How to Train Your Chicken to be Friendly

In this video we are going to show you how we train our chickens to be picked up and handled. Most chickenkeepers have the dream of their chickens running to them, being happy to be held and generally just wanting to be around them. BUT....chickens are by nature constantly looking out for danger and for a new owner this could mean that their chickens are always running away from them rather than towards them. We have some simple tips to help you!

We breed Buff Orpington chickens and have kept them for a number of years.
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Opening Music credits: Artist = Earth Tree Healing
Composer = Claudine West

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[ml.]

Our girls sleep on my daughter's lap, cuddle with her and follow her around, obeying her all the time. They know their names, recognize commands and just stay around us when free ranging. Consistency, treats and love. Greetings from Cusco, Peru.

[reneebrown]

I would give chickens cornbread before giving them white whitebread, but I give mealworms and soldier fly larvae, and corn on the cob when it's cold. I use the cobs as a boredom buster

[scohid]

Ive trained my girls to come to me when I make a loud squeeky kissing sound. Makes it so much easier if I cant find one of them haha!

[marymathis]

Having "Chicken on the Knee" almost sounds like a Julia Child receipe for a delicious dinner, doesn't it??? 😁Thanks for the great video!! ❤❤❤

[brencostigan]

Great video though I must confess that I had a massive head start - our six lovely ladies were raised by Fiona & Hugh. All of them accepted treats from our hands from day 1 and whenever they see us they run straight to where we are. There is a discernible difference in their personalities 3 birds are very adventurous and outgoing whilst the other 3 are more reserved but they all love treats.

[lin-chan]

All my chickens are super friendly, even my Leghorn. But I have notice the heavy breed tend to be more calm than the lighter breed. BTW, a good news from my hatch, the Orpington chicks my broody hen hatched out 2.5 months ago turns out to be a girl!! So happy, I can keep her. Hopefully she will become a mum next year :)

[ripplemoon]

I live in the UK and my family buys large bags of mixed corn. I wasn’t aware it raised the core temperature of the birds, thank you for the info! I will definitely be more careful in the summer months. We generally give our chickens corn at the weekends, when we clean them out. The only reason we don’t give them corn during the week is that we’re all very busy and don’t have much time to spend with the chickens.
On a less regular basis, we give the hens any vegetable or fruit scraps we have in the kitchen - they especially love melon, cucumber and grapes! Before giving your chickens any food scraps please check whether it’s safe for the birds, as some things are poisonous and it’s not always the things you expect.

[barbsdee]

I’m so glad you made this video. I had to remind myself I’ve only had my 3 for 3 days and I was disappointed they didn’t eat out of my hand 😂🤦🏼‍♀️ Thank you Fiona. They already come up to my feet when I’m sat on the chair and sprinkle the treats on the ground 👍🏼 I must 5:54 adopt patience 🙄

[TheOldSwedesFarm]

Great video! We've been sitting out in the evening with the hens and they are very happy to be around us. Your girls really look happy around you. Such a happy group! Cheers Fiona!

[francineclave]

Fiona, your channel has the best content! Thank you again for being such a good teacher. I would love to buy one of your girls, but since I live in the USA I will just have to keep admiring them from a far. I just posted a link on my local NH Backyard Chicken Group suggesting people follow you on Youtube. Thanks again for all you do.

[venugopal]

worth watching for all the animal lovers and students in general....

[Susie_Floozie]

Thank you so much for this information! I regularly give my chickens corn on the cob stuck into a hole on a brick so it stands up and they can all have a go at it. I didn't know about the obesity and heat issues. Also, I didn't know that mealworms and crickets were proscribed in the UK. My lizards would be put out by that rule!

[lindapeterson]

Another great video with excellent training points. Since I’ve been watching and learning from your videos, I’ve been starting when the chicks are very small and give them small amounts of crushed meal worms so they’re small enough for them to eat. I do this with incubated hatchlings as well as those raised by their brood hen. They learn to come to me and they become easy to pick up. As the birds get older, I mix meal worms/insect larvae with scratch and use a hybrid form of “treating.” In the morning when everyone runs out of the coop to free range, I throw out a few handfuls of scratch with the worms/larvae included for the older birds, and for the younger ones, I’ll take them around the corner from the others and give them their own meal worms. I spend as much time with the chickens as I can, but not everyone has remained easy to handle. My focus tends to be toward the babies (which I’ve had far too many this year) so I don’t get to spend as much time with the older chickens and they grow a bit more distant. However, a handful of treats will bring them back to me.
Thank you again for your excellent content! ❤️

[NWCountrydancer]

Thak you. I'm looking forward to training my new hens. I got them at 14 weeks.

[watrgrl]

I used to buy live mealworms and crickets as a treat for my sisters chickens when she decided to raise them for eggs for the family. I love animals and wanted to spoil them but also because I wanted eggs. Needless to say they would come running and calling as soon as they saw me because they associated me with their favorite treats. I would bring them in a plastic container and if I wasn’t quick enough they would jump up and peck at the container trying to get at the contents. I was a great chicken auntie.

[jaquirox]

Great and informative video! Should I be concerned about some recent guests I had over, their kids kept going up to my 5-6 week old chicks, and very aggressively grabbing them. I kept trying to stop them, but their parents didn’t intervene for discipline so it just continued for the entire visit. My son knows not to force picking them up, and to be calm and still near them, so that’s our house rules. But now I’m just wondering if I should be concerned with the birds possibly being more anti-human because of the kids that tormented them for a couple hours? Or will the birds just forget about it???

Also on the same note, should people force handling them as chicks? In the sense of desensitizing the birds to being picked up? Of course in a gentle and calm way, but nonetheless still forcing them to be held? Or is this passive technique better? Does anyone know?

Thank you for any responses. ♥️🙏🏽♥️

[ValedasBrumas]

I love your videos with the chickens, they are incredible animals! Thanks for the tips =). Hugs from Brazil!!

[amandarobertson]

Thanks for this! Could you do a video (or just message me) on a flock overview. How many hens do you keep? How long do you keep them? How many of your hens usually go broody? How many coops do you have? Do you ever isolate a portion of the flock for breeding or other purposes? Are you able to raise all your own meat? I love your dual purpose setup and am striving to do something similar in the US! I don’t know anyone who has multiple small coops though, everyone usually has one big coop.

[geoffanddebshipton]

Great video as always Fiona - excellent tutorial! Our girls love wheat (something we learned from you) and come running whenever they hear the click of the lid of the bin where we store it! We also started making a sound when we fed them treats so now they associate that sound with good times.

[bloodyrose]

Any tips on introducing new chicks to the old flock? They’re about 4-6 weeks old and have most of their feathers and I have 4 grown ladies (2 buffs, 1 RI Red, and a white Leghorn).