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dragonlady7via http://ift.tt/2gbW5SL:
Instagram ate my post from last night. I had video of the chicks eating from my hand.
They’re really really trainable. The problem is, there are so many of them. It’s impossible to pay individual attention to them, or work with them on anything because it’s just constant chaos. It’s impossible to even tell them apart; 350 of them are a uniform shade of brown, and they vary in size and development but all that really means is that there are like, 20 little fuzzy ones, 50 big ones that have white wingfeathers already, and then 280 identical medium-sized fuzzy ones. And then there are 10 really distinctive ones, which are speckled homburgs– bluish-white and spotted, they already have polka-dot wingfeathers and are uniformly on the small side of medium. But there are 10 of them, and they’re identical. And then there are 20 dark-colored ones, half of whom are stripey and half of whom are sort of solid black with occasional white spots, like on their butt and under their chin. Plus one bonus brown stripey one, who was a free gift (”Rare! Exotic!”) from the breeder.
I’ve started to have a pair of the black ones that I recognize, though, by their behavior. One of the stripey-ish black ones thinks that pecking my toes makes me feed her. And one of the mostly-solid-black but with a white butt ones likes to jump up onto my leg and peck my hand. She can nearly fly, which is amazing given that she has the tiniest little beginnings of wing feathers. Which goes to show you, really chickens mostly jump.
They went from fleeing from me, to avoiding my hands, to being really interested in what I was doing but not wanting to come close, to eating from my hands– that was four 20-minute sessions, three with food. This last one, the fifth, I was able to hold morsels between my thumb and forefinger, and they’d come take them.
The problem is that they think human hands are food now, and so they peck exposed flesh. So I’m trying to move on to offering food so they don’t peck quite so indiscriminately. (Some have noticed that the food is generally a different color than my skin, so they peck at freckles and scratches. Not ideal.)
These chicks are a week old as of today, so. For the record.
It seems to me that if you started with a dozen, you could probably teach them tricks. Even the Homborgs, who do not want me to touch them, will take food from my hand now– at least, two of the braver ones. It’s hard to tell, though, if it’s the same two.
Also, for the record, the commercial-production chickens, which are a hybrid based on the Rhode Island Red (I think this particular one is ISA Brown)– selected entirely for egg-laying behavior– are just as intelligent and sharp-witted as the others. I’d expected they’d have sacrificed some smarts and behavior for production, but they’re quick little birds. Some of it is just law of averages– there are 350 of them, their odds of catching on are better than 30 assorted other chickens– but really, they’re full of personality, and quite trainable.
I don’t think I’ll be able to train them anything useful, I just feel like, and this was agreed by the actual workers on the farm, it would be nice to have a flock of laying hens who were at least a little friendly. We’ll have to see if they wind up sort of… too friendly, but I’m enjoying them. I liked our chickens when I was a kid; they’re weird eerie little lizard-things, but their eyes are keen and their creepy scaly feet are warm and their feathers are soft. I like to pet them, I like to hold them, and I find them rewarding to interact with.
So, I keep saving out things I can dice up fine to experiment with feeding to them. They love raisins more than anything, and will play with but not really eat clover (which older chickens love); they’ll pick interestedly at tomatoes, and they’ll go nuts for mealworms but those are expensive and have to be bought from a pet store so no thanks. (Middle-Little bought them, so.)
Anyway that’s the update. Today I made a slaw out of carrots and radishes for lunch, and I saved out some scraps of carrot, a tiny bit of carrot greens, and some little radish shreds, and I’m going to feed that to them later and see if they like it. I feel like raisins aren’t very good for them and I don’t want to get them hooked on sweets but, honestly, I have no idea what would actually be good for them.
Instagram ate my post from last night. I had video of the chicks eating from my hand.
They’re really really trainable. The problem is, there are so many of them. It’s impossible to pay individual attention to them, or work with them on anything because it’s just constant chaos. It’s impossible to even tell them apart; 350 of them are a uniform shade of brown, and they vary in size and development but all that really means is that there are like, 20 little fuzzy ones, 50 big ones that have white wingfeathers already, and then 280 identical medium-sized fuzzy ones. And then there are 10 really distinctive ones, which are speckled homburgs– bluish-white and spotted, they already have polka-dot wingfeathers and are uniformly on the small side of medium. But there are 10 of them, and they’re identical. And then there are 20 dark-colored ones, half of whom are stripey and half of whom are sort of solid black with occasional white spots, like on their butt and under their chin. Plus one bonus brown stripey one, who was a free gift (”Rare! Exotic!”) from the breeder.
I’ve started to have a pair of the black ones that I recognize, though, by their behavior. One of the stripey-ish black ones thinks that pecking my toes makes me feed her. And one of the mostly-solid-black but with a white butt ones likes to jump up onto my leg and peck my hand. She can nearly fly, which is amazing given that she has the tiniest little beginnings of wing feathers. Which goes to show you, really chickens mostly jump.
They went from fleeing from me, to avoiding my hands, to being really interested in what I was doing but not wanting to come close, to eating from my hands– that was four 20-minute sessions, three with food. This last one, the fifth, I was able to hold morsels between my thumb and forefinger, and they’d come take them.
The problem is that they think human hands are food now, and so they peck exposed flesh. So I’m trying to move on to offering food so they don’t peck quite so indiscriminately. (Some have noticed that the food is generally a different color than my skin, so they peck at freckles and scratches. Not ideal.)
These chicks are a week old as of today, so. For the record.
It seems to me that if you started with a dozen, you could probably teach them tricks. Even the Homborgs, who do not want me to touch them, will take food from my hand now– at least, two of the braver ones. It’s hard to tell, though, if it’s the same two.
Also, for the record, the commercial-production chickens, which are a hybrid based on the Rhode Island Red (I think this particular one is ISA Brown)– selected entirely for egg-laying behavior– are just as intelligent and sharp-witted as the others. I’d expected they’d have sacrificed some smarts and behavior for production, but they’re quick little birds. Some of it is just law of averages– there are 350 of them, their odds of catching on are better than 30 assorted other chickens– but really, they’re full of personality, and quite trainable.
I don’t think I’ll be able to train them anything useful, I just feel like, and this was agreed by the actual workers on the farm, it would be nice to have a flock of laying hens who were at least a little friendly. We’ll have to see if they wind up sort of… too friendly, but I’m enjoying them. I liked our chickens when I was a kid; they’re weird eerie little lizard-things, but their eyes are keen and their creepy scaly feet are warm and their feathers are soft. I like to pet them, I like to hold them, and I find them rewarding to interact with.
So, I keep saving out things I can dice up fine to experiment with feeding to them. They love raisins more than anything, and will play with but not really eat clover (which older chickens love); they’ll pick interestedly at tomatoes, and they’ll go nuts for mealworms but those are expensive and have to be bought from a pet store so no thanks. (Middle-Little bought them, so.)
Anyway that’s the update. Today I made a slaw out of carrots and radishes for lunch, and I saved out some scraps of carrot, a tiny bit of carrot greens, and some little radish shreds, and I’m going to feed that to them later and see if they like it. I feel like raisins aren’t very good for them and I don’t want to get them hooked on sweets but, honestly, I have no idea what would actually be good for them.
