Chickens are intelligent creatures. They can recognize up to 100 different individuals and have the ability to compare themselves to other flock members in relation to ability, experiences and gender. When I first had the idea to train one of my chickens, I didn’t realize how easy it was going to be! Now I have trained both individual chickens, my whole flock, and even batches of young chickens. It’s so easy once you know the secret to training chickens!
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The Method to the Madness
Before I reveal the secret to training your chickens, let me go over the basic fundamentals of training chickens. Training chickens is basically just like training any other animal. Whether you want to relate it to training a dog, or think of it more like the training that is done with zoo animals as enrichment and welfare, training chickens follows the same guidelines.
Positive Re-enforcement
The main concept that you use when training chickens is positive re-enforcement. Positive re-enforcement is when you reward the chicken with something positive when it does the behavior that you are training it for. With chickens, the reward is more than likely their favorite treat.
Positive re-enforcement works because it encourages the chicken to repeat the desired behavior in order to get food. When the chicken does any other behavior besides the desired one, they don’t get rewarded. Chickens learn very quickly that if they do this (the behavior), they get that (the treat).
Positive re-enforcement is the foundation of training a chicken. Use positive re-enforcement to teach a chicken the behavior that you want. Once it is successfully performing the behavior, you can move onto another element of chicken training.
Marker Actions
The next step after positive re-enforcement is marker actions. This is when you teach the chicken to do the trained behavior when it hears or sees a particular action on your part. The training method called ‘clicker training’ would be considered a marker action when training chickens. Other marker actions that you could use include:
- clapping your hands
- pointing or positioning your arm a certain way
- a marker word or phrase
To incorporate the marker action into your training, you must perform the action then use positive re-enforcement to get the chicken to perform the trained behavior. Once you have worked on that for a while, soon you will be able to do the marker action, the chicken will perform the behavior, then you can reward the chicken.
I have found that audible marker actions work the best for chickens. Making a noise like clapping or teaching them a certain phrase does better than using your body language to signify a marker action.
Final Tips
Now that you know the fundamentals of training chickens, I want to go over a few more details before we move onto the secret of training chickens.
One thing to keep in mind when training chickens is that you will probably never be able to wean off rewards. Unlike in dog training, where you can use verbal praise as a reward, with chickens, consumable rewards always work best. So, while you can train a chicken to respond to a marker action, it is a lot harder to train them to realize that a verbal noise from you is equivalent to the handful of sunflower seeds they usually get for performing a behavior.
Secondly, just like with any animal, distractions are a major component when training chickens. Since chickens are scavengers and foragers, just about anything in their environment is distracting because it could be food. Also, since they are prey animals, anything that appears threatening will be cause for avoidance.
The main key to avoiding distraction when training chickens is to use high-value rewards. Sunflower seeds and mealworms are usually pretty motivating, but if your chickens already receive these treats on a regular basis, you may have to get creative. Cooked meat, scrambled eggs, berries, or different seeds and grains can all be high value-rewards that will keep your chicken focused on the task at hand.
The Secret…
Okay, so there’s actually two pairs of secrets to training chickens. While neither of these secrets are rocket science, understanding both of these concepts will help you train your chickens quickly and efficiently. The two secrets are:
- consistency & routine
- flock & forage mentality
These two concepts are probably not new to you. You may even be thinking, why am I even reading this post if you’re just going to tell me what I already know? Let me explain.
Consistency & Routine
Whether you’re training an individual chicken or your whole flock, consistency is important because chickens are creatures of habit. If you repeatably do the same thing over and over, your flock will soon rely on that pattern and come to expect it. Routine is also important because of the reliance on habits. A consistent routine will soon have your chickens well trained.
If you want to incorporate something new into the training or change up your routine, do so gradually and with positive re-enforcement. A gradual change in routine that is consistently done will soon re-train your chickens.
Flock & Forage Mentality
The flock and forage mentality of chickens is also key to learning how to train them. The flock mentality is more important if you are training your whole flock. If you get a few members of the flock to do the behavior, the rest of the flock is more than likely going to follow suit. It is especially helpful if you can get the head hen trained or some of the individuals who are higher up in the pecking order.
The forage mentality of chickens is important for training both individual chickens and whole flocks. A chicken’s life is basically eat, sleep, and reproduce. If you can appeal to at least one of these basics, then you can train your chickens. Chickens spend a lot of their day eating or looking for food. If you can incorporate food into your training sessions, your chicken will find it worthwhile to stick around.
Besides those two secrets, training chickens also requires a heathy dose of patience, time, and motivation. Train your chickens with a positive mindset, set aside time each day to work with your chickens, and have an end goal in mind so that training your chicken can be a success!
How to Train a Chicken
Individual Chicken:
- Pick out a chicken to train and choose a behavior to start with.
- Determine what your marker action will be to have the chicken start doing the behavior.
- Get a high value treat that your chicken loves and choose a location that is free from major distractions (like more food or other chickens).
- If the behavior involves an element, like an obstacle course element, introduce the chicken to the element and positively re-enforce the chicken with treats for being around the element.
- Once the chicken is comfortable with it’s surroundings and knows that you have food, start teaching the behavior.
- Start by bribing the chicken using the treats to do the behavior you want.
- As soon as the chicken does the behavior, allow it to eat some treats.
- Repeat this several times.
- Now incorporate your marker action in before you bribe the chicken to do the behavior.
- Repeat the sequence of marker action, behavior and reward multiple times.
- Next, hide the treats or place them at an end point of the behavior.
- Give the marker action and gently guide the chicken with your hands to perform the behavior.
- As soon as the chicken does the behavior allow it to eat some treats.
- Repeat this several times.
- Do steps 1-9 for a limited amount of time each day until the chicken learns the specific behavior and can do it without being bribed or guided.
- Once the chicken is performing the behavior solidly, you can start training it for a second behavior.
Flock
- Choose a behavior that is suitable for many chickens to do at once and pick out a marker action to signal the behavior.
- Determine what a high value treat would be for the flock.
- Pick out a location where you want the behavior to be performed.
- Make sure your flock is comfortable with the environment in that location. Use positive re-enforcement if you have to.
- Show your flock that you have high value treats.
- Once you have their attention, bribe them into doing the behavior.
- Repeat this several times.
- Next, do your marker action before you bribe the flock into performing the behavior.
- Repeat this sequence multiple times: marker action, bribe, flock performs, reward
- Work until your flock is performing the behavior on the cue of the marker action and without being bribed.
- If you are teaching a behavior that has long distances involved (such as calling your flock in from free-ranging), start with a short distance and gradually lengthen the distance as your flock performs the behavior successfully.
There you have it, the simplest, most effective way to train your chickens! Whether it be your whole flock, or one lucky individual, training can be beneficial for both you and your chickens. Keep in mind the fundamentals, such as positive re-enforcement and concise marker actions, but also remember to train with practice, patience, and persistence. Above all, consider the two secrets to training your chickens: be consistent with a routine and appeal to their natural instincts of flocking or foraging!
Training your chickens is just one way to manage chickens on the homestead! Becoming a modern pioneer can be fun, educational, and rewarding, and we would love to help you on a journey to become more self-reliant and self-sufficient! Join us on our modern pioneer journey!
by Alexa Lehr
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