Hand-Fed Chickens

For a week now, the kids and I have been hand-feeding the chicks once a day. We think this will also help make them more tame when they are full-size chickens. Some may think we are silly for bothering with holding them, petting and hand-feeding them, but these chicks will be more than just egg-layers for our family. We want to enjoy them as pets and are making plans to show them for 4-H, too. So being used to handling will go along way in meeting those goals. Plus we just love our chickens!

The trio below can always be counted upon to walk up to the hand first. My favorite chicken, because her eyes and coloring are just so pretty, is the Ameracauna (on the left)The chick in the middle, is a Speckled Sussex, and the chick to the right is our most tame chick and a Rhode Island Red hen. She will allow us to stroke her feathers and beak and pick her up, without running away.
These are both Rhode Island Reds. We ordered two hens, but I think the chick on the left is going to be a rooster. They are both very tame and friendly.
There's our silly Rhode Island Red hen. She is always so curious and comes looking for us when we call out 'chickies, chickies!'. The chicks in the background are mostly Barred Rocks and Silver Laced Wyandottes. They are all a little more cautious and skittish. The barred rocks rarely feed from our hands. The chick feeding from my hand at the far left appears to be one of Speckled Sussex.And little chick peeking behind all the barred rocks and silver laced wyandottes is that chick who had gotten injured by flying out of the mini-coop and landing hard on the concrete. She's doing better every day and catching up in her growth. But she gets tired easily and avoids us humans for now.
Jeremiah holding one of the silver laced wyandottes. Haven't these chicks gotten huge in just 3 weeks?!
Here are two of the silver laced wyandottes with a barred rock chick at the bottom of the picture.
I placed a piece of wood in their mini-coop last week, so they would get used to perching at night. This barred rock and danish brown leghorn seem to enjoy their perch.