How to Train Your Chickens to come when called. This title may seem laughable to those who do not own chickens, but it is very important to train your chickens if you let them free range. After some time, your chickens will learn to trust you just by the simple deed of feeding them and watering them. They know you are providing for them, and they will run to greet you. But what we need to teach our free-ranging chickens is to come to us when we call for them. Believe it or not, it is pretty simple to train them with a little bit of time.
Why you should train your chickens
- You are leaving the house for the day or a few hours. We sometimes let our chickens out all day, but if we are heading to town or somewhere else for several hours, we will call the chickens into their run
- You see a predator. This is a very good reason to call your chickens into safety immediately. Once they are trained, they will run fast when you call them.
Start Training Your Chickens
- Find a treat that they all love. There are 2 that I usually have available, and one I use almost daily because it is affordable and easy to find.
- Mealworms— a special treat your chickens will love.
- Black Oil Sunflower seeds – everyday treat and perfect for training.
- Have plenty of treats to spread around, ensuring the more timid birds will be tempted to come for the treats too. If you only have a small amount of treats, your timid hens are not likely to even attempt to reach the food, for fear of the dominant birds pecking at them.
- Keep the treats in a container your chickens will recognize. I keep the sunflower seeds in a mason jar and the mealworms in the bag they are packaged in. This is only necessary in the beginning, you can test your chickens later and see if they will come to your voice only (without seeing the package or jar).
- Choose your calling word. This is the word your chickens will come to recognize. My word is “chicks”. I just yell out, “chick, chick, chicks.” in a higher pitch voice and they come running. You can choose any word, use a whistle or bell, or even a sound. If you use a word or sound, make sure it is a different pitch than your normal voice.
The Best Way to Protect Your Chickens will Take Patience
Be patient. It may take several attempts for the training to work. With my first set of chickens, it took me about a week or 2 for them to understand. Now when we add new chickens to the flock, the others easily follow suit. They see the others head to me when I call, so they do too.
More Tips on How to Protect Free Range Chickens
If you have multiple coops and need to call chickens into their prospective coop, things may be a bit more complicated and I do not have experience with that. You can create a separate call word or sound needs to be created for each coop. We do start out with our newest flock separate from the older flock when we get any new birds. But, we do not free-range until they start to integrate, so I’ve never needed to call them in separately.
A short video of my hens coming in when they are called.
Do you have chickens? Are you ready to train them? I hope this tutorial has helped you.
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