My Grandpa showed us how to hypnotise them! It was great!
Grab your chicken and force it to lie on its belly with your hand holding its neck and pushing its head to the dirt so its looking forward (if it was standing it would look like it looking up) then take your finger in front of its eyes about three inches away and wave it back and forth (this is the hypnotising part) after about 30 back n forths...drag your finger in a straight line away from its beak. Gently release the bird with out disturbing it focus on the line you just drew - viola'! It will stay there staring at the line until it starves!
You can use the lines on a sidewalk too!! We use to catch Grandma's chickens and have them all lined up in formation on her sidewalk - she'd come out hollering and beating them off her sidewalk with a broom!
http://www.envisageyourself.com/Experimintal/animal_hypnosis.asphttp://www.almanac.com/preview2000/hypnotize.htmlI taught my young kids this and they loved it to the point they would ask me if they could clean the chicken coop. They'd have chickens "planted" all over the yard while they cleaned the coop.
Enjoy!
John
"Chicken Copperfield"