Chicken Pecking

[EcclesCake]

One of my chickens has started pecking me, something I wish to stop as it hurts!

Some of the advice is to flick her on the beak or to tap her on the head to show her that I am at the top of the pecking order and she needs to toe the line.

I've been mulling over some alternative therapies though and was wondering if I should get a chicken whisperer in and try a little NLP. I also wondered if a spot of aversion therapy would help, pinning up pictures of chicken pie, chicken casserole, KFC bucket in the run.

What do you think?

[ethandron]

A packet of Paxo left lying round might give her an incentive.
Can't remember where I saw it but it was a photo of a chicken in a pair of chicken shaped wellies..who knew you could get wellies for chickens? And even more surprising, 'diaper harnesses' (obviously a US site). Do your chickies wear nappies Eccles?

[EcclesCake]

No diapers, they do have a pooper scooper though - me!

I quite fancy getting a walking harness, I could go out for walks with my neighbour and her dog......could get interesting.

I wonder if chicken walkers are as sociable as dog walkers or would I find myself being offered a new white jacket with lots of straps?

[DTCwordfan]

put her in the pot.....bottle of red wine, a few mush, some garlic, seasoning and you are well away, problem cured.

[ethandron]

That would be rather cool, taking your chicken for a walk. It could wear its wellies..

[DTCwordfan]

I like chicken feet when eating a dim sum.....rubber of the wellies though - no thank you, though the Chinese do like to eat the o-rings of turtles and they seem very similar....

[EcclesCake]

If she goes in the pot I'll save you her feet DTC, would you like her comb too?

[DTCwordfan]

I've eaten them, sautéed in garlic, in France, Eccles, prefer the feet, I think.

[ethandron]

The chicken feet I had in Bejing looked like they had verrucas.

[DTCwordfan]

they may well have done!

[EcclesCake]

It's quite handy being able to use the claws as a toothpick.

Although the verruca comment has put me off, maybe I'll have ravioli tonight instead :-(

[DTCwordfan]

homemade, Eccles?

[AlwaysConfused]

Have a look out for the next Chicken Welfare and Behaviour course coming up. It's a free 5 or 6 week online learning course(videos, reading material, short quizzes etc) The University of Edinburgh feature it through coursera.org along with many others short, interesting courses. I learnt much about aggression, pecking and dominance behaviour between birds.

Before that, I would have suggested pecking it back, or stuffing it with sage and onion and roasting at 180

[retrocop]

Chicken Pecking with Egg Flied Lice and sprare libs prease.

[EcclesCake]

Thank you AC, that sounds really interesting, I'll certainly look into it.

In the meantime I'll stick to the flicking/tapping approach as it is mimicking chicken behaviour.

I couldn't cook her, she cost too much ;-)

[stuey]

If it happens to be raining when you take your chicken for a walk, make sure that it has a capon.

[EcclesCake]

Groan.....