Spoilt chickens????

Jojo_the_Tightfisted

If they are ex battery hens, they have no concept of time - they were probably kept in artificial light with fake days and nights to keep them laying more. So they could be jetlagged!

ETA: just spotted they were from the pet shop. Again, they could have been indoors bred.

I found that if you approach gently behind them and then stand over them, as your shadow falls on their back, they hunker down - some sort of predator reflex, when you pick them up thumbs on the back, fingers round the wings towards the breast, so they are secure but not in danger of injury.

And yes, they are daft. Funny, soppy and potentially psychotic, but daft as a brush.

ionahenor2

Try giving them treats at bedtime so they go into their run to eat them. Mine would mug a fox for jumbo porridge oats. I just throw a handful in the pen and they flap in. then they take themselves off to bed once its dark. Mine also like cooked pasta. cooked rice, and noodles but they know they have them in the pen, that way they will have had pellets during the day too. They nearly take my fingers off for chopped grapes.(not whole as they could choke).

stumpycat

Ours get a bedtime treat of porridge, barley or rice, cooked up with whatever veg scraps we have around and all mixed with pellets.
That helps get them back in the shed when they've been out. Or I just scrunch up a plastic bag & they're over like a shot!

I've hung up a couple of wild bird feeders in their run - a perspex one (they pecked the perspex for ages before they realised the grain came out at the bottom! :rotfl:) and one of the wide-spaced wire ones meant for fatballs. I put corn on the cob, bread crusts, cauli leaves etc in it. We stock up on Asda's 'reduced to 5p' section.

And if you think your hens are spoilt, ours have a string of dragonfly lights and a mini lava lamp to eat their supper by on those long winter nights!

ionahenor2

stumpycat wrote: »

Ours get a bedtime treat of porridge, barley or rice, cooked up with whatever veg scraps we have around and all mixed with pellets.
That helps get them back in the shed when they've been out. Or I just scrunch up a plastic bag & they're over like a shot!

I give mine their pellet porridge at lunchtime with veg in it. Then they have the rice etc later. They are really funny when they have mashed potato all round their beak but not funny when they wipe it on my arm.:rotfl:

What a tease scrunching the bag.:T I tried the bird feeders but they wouldn't go near them so I just throw cauli/cabbage leaves in the pen and have fastened corn on the cob to the side of the pen. (Aldi have frozen cobs for 99p.)

Davesnave

Bed time seems to be influenced to some degree by breed.

Our Welsummers are boring and go to bed no problem, whereas the Dorkings and Vorwerks tend to be much later, sitting on their windbreak and socialising if the weather is OK.

Then, the Vorwerks, being German, try to send the Dorkings to bed first. Eventually, the Dorkings go in, chased by the Vorwerks, but two of the Vorwerks then come out of the house to check that no Dorkings have been missed. Finally, they argue over who should be last, but by the time they get inside, it's often too dark for them to find the perches accurately.

To avoid all this nonsense, if I'm on locking-up, I push them off the windbreak and just keep repeating loudly "That's it, time for bed! Come on!" They know I'm not the 'nice' one, so it seems to work pretty well.

ionahenor2

Davesnave wrote: »

Bed time seems to be influenced to some degree by breed.

Our Welsummers are boring and go to bed no problem, whereas the Dorkings and Vorwerks tend to be much later, sitting on their windbreak and socialising if the weather is OK.

Then, the Vorwerks, being German, try to send the Dorkings to bed first. Eventually, the Dorkings go in, chased by the Vorwerks, but two of the Vorwerks then come out of the house to check that no Dorkings have been missed. Finally, they argue over who should be last, but by the time they get inside, it's often too dark for them to find the perches accurately.

To avoid all this nonsense, if I'm on locking-up, I push them off the windbreak and just keep repeating loudly "That's it, time for bed! Come on!" They know I'm not the 'nice' one, so it seems to work pretty well.

:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

My OH has been putting them to be of late and resorted to gently tapping bums to get them into their house saying a similar thing.

lostinrates

Davesnave wrote: »

Bed time seems to be influenced to some degree by breed.

I'm glad its not just me that thinks this. for us, the rooster dictates bedtime, but the roosters breed does seem to make a difference. The cochins like to watch the sun set, but the cream legbars like an early night.

stumpycat

That's really interesting about the different breeds. I've just got ex-bats, but there seems to be one of them who does a Zebedee 'Time for Bed' and they all trail into their coop...

Davesnave

stumpycat wrote: »

That's really interesting about the different breeds. I've just got ex-bats, but there seems to be one of them who does a Zebedee 'Time for Bed' and they all trail into their coop...

Our experience isn't extensive, but having recently purchased a few more unrelated Welsummers, which are still in quarantine quarters, we find they are behaving in the same way as the other ones: i.e. no problems, just go in together.

gillian62

I've never had a problem getting mine to bed. As soon as it starts getting a bit duskier they start going to bed, some earlier than others. Once you have some chickens I find that the others tend to follow their lead.