Chicken Hypnosis?

[SillyChick]

Hello

I just found this topic on Wikipedia about chicken hypnosis...... It involves putting the chicken's head to the ground, then drawing a line on the soil using a stick or finger, from the chicken's beak, forward, then back to the beak again and do repeatedly, then the chicken will just lie there on the ground, looking at the line, for 15 seconds to 30 minutes. It is used by farmers when they're going to slaughter them, or by zookeepers when they are trying to feed the animals chicken but the chickens run too fast for them. Quite strange, so I decided to try it out on my young RIR hen Laura. I was trying to get her to lie on the ground but she keeps on struggling and screaming and I just don't have the heart to hurt her(she and my roo are one of my best friends!) so I let her go. Has anyone tried this? It sounds rather fun, but is it bad? Here's the link:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicken_hypnosis

Well......many people don't trust Wikipedia because anyone can edit it, but still.....

Thanks in advance!

 

[Scrambled Egg]

I would never hurt a defenseless animal like that....my children on the other hand.......lol!!!

 

[Zylphrix]

from what I have seen it doesnt hurt them ... I sometimes try it out as a kind of "time out" technique ... i dont think its working lol!

Mark

 

[Oblio13]

We amused ourselves as kids by putting a chicken's head under it's wing, then moving it in circles. When you set it down, it will just stay that way for thirty seconds or so.

 

[BJ]

My boys will pick them up and flip them over quickly (cradled in their arms) and start stroking the chicken's stomach. The chicken will relax and go into a trance. Then, they would place the chicken (on its back) on the picnic table and it will lie there for 15 seconds or so. Once it "snaps out of it" it will just pop up like nothing ever happened!! The neighbors always got such a kick out of this and the chicken is totally unharmed.

 

[Rte.66_chicks]

I remember doing it as a kid-got a big kick out of it. My brother and I would team up-one holding the chicken, the other drawing the line. As I recall, it worked most of the time.

 

[stilwellchick]

Yes it does work, you can see how it is done on YouTube.com. I can do it but the other hens will try to peck the hypnosized one, they think it is dead! I wouldn't do it if the bird was screaming and carrying on about it, why do something that is that upsetting to them?

 

[Chickaroo!]

I found out about this from my vet. She actually showed me how to do it when I took my hen, Lovebug, to see her. Lovebug didn't agree with being still either, so it didn't work on her. My vet also said that you can put a chicken to sleep by tucking it's head under it's wing. I have tried that, again, with Lovebug and she did cozy up to me and stayed very still for only a couple of seconds.

 

[Charlie Chicken]

Chickens can be immobilized by using all the various so called hypnotizing methods. Most if the methods are just hokus pokus for show effect. Any method of getting the bird to lay on its back and relax will do.

Its not necessarily a fun thing to teach kids though because if the chicken is left lying on its back for a long enough period of time they may not snap out of it on their own and can die right there where they lay.

This is not a "I have heard" or "I read somewhere" situation. I have personally seen this happen.

 

[Farmall230]

Yes, it's easy to hypnotize a chicken, but some are a lot easier than others. This video is of my sister and I hypnotizing a barred rock rooster, we'd been messing with our banty roos but Bigfoot was a lot easier to hynotize. We've also been tried laying a chicken on their back and holding them still but the line trick is a lot simpler.