantities )

* Vinegar - like garlic, helps boost immune systems, though both garlic and vinegar work in different ways

* Rolled Oats - gives the mixture texture, as I have found my chickens more likely to enjoy chowing down on something with texture than a sloppy, goopy mess

And lastly, for body, exercise. Your chickens need exercise. This can come in the form of letting them out to roam every day if your chickens are free-range, or it could be in the form of teaching your chicken tricks ( "fetch" and "come" are common ), or even aspects of physical therapy ( moving your chicken's wings, legs, toes, etc. to extend in various ways ).

I try to use a little of all of these. When I have the ability, I like to take a few chickens at a time with me out into the field. I'm a little hesitant about taking them ALL out, especially unsupervised, since there is a family of hawks that live on the outskirts of the field and hunt the field frequently, but taking a few out at a time, especially when leashed, is a wonderful way to get everyone some outdoor time, exercise, and a bit of extra nutrients, especially if they catch some bugs.

I teach my chickens many tricks that can exercise them. I have not yet taught a chicken to fetch, but I would like to work on it. Instead I have Sit, Play Dead, we're working on Roll Over, but mostly ( and most impressively, if I might say so myself ), I have taught several of my chickens to ride my bike with me. Balancing on the handlebars does a lot to strengthen their legs. On top of all of this, I also play "chicken toss" with my friends, which helps teach chickens to fly and use their wings, and also helps them learn to trust people, since people will catch them and give them praise upon landing. This also helps me train my chickens to aim their landings, and be generally more manoeuvrable in the air.

Several of my chickens I also give messages and stretch their limbs. I take their wings and pull them upwards, and down, back and forward, encouraging my chickens to reach their full potential in range of motion while also gently working their muscles, and I do the same for their legs, helping bring the leg all the way back, and then forward ( I often times find forward easier because they will hold your finger and allow you to pull ). The trick here is to NOT force them to make these movements quickly, but rather ease their limbs into these NATURAL positions, and stop forcing their movement as soon as you meet resistance ( other than the chicken not being used to the motion and pulling away ). Giving your chicken massages regularly will also help loosen their muscles which will help them perform better.

Mind

Intellectual exercises for you chickens are also important. To start with, a mother chicken gives her chicks boundaries from day one. I also begin bomb-proofing at day one, but more on that later. Psychological needs of a chicken include boundaries, exploration, learning, interaction with mates, and pleasing their flock leader.

Boundaries are important because it helps the chick learn its place in its social hierarchy - if you aren't tough on your chick to begin with, you might be setting your chick up for failure upon introducing it to the rest of your flock. Well-disciplined chicks tend to get along better with established flocks, in my experience. Well-disciplined adults are also important, and when both my adult and chick are well-disciplined I tend to find little to no fighting whatsoever.

Now, one thing Millan ( Cesar Millan - "The Dog Whisperer" ) states, which I strongly agree with, is that there is a very definite difference between "discipline" and "punishment". Punishment is when you are mean or act out of malice, and your motives for WHY punishment is being given is unclear and thus only traumatizes or terrorizes the recipient. Discipline, however, is when you are calm and direct, and express disagreement with a behaviour. Discipline is a way of setting boundaries, and is always done calmly and clearly, whether "clear" means words to your child, a quick touch or "bite" to your dog, or "peck" to your chicken.

Though I sometimes become frustrated with my chickens, I try to NEVER punish them. I try to always make certain that I know what I'm unhappy with, and communicate exactly that - take nothing out on them, and if I feel myself becoming over-emotional over disagreeing with their behaviours, I either take a moment to take a deep breath and ground myself, or walk away from the situation for a few minutes to clear my head. Discipline must always be done with love.

For my chicks, discipline means not screaming for attention ( a scream or shout should ONLY be used when they need something - food, water, or warmth for instance ), not crowing ( again, unless it's necessary such as lack of necessities ), no aggression or fear towards humans, no rushing food or water dishes, and many other rules my birds must obey.

For the first few days, we test each other. They scream, and I respond to see if anyone is hurt, cold, overheated, thirsty, or hungry, but if nothing is obviously wrong, everyone gets a gentle "peck" and I go back to what I was doing. If they continue to scream, I may look deeper into the situation depending on the level of urgency - you can often tell a difference in tone between true distress and attention-seeking.

This is also where training and teaching tricks comes in handy. Chickens are flock animals, and just as dogs are pack animals, they are eager to please the head of their flock. If you can teach them something that makes you happy - be it cute or useful - then they will feel happy being able to please you. When my chickens are calm while I handle them, I scratch their heads and breasts, and tell them what good chickies they are. Their usual response is to close their eyes and coo happily, and totally relax.

Chickens also need new things to keep them interested and happy. For many of my chickens, this comes in a form of a paper ball. I first introduced the balls to keep my chickens from eating the newspaper that I set down as bedding, but quickly found that they liked to play with the balls, from tossing them to shaking them. I try to do little things for them now and then like stick something to the ceiling or wall of their cage ( such as a clover leaf ) that they can peck at, or sprinkle some food on a platform just above their heads that they can still reach if they stand straight up and stretch.

Soul

This one may be debatable, but I strongly believe all creatures have souls that need to be fed just as much as we do, and the first step to feeding the soul is to make sure all physical needs are met, and then to make sure psychological needs are met. After that is enrichment. I like to enrich my chickens lives by playing music for them when I'm not home, and taking them with me, especially when I go into crows so that they can meet new people and be appreciated by many people at once instead of just me.

With Bo, Socrates, and my new little Japanese boy, Sindri, I help enrich their lives by taking them on bike rides. They enjoy the ride, and even more enjoy the attention they gain from meeting people who want to pet them and enjoy their presence. Petsmart and Petco are both wonderful places to take them, but I don't oft make it to the stores unless I need a new water bottle, harness, or otherwise ( AND have the money to shell out for it ).

Sindri's mate recently died, and he's been behaving slow, lethargic, passive, uninterested, and generally as someone would while grieving, and recent studies have helped prove that chickens do, in fact, grieve. In order to combat this, I bought him a tiny harness ( Bo and Socrates use cat harness - I had to buy Sindri a small kitten harness ), which can hook up to one of the two leashes I have quite well, and he rides on top of my hand while I bike. He still behaves somewhat uninterested some of the time, closing his eyes and dozing off, even allowing himself to just flop over onto my arm, but most of the time his eyes are wide and bright, as his tiny head flicks back and forth, watching the landscape go by. Today when I took him out and let him run around a park, for the first time, I saw him rear up, flap his wings, and make several happy chirrups.

Now, some may say that I am humanizing chickens, but I assure you, that is the last thing I want to do. I know that people in America tend to humanize their pets, which causes a great deal of grief on their pets since they aren't humans and don't think like humans. I assure you, I am using human-like terms in order for the average American to understand where I'm coming from, and I would also note, much to my surprise, chickens seem to share many thought processes with humans such as grief and love. I was sceptical of "love" the first time I heard someone mention it, but every time I saw Sindri with his mate, they were never more than a couple feet away from each other, and if they were stationary, it was guaranteed that Sindri would have his wing over his mate. At first, I thought it coincidence, that she probably just nuzzled underneath him and he was such a passive boy that he probably just left his wing there, but when I saw the nuzzling, I knew I should question this thought process - he in fact, lifted his wing for her to crawl under, and once she was comfortable, he would drape his wing over her and then make himself comfortable as well. And the way he behaves after she passed really says a lot to me.

Bomb-Proofing

I find bomb-proofing to be one of the most important aspects of raising an animal, any animal. Bomb-proofing is especially mandatory if you have children, or expect your animal to be around children very often, as well as if you expect your animal to be in crowds at any point.

I use bomb-proofing to desensitize my chickens to everything short of outright abuse. I rub them like someone might energetically rub their dog, I scratch their rumps ( I have found many chickens to be unnerved by touching of the rump ), I hold their wings, feet, tails, beaks, combs, and wattles, lie them on their backs ( often on my chest as I lie down, too ), I hold them upside-down above me and nuzzle them, telling them what good birds they are all the while, and what I start with first and foremost is rubbing the chicks all over my face. On top of these actions, I also exercise patience while holding onto specific body parts, or holding a chicken in a particular restraint so that they never have to suffer from stress if any of them end up in an auction or a veterinarian's office.

Why do I do this? Because it helps an animal be well-mannered in public for one thing, but it also minimizes the things that stress them out, which leads to a happier, healthier, more enriched life overall. I want my chickens to be around children and other animals, and I especially want to be able to give them semi-frequent physical exams for quick tests in case they start growing a mass ( usually "tumour" ), have respiratory issues, or otherwise need to be checked out or handled. Restraints are very important to me, because EVERY animal will go to the vet someday, so why make it a stressful experience if it can be helped? Also, if your animal is EVER going to be around children, or in public ( which often has children ), a child WILL eventually try to pull your pets tail, push them, grab their fur / feathers, poke them, or what-have-you. It's unfair to your animal not to prepare them for these experiences.

For one, I want my chickens to be therapy animals. A therapy animal has to be well-mannered, well-behaved, and above all else, tolerant. I do NOT want my chickens so tolerant that they take a beating without so much as batting an eye or squeaking, but I DO want them to be able to take a single tug on the feathers, and trust that if it happens, I will be there to take care of it and monitor their well-being. I want them to feel safe in knowing that they have never been, nor ever will be, seriously injured in my presence, and therefore are able to trust my judgement fully and not feel the NEED to be aggressive or fearful.

There are several types of bomb-proofing that can be done. There's physical bomb-proofing ( being touched, poked, pet ), sound bomb-proofing ( fireworks, thunder, gunshots ), visual bomb-proofing ( bright lights, darkness ), and psychological bomb-proofing ( helping prey not fear predator, overcoming fears and phobias ).

Physical Bomb-proofing

Physical bomb-proofing is usually what I start with, because it's generally the easiest and helps build trust between dominant human and submissive bird very quickly. This is the act of helping your animal not feel threatened by things touching them, no matter where they might be touched.

I start with physical bomb-proofing just by holding my chickens. With chicks, this is fairly easy, but a full-grown and mature chicken may be a little more difficult. When my house mate gave me a full-grown and mature Welsummer rooster who had very little in the way of human contact ( and even less in the way of POSITIVE human contact ), I started our relationship by spreading out a towel over my lap and watching a movie while he sat in my lap, and I either very gently pet him or just rested my hands on his back. I also took him into my room and had him sleep on the foot of my bed, partly because it helped minimize crowing in the morning ( which is where neighbours complain about it ), but also because when chickens wake up to something, they feel more comfortable with it ( which is why if introducing a chicken during the day doesn't work, sometimes it WILL work if you stick the new chicken in the coop while everyone is asleep and it will ).

After he was okay with me picking him up, and sitting on my lap, I started gently patting his head. Every time he could scream, I would give him a peck which varied in intensity in accordance to the scream or sound of alarm, and when he was silent after a peck, I would scratch his head instead. He quickly learned not to panic, and to just be calm and complacent.

After he stopped panicking when I would approach his head to pet him, I started gently pinching his comb, and stroking his wattles, then gently scratching the very top of his head, and worked up to the point where he was totally comfortable with me holding his tail ( because he had WONDERFUL tail feathers that I loved to twist and twirl around my fingers ), scratching his comb, stroking his wattles, scratching his breast, or even petting his back right down to his rump. He was totally content.

My house mates chose to slaughter him since he was making noise, not very fertile AT ALL, and didn't grow up with the social skills to deal with the hens and had killed one of the bantams by being too rough with her. Regardless, the work I put into bomb-proofing him paid off because in the end, he didn't struggle to be slaughtered at all, and didn't even scream. To me, even though the chicken I was dealing with died, that was a success because he died without fear, without trauma.

Other chickens and other forms of physical bomb-proofing, I usually start rubbing my face against them ( or rubbing them against my face if they're small enough ), because let's face it, kids like to hug things and usually hugging means also nuzzling their faces against it. Children also like to get close to things their interested in, and if my chickens were to peck a child's eye because they got too close, that would be unacceptable for public.

After getting them used to being rubbed, pet, picked up, and held, I start holding onto beaks, combs, wattles, feet, and wings. Most of these are for the sake of restraining, if something were to happen to them. For instance, there's been a few occasions in which a veterinarian has had to look in Bo's mouth. I have trained him the command "Open up" and more universally "Let me see" to mean that I am going to grab him, and not let go until I'm done doing what I have to do. In the case of "Open up," I am asking him to tolerate me grabbing his comb and wattles, and pulling apart in order to open his mouth, usually to see if he has swallowed something he shouldn't. I bomb-proofed him to this by gently stroking his wattles, and from time to time gently tugging on them. That worked up to "lip-synching" to music, and now he lets me open his mouth and look inside whenever I want.

"Let me see" also refers to his wings and feet. I also start these at a young age ( chicks don't have combs and wattles you can grab, usually even if they're male ), so that they are learning these skills as boundaries and thus, psychological fulfilment. I like these two restraints as well because the anatomy of both the wing and foot are quite fascinating in my opinion, and some of the most beautiful colourations on birds aren't evident until they spread open their wings.

Audio Bomb-proofing

I have taken several of my chickens with me to fireworks, fairs, and many other very loud, boisterous places. After taking time to work up trust while physically bomb-proofing your chicken, the rest of these should be a cakewalk, because the first few loud noises they will look at you as if to ask "What do I do now?!" and from what I've experienced, so long as I keep a calm demeanour and behave as if it's normal, my chicken will hunker down and go "Oh, okay then," and that's that. I've never had to do more to bomb-proof my chickens from sound, even from small children screaming at alarmingly loud and high pitches right in their ears.

However, if your chicken IS afraid of sound, you can try finding a recording of the sound and sitting your chicken down in your lap. Play the sound, first at a low volume and make sure your chicken is calm. Sometimes they squirm and flail. I put my hand on their back and keep them sitting, but let them flap their wings in order to expend the pent-up anxiety. After a moment, your chicken will realize that it is not going anywhere, and calm down. Your chicken MAY be panting at this point - don't worry, this is normal, especially for an anxious chicken.

I will usually keep hold of them in my lap, and neither look at them, make noise, or move my hands until they calm down, then I will look at them and pet them gently, calmly. I try to make little noise, but sometimes a coo or an excited-happy noise can help the chicken takes its mind off of the scary noise. As the chicken relaxes, you can slowly turn the volume of the sound up and up, and repeat this day after day until the chicken is no longer fearful of the noise.

Visual Bomb-proofing

Visual bomb-proofing is probably the easiest that I have come across... and likely because it's the least common. During fireworks, my chickens had a few objections to some fireworks that lit up like flash bombs, but again, with the trust gained in physical bomb-proofing, they looked to me and I behaved like nothing was out of the ordinary, which told them all would be well, and it was.

However, almost all of my chicks have had objections to darkness the first couple times they experienced it. I think, mostly, because they can't see and don't know where others are. The first few times I encounter this, I go and check on the chick, who has usually wandered away from the rest of the brood and is cold or scared that it doesn't know where everyone else is, but after a few times of helping it find its way back, I will ignore it so that it can learn on its own. Usually after not much more than a minute, the frightened peeps will turn to contented coos as it finds is way back to its brood.

Fast movements are similar, but unlike the innate looking at me and seeing that I'm telling them they're fine, they will often need help with this one. Chickens are, generally, prey animals ( though to some smaller animals such as mice, lizards, frogs, snakes, and of course insects, chickens are predators ), and as such, chickens instinctively fear fast movements.

To cure this, I will hold a chicken, pet it, lure it into a calm state then gently pat its head. Often times the head-patting can look like a hawk swooping down at the chicken, or a paw or claw swiping. I have had at least two chickens deathly afraid of things moving overhead, especially fast movements towards them, and they would duck and scream in the event. I helped them with this by setting them in my lap and "menacing" them by waving my hand ( slowly at first ) above their head, in front of their face, or towards and away from the side of their face ( where their full vision could be on my hand ). The less they reacted, the more praise they would get.

I even got to the point where I would flail my hand, or swing it in as if about to slap them, but stop and scratch them. I ONLY went to this point once they were comfortable with my hand moving around them at a moderate pace - and I NEVER risked actually hitting the chicken.

Psychological Bomb-proofing

Psychological bomb-proofing, or fighting instinct and phobias, is probably the hardest one to deal with on this list. This is likely because instincts are hard-wired into the animal, and phobias are irrational fears that have come to stick for some reason or another - usually, their handler's fault for accidentally approaching a subject wrong.

Instincts I find a little easier to re-wire, because chickens respond well to positive reinforcement and gentle discipline - remember, discipline, not punishment, as it should always be done calmly, clearly, and out of love and not malice or frustration. I have helped chickens to not be afraid of dogs and cats by bomb-proofing them up to this point as I have described, then have them on my lap, or near me while introduced to a large, predatory animal, which I make certain is behaving appropriately towards my birds, as their trust in me relies solely on the fact that I can control their environment in such a way as to be safe for them.

Phobias, on the other hand, are a little trickier. It is not always necessary to find the origin of a phobia, though the origin can give some insight on how to approach the situation, but usually gently coaxing through the situation is all that is needed. The key is to make certain the animal is making the choice to go through the situation with you simply encouraging it to do so, not you dragging it through the situation and FORCING it to cope - that can even make things worse if done wrong.

Specific phobias are another post all together, though, and probably won't happen for a long, long time. Unless someone asks for a specific phobia to be touched on.

As always, any questions, comments, concerns about my posts, or requests on what I should write about in the future, please Email me or leave me a comment. Please Email if you feel your statement is urgent, but comment for requests of topics or less urgent statements or inquiries. Thank you!