You read that title right: babes and ‘bawk bawks’. I’m well aware that’s not what a chicken is called, but you celebrate every little win your kid has when language develops!
If you’ve read my bio, you’ll know that we packed up and moved our 4-month-old daughter and several young pullets across the state. Well, here we are, almost a year later with a now 14-month-old and grown hens living their best lives.
The weather was finally nice enough to do some yard work today; that, of course, involved the entire family going out. Tennis shoes, coats, a vest, long sleeve shirt, long pants under the shorts… the list goes on and on. Toddlers take a lot to get dressed and when it’s supposed to only be 30 degrees, you don’t take chances.
We’ve been spending a lot of time inside due to the windchill and the threats of snow, much to Angela’s (my daughter’s) chagrin. She wants out. We recently got baby chicks and the morning routine tends to be coaxing her back to the table to have breakfast before we go visiting, to which we then sit and watch the tiny chicks peck around as Angela happily states “bawk bawk! Bawk bawk!” Today, being warm enough and sunny enough, meant the chicken coop with our older hens could get cleaned while Angela got to interact with them.
Something to know about me is that I love unconventional birds. Brahmas, the ones that weigh up to 20 pounds if they aren’t stunted, and Cochins (just as big if not bigger) are two of my favorite breeds. They don’t lay much, but they have an abundant amount of patience when it comes to small children. Other breeds such as Americanas who lay the colorful eggs and Silkies, whom I fondly refer to as dust mops with extra toes, do just as well and provide far more eggs while carefully avoiding reaching fingers. As we found out with Angela today, the Brahmas are far more likely to tolerate an imposter in the chicken yard.
Now, not all chickens will tolerate the intruder going through their food. I’ve had enough mean chickens to say some don’t enjoy children, but for people looking at chickens who don’t mind little hands touching their feed or their beaks (or heaven forbid their stomachs if they’re being held), I’ve had great luck with a select handful.
As mentioned before, Cochins and Brahmas are large birds who are rather maternal; if you need a brood hen to take care of some chicks for you, these are the birds for the job. Silkies fall into the category of ‘mother hen’ and will often fall into the maternal instinct to protect their eggs, but when it comes to small children, they are rather tolerable and don’t mind too much. They’re all rather docile birds, which is one of my main focuses having a kid running around with them.
Layer hens tend to often be flighty, which is a trade for heavy laying. Americanas, I’ve found, tend to be far more easygoing than most layer breeds, have fun fluffy faces, and lay the ‘Easter eggs’ that people tend to crave. Others, such as the leghorns, will lay tons of eggs and attempt to avoid anyone’s hands, yours or otherwise.
