If she could talk the stories would be LEGENDARY!!

Kids and Chickens..
Last time in this series we talked about how children seem to be able to form closer bonds with animals then adults. This is another example of the bond our kids have formed with the animals and how they did it.
The picture is my son holding our oldest hen on his arm.
This hen (big girl is what we call her) actually lived on the back porch with the dog for several weeks while she was healing from a nasty rooster attack. That rooster is no longer with us....
Big girl is one of our original flock of six hens.

Big girl was raised from a chick a couple of days old in our house under a heat lamp with her six "sisters" in the city before we moved to the homestead.
The kids would take them out of the box and play with them every day. Letting the chicks sit on their shoulders or run around the house. They were always holding and playing with them it seemed.
After we moved to our homestead we purchased a small cheap coop and the had their own large fenced area to run and eat in. They would run to the fence whenever the kids came out of the house. The kids could walk in the pen and pick any of them up at will and pet them or do whatever, The chickens didn't really care.

That was almost four years ago and since then Big girl as seen her share of raccoons, opossums and hawks.
and survived it all. In fact she is the last survivor of the original six baby chicks we started with.
If she could talk the horror stories would be legendary.
We now have twelve chickens. Eleven hens and one nice rooster. I also built a critter proof coop so they all sleep much better now. Out of our flock of twelve we now have, Big girl is the only one the kids can walk up to and pick up at will.
All the others will run away or stay several feet away. The newer chicks didn't get the attention that the first six birds did, and it shows immensely.
The reality is and as ODD as it my seem its the same with people; whether its friends,family or even your kids,
NOTHING can replace the time you shared or the time you didn't share with them...
Only time can form strong bonds.

I have a post about the chicken coop build coming up please keep an eye out for it.
Thanks,