Taming wild chickens

Serama Mama Chicken Depot said:

Hi everyone,

I started chickens and the love for them June 2021. My 1st hatch was a clutch of eggs given to me as an early birthday present. Out of it I hatched successfully 3 eggs. Out of those 3 eggs is my favorite chicken, Chick Chick, who just so happens to be a rooster. Now when Chick Chick was a little bitty chick he had pasty butt, and that was the 1st time I learned about the backyard chicken site. Needless to say Chick Chick overcame his pasty butt and the 2 of us built a wonderful relationship. Now I got this clutch of eggs from a woman which lives on a farm next to the one I grew up on. She is the most remarkable woman you'll ever meet. She lives on over 200 acres raises sheeps, cows, horses, and has at least a 100 wild chickens running around at any one time. She has the tamest sheep you'll ever meet. When you go to her place they just come right up to you and let you pet them. She is 76 years old and she can still throw a sheep on the ground and clean its hoofs. Come to find out Chick Chick happened to be this breed called
Bielefeild Kennhunn. I then went on the search for the hens like him and found that they would have to be ordered. The cheapest way would be 75 after shipping for a dozen eggs and one hen is $30. So plan B. My husband said well if you got Chick Chick from Valerie's then couldn't you potentially get hens with the same breed and I thought you're a genius. That's precisely what I did. On Christmas Eve, yesterday , I went to her place at dark. Her daughter helped me by climbing into the rafters and caught 5 hens who came from the flock with the rooster that made Chick Chick. Now these hens are wild and my goal is to get them used to me by simply setting in the pen with them every day and over time them learning to trust me enough to handle them. Now during these episodes Chick Chick will be with us so they can see me petting a chicken and a chicken walking next to me feeling safe. My ultimate goal is to get these beautiful ladies out of the pen and into the field. Cause this is backyard chickens not caged chickens lol.All my other flock are free range organic and these ladies came from freedom and I don't want to deprive them of that for long. Very excited about this venture and about the potential of taming these wild girls and definitely breeding them with Chick Chick. Ultimate goal is getting more chickens like Chick Chick and overtime having more traits than whatever else these girls are mixed with. This will also be my 1st time with selective breeding I am so excited. Anybody have any experience with taming wild chickens please give me everything you know. Anything can help. I used to tame kittens and wild cats when I was young, which Hurt cause you know cats scratch pretty hard, but I was pretty successful as a kid. I would just set out there with them kittens sometimes for hours until they would trust me enough to get a treat out of my hands. I figured if it works for cats it just might work for chickens.

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Serama Mama Chicken Depot said:

Today there milling around loving life. When I come to the field they perk up and look at me. Makes me feel like they have accepted me . Here's some pics from this morning

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RoostersAreAwesome said:

None of your chickens are bielefelders. They are mixed breeds. A couple of them look like they could have some gamefowl in them.

If you aren’t planning to show, then this shouldn’t change anything about your breeding program, other than the fact that you can’t sell/give away any chicks as bielefelders.

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Serama Mama Chicken Depot said:

Also I have no intentions of selling them as bielefelders just having fun learning how to hatch and raise babies if or when I sell them as pullets and cockerel they will be called mixed chickens. This feed is just my story of figuring out how to get some wild ladies to be my friend and the reason I wanted them was because of the off chance that I could get a mix with a bielefelder like I did with Chick Chick. It's pretty cool

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Luv Ducks said:

May I ask what type of incubator you used. It looks like you got a pretty good hatch rate and the chicks are all beautiful!!! I have ducks but thought about getting an incubator at one point in time.

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Serama Mama Chicken Depot said:

I have a little giant from Wal-Mart with egg turner. The I put them in a homemade cooler incubator for lock down. I do a dry hatch then at lock down I try to keep the humidity at 65-72

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Ursuline Chick said:

Is she the one who likes to be held the least? If so I might call her Maude.
But that is just me, she will probably stay a little fussy, at least she lets you hold her.
You have done a Wonderfull job taming them, by the way! Congrats and good luck with your new projects.

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