[needssomehelp]

how are you chickens when you hand feed them treats?   mine nip my hands and really hurt! the little s*ds gave me a black pinch this afternoon. i used to keep chooks many years ago, and i dont remember them being so blooming nippy.

[ehs284]

HoHo. It seems to vary. Our Welsummers are hard peckers, the Warrens sometimes miss the food and peck the fingers. Others vary, the bantams are so gentle you can't feel them taking the grain.

[ManicMum]

We have one who really pinches sometimes, one who hits quite hard without nipping - and one who has decided she doesn't do hand feeding.  And they're all ex-batts, just individuals.

[Lindeggs]

Mine are a bit rough but not enough to hurt.  Each one has her own little habits.  Pearl likes to scrape the grain out of my hand with her beak then pick it up off the ground.  Patience flicks her head from side to side and throws grain everywhere. 

Minnie-Rose is the worst.  She pecks my hand quite hard when I'm feeding them grain, and if I'm digging in the garden and don't find her anything she pecks the back of my hand!  I'm trying to break her of this habit but haven't succeeded so far.  I have even tried "pecking" her on the forhead with my fingertip, with limited success. 

Cheeky little things! 

[New shoot]

When Minnie-rose pecks the back of your hand Lindeggs, put you palm gently on her back and push her down.  It's a dominance thing cockerals do to hens and will let her know you are the boss 

[karenjayne]

my brown ranger yesterday managed to nip me on the corner of my lip.  painful.  but partly my fault for having my head down too close.  we had her six months, and usualy will take food fairly gently from me.

[bastonjock]

my RIR preferrs to eat out of my hand,i find that on her own she is quite gentle and so is the barndelver,but if its the "mob" all 11 of them i find that some of them pinch my hands too hard,when i feed the RIR the little silkie waits at the bottom for the spillage and scoffs at that but she is too timid to hand feed alone.

[8doubles]

Two of mine are gentle one has a grudge because i kept moving her out of the nestbox when she was broody.
She closes her eyes as she pecks and tries to twist a piece of finger off.
Good job i`m thickskinned.

[izzy]

I do exactly like new shoot Infact anything they've done aggressive to me in the beginning I did the same thing now thry think I'm top bird and life is good

[Lindeggs]

When Minnie-rose pecks the back of your hand Lindeggs, put you palm gently on her back and push her down.  It's a dominance thing cockerals do to hens and will let her know you are the boss 

Thanks for the tip, New shoot.  I will definitely do that next time.  At first, pecking her on the forehead worked (I saw one of the other chickens do it to her when Minnie-Rose stole a worm right out of her beak!)  But she seems to have become immune to that now.

I will let you know how the rooster-squish goes.

All mine are quite young pullets and not laying yet so they don't take kindly to me squishing and grabbing them, but like all rebellious teenagers I still have to keep them in line!