Chicken Chasing Hints - Update P.3

[2DogsFarm]

My girls - 5mo pullets - are getting braver every day.

Henyard fencing is not finished - posts are in, but no wire is up - so they "freerange" for about 1/2 hour before I go to work and a little longer when I get home.
I turn them out of the coop then go to feed the horses, round them up & put them back in the coop.

This morning I found them in the front yard, dangerously close to the driveway. I do not want them finding out why the chicken crossed the road....

Fortunately they are pretty good about being herded back to safer ground.
Unfortunately, there's usually at least one of the five who decides Freedom trumps the raisins (Chicken Crack) waiting in the coop.
We then do our version of the Keystone Cops until the miscreant is convinced home is Where the Heart (& raisins) Is.

Anyone have a better idea than a butterfly net for herding chickens?
I really don't need to give the neighbors any more things to gossip about.

[TheRedFox]

A Border Collie should do nicely.

[deltawave]

Here's what works for me:

1. If I sing "chicky chicky chickeeey!" in a very silly mezzo-soprano voice, my girls come RUNNING because that means "I have bread, strawberries or other human food for you to eat!". I only use that silly voice when I'm giving them treats. :D

2. I only have one really spooky one that doesn't like to be caught. With the others, if I sort of just walk up to them quietly saying "chick chick chick" in my normal talking-to-chickens voice (as opposed to the silly one) I can usually just bend down and pick 'em up and they just cluck-cluck and don't make a fuss. I often have to do this with 1-2 of them who just don't like to come into the coop at bedtime. The less I chase, the easier it is to catch them. Fortunately the spooky one just goes into the coop when I call them in at bedtime. Usually. :D If she doesn't, rather than risk having all the other ones pile out to see what the drama is all about, I close the door, catch the foolish one by cornering her in the pen, and just go :rolleyes: and hope she goes in tomorrow on her own.

3. They do sell chicken-catching sticks (long stick with a big hook on the end) for truly recalcitrant or stoopid ones. I haven't had to resort to that--if mine are "roaming" in the yard and the "chicky chicky chicky" food song doesn't work, I just catch one of the tame ones, put her in the pen, and the rest soon follow wondering what's going on.

[Bluey]

You can make a dandy chicken catching stick with some baling wire.
Chickens are not very smart and they don't seem to see the wire.;)

[2DogsFarm]

Oooh!
I need instructions for making a ChickenCatcher!

But baling wire, Bluey?
I have this horrible vision of chicken running through the wire and chicken head remaining behind.... {insert gagging icon}
Could I use baling twine?

DW: I have my own version of chick chick chikeeeee!!! which is generally good for 3 of 5
Rattling the raisin box brings the "good" ones on the run (OMG - do they not run funny or what?)
It's just my time is limited in the mornings especially & there's this bush in the yard they can sneak around...
Those darn chickens can see I can't run around it like they do!
<picture "fluffy" old lady in sweats chasing after fluffybutt pullets, round & round we go>

RedFox: sorry, no dogs at 2 Dogs - now or ever

[goodhors]

Oooh!
I need instructions for making a ChickenCatcher!

But baling wire, Bluey?
I have this horrible vision of chicken running through the wire and chicken head remaining behind.... {insert gagging icon}
Could I use baling twine?



Think of the chicken catcher as being like a shepherd's crook for sheep. It is a long, light hook for snagging their feet mostly or necks if they are REALLY bad. Sometimes catching wild chickens you settle for what parts you can get!! Haven't seen any damaged chickens using the wire hook. It is not like them hitting a fencing wire at speed, not going to take off their heads.

Twine will NOT work for catching chickens. Stiff hook of wire stays shaped, goes where you put it. Twine is limp, pretty useless. Think of cartoons of snaring the monster with a rope loop on the ground, not going to work.

Chickens LOVE a routine, done daily, ON TIME. With time, repeated daily, they should get with your program of time allowed out, then race in to find food when called. Does take training, they have TINY brains to learn with. And YOU have to be precise in timing, because they have internal clocks.

[Bluey]

Noooo, you catch chickens by one foot.;)

You take two or three baling wires and twist them into one, make you a handle on one end, a long hook in the other, like a long U and you may bend it a little bit 2/3 of the way down.

Then you walk around like you were looking at the pretty sky and sheep looking clouds, keep your eye on the chicken you are after, spread some treats on the ground, they love Calf Manna or plain horse sweet feed and when you are close to the target, reach over slowly and snag you a leg and gently pull the chicken to you.
Reach down and pick it up, before it realizes it changed real estate and is now awfully close to you.

I assume you know how to pick a chicken up, don't you.:D

Grandma could catch a chicken when she was in her early 90's.:winkgrin:

[imapepper]

I don't know...I can't seem to ever catch our resident chickens but the kids can catch them all day long.

I say find yourself a 12 year old. At our old barn, we had chickens and I would just say "Jordan, go get me a chicken" and our resident 12 yr old would come back with a chicken. It was better than a golden retriever after a tennis ball :D

[Blue Yonder]

I don't know...I can't seem to ever catch our resident chickens but the kids can catch them all day long.

I say find yourself a 12 year old. At our old barn, we had chickens and I would just say "Jordan, go get me a chicken" and our resident 12 yr old would come back with a chicken. It was better than a golden retriever after a tennis ball :D

:lol::lol:Ditto this. My 8 year old daughter can put all 15 of our girls up in the coop in the time it takes me to even think about it. I think they all operate at the same warp speed.

I however, being old and mean, am the only one who can go un-accosted into the turkey coop. Probably has something to do with that time I went in with turkey food and a dressage whip.......:cool:

[KitKat987]

My neighbour had a few chickens, which I got to look after from time to time. The rooster scared me. But she had one of those big plastic fan rakes that she used to herd them. Worked like a charm. She of course didn't hit them with it or anything, just used it as an extension of her arm.

[Bluey]

My neighbour had a few chickens, which I got to look after from time to time. The rooster scared me. But she had one of those big plastic fan rakes that she used to herd them. Worked like a charm. She of course didn't hit them with it or anything, just used it as an extension of her arm.

Glad that you explained.:)
I was thinking of chickens used as rake polo balls.:eek:

We didn't have to herd our chickens, they lived safe in the chicken yard and went into their coop on their own.:yes:

Before that, when they were roaming, there was unnecessary attrition, courtesy of whatever wanted a chicken snack.:cry:

[Carrera]

I use a fish net! Works great and I don't have to pull on legs at all!

[MistyBlue]

You've got to be careful with young birds, they can be quite dangerous:
http://icanhascheezburger.files.wordpress.com/2009/08/funny-pictures-tiny-bird-is-fierce.jpg

[LearnToFly]

I hate chickens.

I spent the summer chasing SUBK's daughter's chickens all over the farm and it does NOT do much for one's self-esteem to be constantly outsmarted by 8 (which got slowly whittled down to 2) chickens on a daily basis.

I did eventually figure out that if you chase them using a 2x4 as an arm extension they are less inclined to venture off the beaten path.

[2foals]

You are being overly perfectionistic. They are chickens. Could you skip the morning turnout until the fence is up? I can't even imagine how crabby I would be if I had to herd chickens somewhere before I went to work in the morning. If I ever need to catch a chicken, I wait until dark and just pick it up from where it is perched. Catching loose chickens in broad daylight is just grossly inefficient. Catching loose ducks is even worse.

[Waterwitch]

We have 23 chickens AND 11 ducks to pen up every night. As someone else mentioned, it's a bit chaotic, but having a couple of energetic kids really helps (I have 6 and 10 year old sons). Barring that, I've discovered that if you wait until it's getting dark, they are more ready to come inside. Ours will queue up at the door as the sun goes down and wait to be let in to roost. We only feed them when they come in at night so that probably helps.

Now if I could just figure out how to get the kids in bed as easily...

[2foals]

You've got to be careful with young birds, they can be quite dangerous:
http://icanhascheezburger.files.wordpress.com/2009/08/funny-pictures-tiny-bird-is-fierce.jpg

MistyBlue, my husband was a bona fide city boy when I married him. My mom gave us a flock of laying hens when we bought our farm. He was so pleased, read all the books, fixed them a fancy coop, etc. In fact, he was acting annoyingly like some kind of a chicken expert. Well, he went out to collect the eggs the first morning but came back empty handed. I gave him a puzzled look, and he said, "All the nests have hens on them, so I couldn't get any eggs." Apparently he thought the hens might attack him if he reached under them!!! :lol::lol::lol:

[MistyBlue]

:lol: :lol: :lol:
Got myself a suburbanite husband too. :yes: I've been wanting chickens...mainly to help with tick control and for fresh eggs. He keeps nixing the idea, says no way is he eating the 'children' of chickens he knows! :winkgrin:

[ReSomething]

Chasing chickens? Why? Mine mob me. Granted if I want to direct them here or there I'll use a broom or snap a dishcloth. They sneak up on the deck and look through the sliding glass door in the morning, problem being they poop up there and I don't like it, so out I go with the dishcloth and they fly off. If I want them to come I get a bowl and throw something, anything, because they aren't that bright and it might be food. They are very partial to cooked oatmeal and melon, including the rinds.

[2DogsFarm]

Thanks all for the laughs :D
They are amusing little birds, aren't they?

I like the rake idea - Chicken Croquet has a nice double entendre ring to it!

2 Dogs Farm has no children so that solution is out.

And 2foals - I agree I have created my own problem - they used to stick pretty close to the coop so herding them back in was no Biggie.
But they are now teenagers and if they could, I'm sure they'd all have teeny tattoos, piercings & wear Doc Martens.

They do mob me - after all I am the Source of Raisins - but there is always at least one who decides that Out beats In, raisins or no raisins.

And it is humiliating to be outsmarted, even if onlyfor a few minutes, by something with a brain the size of an oat.

I'm going to get the chicken wire this weekend so they can spend their days defoliating the henyard and get out when I'm home & time is not an issue.

[Chardavej]

Chickens like raisins? I will have to give them some now!! Chicken crack huh? Kinda like stud muffins to horses?

[maunder]

Mine go bonkers for a slice of my homemade bread. They all run to me anyway when I call but if Dorothy Maud doesn't want to go into the new $$$KaChing chicken shed in the evening (she's the only hesitant one) I will just sit down and talk to her and she comes right over.

Can't imagine wild chickens running from me! ;)

[SmartAlex]

I haven't read the other responses yet, but I always used a garden hose. :D

[cloudyandcallie]

Down here on the coast, we have always used crab nets. Long handled, widely spaced netting, etc.

[pj]

. Well, he went out to collect the eggs the first morning but came back empty handed. I gave him a puzzled look, and he said, "All the nests have hens on them, so I couldn't get any eggs." Apparently he thought the hens might attack him if he reached under them!!! :lol::lol::lol:

Some of them WILL. When my daughter was three she loved to collect eggs and took that on as her job. One morning she came in screeching with terrible scratches down her face.
Seems that one hen had decided to set and she wasn't giving the one egg she was sitting on up to that little pip squeak girl so she jumped her. I thought that would be the end of the egg gathering but next morning my daughter came in smiling with her little pail of eggs.
I asked if the big hen had tried to attack her and she said no. Said she put her pail over the chickens head, got the eggs she was on and then got the rest of them. I thought that was pretty good thinking for a three year old. :)

[2DogsFarm]

Chickens like raisins? I will have to give them some now!! Chicken crack huh? Kinda like stud muffins to horses?

I'm making no promises...
BYC gave me this idea, but some of the other faves listed there do nothing for my girls.
-Cheerios? meh
-Cauliflower (it was organic homegrown!) - got me the stinkeye
-Plain yogurt - they LOFF it! but too messy to tempt laggers with

But the raisins...oh, the raisins!

They mug me for raisins, they leap off the ground for raisins, the whole bunch runs to me expectantly with chickeneyes full of hope for
RAISINS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Vitriolic]

You are being overly perfectionistic. They are chickens. Could you skip the morning turnout until the fence is up? I can't even imagine how crabby I would be if I had to herd chickens somewhere before I went to work in the morning. If I ever need to catch a chicken, I wait until dark and just pick it up from where it is perched. Catching loose chickens in broad daylight is just grossly inefficient. Catching loose ducks is even worse.

ditto. I have come to this conclusion through humiliating, exhausting experience. One day I was venting on the hubby that I only had so many steps in me in a day (stress fracture), and I didn't need to be running after fowl. He looked at me like I was nuts and said they go in at dark by themselves. My chicken books (which I have now read up on) mention that chickens should not be turned out til late morning, unless you enjoy searching your entire farm for eggs. :D:o:D

[2DogsFarm]

ditto. I have come to this conclusion through humiliating, exhausting experience. One day I was venting on the hubby that I only had so many steps in me in a day (stress fracture), and I didn't need to be running after fowl. He looked at me like I was nuts and said they go in at dark by themselves. My chicken books (which I have now read up on) mention that chickens should not be turned out til late morning, unless you enjoy searching your entire farm for eggs. :D:o:D

I know this is MY problem, not the birds' :D
But my 5ac is on the corner of a relatively (for the country) busy intersection and the girls are getting braver & closer to the road every day.
Of course this morning they all trooped meekly back into the coop - do you think they have a computer in there and were searching COTH?

So far only 2 of the 5 are laying and both use the nestboxes in the coop sometime after they return from their morning constitutional.
I gather 2 nice, little brown pullet eggs daily when I get home from work.

For now this is nice, however I envision myself looking like Lucy & Ethel in the candy factory when all 5 are laying.
I hardly go through a dozen eggs in a month!

[Marcella]

I have a chicken catching stick. It worked well for a few days to get my young chickens into their shelter at night (aka my garage). However, they quickly learned about getting snagged by the leg with that thing, the screaming that erupted from the beak of their friend that got caught, and how to run very fast in the other direction when the hook came out. So then, all I had to do was tap it on the ground behind them and they would all run away and into the garage and hide somewhere.

Those chickens are now in the freezer, so I don't have to deal with them anymore.

My other girls and rooster go in their coop at night without a problem, so no herding involved. If your coop is big enough, can't you just leave them in during the day and let them out in the evening? It might be easier than trying to catch them.

[2DogsFarm]

If your coop is big enough, can't you just leave them in during the day and let them out in the evening? It might be easier than trying to catch them.

The coop is plenty big - it's a converted garden shed, maybe 20X15? - for five pullets. They're in there from 7A to 5P anyhow and have been since I got them at 9wks old.
I know I created the Monster, but I wanted to see how they'd deal with being out a bit. Of course they LOFF Out - Duh!

Problem may be solved this weekend, I'm picking up chickenwire today at TSC and guy may come Sunday to put it up on the posts. I have deer netting to roof the yard so they can then stay out all day while I'm at work.

[Bluey]

I have a chicken catching stick. It worked well for a few days to get my young chickens into their shelter at night (aka my garage). However, they quickly learned about getting snagged by the leg with that thing, the screaming that erupted from the beak of their friend that got caught, and how to run very fast in the other direction when the hook came out. So then, all I had to do was tap it on the ground behind them and they would all run away and into the garage and hide somewhere.

Those chickens are now in the freezer, so I don't have to deal with them anymore.

My other girls and rooster go in their coop at night without a problem, so no herding involved. If your coop is big enough, can't you just leave them in during the day and let them out in the evening? It might be easier than trying to catch them.

If your caught chicken squaked and flopped, your technique needs refining.:yes:
Maybe you were not soft enough in the retrieve, but in the excitement of the catch reeled the chicken in so quickly as to alarm it or worse, pounced on it?:eek:

Nothing like learning from Grandma, that was an efficiency expert at anything in life, including swift, chicken catching wire use.;)

[RiverBendPol]

I haven't read this whole thread but here's what I do...we have 3 free-range Buff Orpingtons who are basically friendly but when it came time to shut them up at night, they'd beat it. Took forever to get them in. I trained them to come when they're called-with a handful of sunflower hearts. During the days, I'd go out to them and say CHICKKKK-ENNNNS!!!! a few times then toss a few sunflower bits to them. Whoever thinks a chicken has no brain is wrong, these girls caught on in one session. Now at bedtime, I go out, grab some seed and call them. They come galloping and flapping and squawking and practically trip me up as we march to the hen house. I give them all their seed and shut them in. Easy as pie.

[birdsong]

Lordy but I just love hens...I fondly remember my "girls" who gossiped and shopped for bugs all day ..They would run to me whenever I was outside telling me about their day...

Sadly , here in the land of rampant raccoons, hawks and a few bobcats I had to give them up.

I do enjoy reading about everyone else s...(I know thats not really a word)

[Bluey]

Lordy but I just love hens...I fondly remember my "girls" who gossiped and shopped for bugs all day ..They would run to me whenever I was outside telling me about their day...

Sadly , here in the land of rampant raccoons, hawks and a few bobcats I had to give them up.

I do enjoy reading about everyone else s...(I know thats not really a word)

That is why there are chicken yards, to keep them safe and still have chickens.

[Marcella]

If your caught chicken squaked and flopped, your technique needs refining.:yes:
Maybe you were not soft enough in the retrieve, but in the excitement of the catch reeled the chicken in so quickly as to alarm it or worse, pounced on it?:eek:

Nothing like learning from Grandma, that was an efficiency expert at anything in life, including swift, chicken catching wire use.;)


Thanks for the advice. I was usually doing this in heels and dress clothes, so was in a big rush to catch and stow. Anyone who didn't know what I was doing probaby thought I was slaughtering them or something! I guess I have something to practice...here chicky chicky chicky...

[Bluey]

Thanks for the advice. I was usually doing this in heels and dress clothes, so was in a big rush to catch and stow. Anyone who didn't know what I was doing probaby thought I was slaughtering them or something! I guess I have something to practice...here chicky chicky chicky...

In heels and dress clothes, I would call the chickens, shut in whoever comes in and let Darwin take care of the rest.
Very soon, you will have only chickens that are bred to come when called.:cool:
Would not that be neat?:lol:

[Candle]

Oh my lord, this thread has got me ROFLMAO!!!!! I now have a plan...... get chickens when I start having kids :D

[Marcella]

In heels and dress clothes, I would call the chickens, shut in whoever comes in and let Darwin take care of the rest.
Very soon, you will have only chickens that are bred to come when called.:cool:
Would not that be neat?:lol:

Well, it was Gordon at the processing plant that took care of the ones that wouldn't go in their house...pretty much the same thing!

But, I did "play" with the chicken hook yesterday. It did go better, as I reeled them in slowly and didn't pounce on them. I only got in a few tries, because the old girls had enough and went to hide in the bushes.

[Bluey]

Well, it was Gordon at the processing plant that took care of the ones that wouldn't go in their house...pretty much the same thing!

But, I did "play" with the chicken hook yesterday. It did go better, as I reeled them in slowly and didn't pounce on them. I only got in a few tries, because the old girls had enough and went to hide in the bushes.

The trick about catching chickens is not to have to do it very often, so you don't keep them spooked.
Chickens seem to forget quickly, if it happens rarely, especially the one you catch for the pot.:(

[JumpWithPanache]

This is great! I reall wish I could have a couple hens of my own, but sadly the HOA won't allow it. Guess I'll have to survive off eggs from the barn chickens... big flock of RIRs that are anything but tame.

[imapepper]

I might be getting my hens this coming weekend. We have a couple of roosters but they belong to the other people who rent the second barn on the property. Sadly, they are leaving at the end of the month and taking their roosters with them. I will miss Jake and Elwood :( They crack me up.

[2DogsFarm]

Since I started this thread the problem has dwindled due to a combination of:

1)getting the henyard fenced - now that they stay out all day, scratching, eating bugs, killing the occasional small varmint that wanders inside (1 mole, 1 frog so far) the girls are a lot more willing to come when I call and meekly return to the coop.

2)3 of the 5 are now laying and that seems to calm them down - the hardest to catch now are the Black Star who still sports an adolescent comb & wattles and the foofy Houdan who will probably lay an egg some day and that egg will be sequined.