It's just us chickens ..
Sep 01, 2016‘How long do we have to keep them in the coup before we can let them out?’ I asked the lady as she passed the last cardboard box to me with 2 chickens in it.
‘A few weeks should do it.’ She said. ‘They’ll come back to the coup when it starts getting dark anyway, but you don’t want them to wander off in the day.’
We’d never had chickens before, so this was a real adventure for the whole family! And as there are six of us, and we each chose one hen, we were driving off with 6 little hens.
We kept them in their coup for the first couple of weeks, as instructed, and let them wander around the garden. Our garden is around 2 acres, so they had plenty of space to run around and cause trouble.
We were all really surprised how interesting chickens are! They all developed their own little personalities and seeing them wander around the garden was great fun for the kids .. and for me and Sooze!
‘Are you coming to the chicken show tonight Dad?’ Amelie asked me one day.
‘What’s the chicken show?’ I said.
‘We’ve been training them to do tricks!’ she said very proudly.
‘Wow!’ I said, ‘show me how you train them.’
Amelie then spent a very frustrating half an hour trying to get the chickens to do what she wanted them to do by rewarding them with little treats.
While I was watching her I noticed just how short a chickens attention span is. If she was giving out the treats regularly, then she had their undivided attention. But if she let the gap between treats get too long, they would forget why they were interested in the first place and just wander off looking and pecking at the more interesting floor!
If she got the gap just right, she could get in as much training as possible, but still hold their attention.
And this is gonna sound a little strange at first, but I want you to stay with me .. your audience are a bunch of chickens!
If you don’t feed them regularly enough with little treats, do you know what they’ll do? They’ll wander off pecking the more interesting looking metaphorical floor!
But if you over do it with the treats, then you may have their attention, but you can’t train them.
So what’s the trick then? Well, the trick is to get the balance just right!
‘A few weeks should do it.’ She said. ‘They’ll come back to the coup when it starts getting dark anyway, but you don’t want them to wander off in the day.’
We’d never had chickens before, so this was a real adventure for the whole family! And as there are six of us, and we each chose one hen, we were driving off with 6 little hens.
We kept them in their coup for the first couple of weeks, as instructed, and let them wander around the garden. Our garden is around 2 acres, so they had plenty of space to run around and cause trouble.
We were all really surprised how interesting chickens are! They all developed their own little personalities and seeing them wander around the garden was great fun for the kids .. and for me and Sooze!
‘Are you coming to the chicken show tonight Dad?’ Amelie asked me one day.
‘What’s the chicken show?’ I said.
‘We’ve been training them to do tricks!’ she said very proudly.
‘Wow!’ I said, ‘show me how you train them.’
Amelie then spent a very frustrating half an hour trying to get the chickens to do what she wanted them to do by rewarding them with little treats.
While I was watching her I noticed just how short a chickens attention span is. If she was giving out the treats regularly, then she had their undivided attention. But if she let the gap between treats get too long, they would forget why they were interested in the first place and just wander off looking and pecking at the more interesting floor!
If she got the gap just right, she could get in as much training as possible, but still hold their attention.
And this is gonna sound a little strange at first, but I want you to stay with me .. your audience are a bunch of chickens!
If you don’t feed them regularly enough with little treats, do you know what they’ll do? They’ll wander off pecking the more interesting looking metaphorical floor!
But if you over do it with the treats, then you may have their attention, but you can’t train them.
So what’s the trick then? Well, the trick is to get the balance just right!
Until next time ..
Don't miss my new Speaking360º weekly newsletter!
Communicating is not just about words. We need to think about our body language, tone, and pacing. How we feel impacts the way we speak. Struggling to find the right content makes us ineffective. Great speakers know that becoming an exceptional speaker isn't just an art - it's a process with many essential elements.
Every Sunday evening Roddy sends out his Speaking360º newsletter, an action packed and inspirational article filled with tip + tricks you can start to use right away!
We hate SPAM. We will never sell your information, for any reason.
Author + Owner of SpeakerPro.com
