Training my girls

I have found that when it comes to training chickens some things come much easier than others. When it comes to treats they cotton on the fastest but other things sometimes take a bit longer.

I give the girls some sunflower hearts in the morning and some corn at bedtime in winter and reverse this in summer as digesting corn is supposed to help keep them warm in winter. I am careful to measure out a small amount per hen so that they don’t get fat.

Right from when we first got the little girls I could see that they couldn’t compete with the bigger girls for this treat and were chased away so I slipped them their portion on the patio while the bigger girls have theirs thrown in the run. They picked up on this straight away.

Morning and evening I throw the sunflower hearts/corn out into the run and the bigger girls go after it. The little girls wait by my feet until I sprinkle theirs on the patio. It works like a dream and all the girls get their fair share.

The bigger girls have their corn in the run

The little girls have theirs on the patio

What is taking longer to sort out is getting Pebbles to go in by herself at bedtime. I don’t really understand what is going on here because she used to go in by herself but has stopped doing so. I am having to go up once all the others have gone in and guide her through the pop hole and block it while she takes her place.

I am finding it frustrating that she used to go in and now she doesn’t. I don’t know why this is happening and left on her own she would get shut out and end up on the outside perch or on top of the little coop.

I don’t know how else to train her to go in. I have tried putting her on the perch earlier and she just comes out again. I have tried leaving her alone and she perches outside. I can easily put her on the perch, but I want her to do it herself, so I am just guiding her in at the moment and waiting for her to get the hang of it.

I am wondering if she is ever going to get the hang of it. It is frustrating to have seven out of eight girls going in by themselves. It means I couldn’t leave them overnight but then it’s unlikely I would be away overnight anyway. Even so it would be better if she would go in just in case we were ever to be away.

I also removed  the water bottles today as I want the little girls to get used to the water dishes because in frosty weather the water bottles will freeze quickly. I have seen Freckles and Rusty drink from the china water dish so I know they are able to do this. Oddly enough I have never seen them drink from the metal water drinker.

I am keeping an eye on them because I worry they may not drink enough while they get used not having the bottles. Today it rained a lot and they drank drips from the wire but they like to do that at any time. I didn’t see them go to the water dishes during the afternoon but then again I didn’t see the other girls go to them either.

At bedtime Freckles was clearly looking for the water bottles.

Freckles goes to where the water bottles were

She can’t work out why the bottles are no longer here

Freckles did have a quick drink from the water dish

I would have liked to see her drink more but it shows she does know the water is here. I tried to show both Freckles and Rusty the metal water drinker by dipping my fingers in it in front of them but they just ignored it.

Tomorrow I will be around more during the day so I will be watching them. A farmer once told me that chickens will always find the water but after the first day we had these two girls and they wouldn’t drink at all before I put in bottles, I am not so sure. I know how entrenched in their habits they can become.

And so the training goes on with some successes coming easily and some not so easily!