Guest post
Raising chickens is a fun and enriching way for children to learn about the animals on the family property. It’s a hands-on activity that’s rewarding, productive, and fulfilling for your kids.
If you have taught your kids the process of tending chickens, you can have peace of mind knowing that your chickens are happy and healthy without requiring constant surveillance.
There are several physical and mental benefits of teaching kids to take care of chickens. From the tangible benefits of working on a productive farm to the values that chicken-rearing can potentially instil, these benefits can serve both the family and the kids as they live in harmony with their flock.
So if you’re curious to know about the benefits of giving your child the avenue to care for their chickens, then you’re in the right place. This article will break down ten things that your children can learn when raising chickens.
Let’s jump straight into it!
Having a routine
One thing that kids can learn from raising chickens at home is developing a routine. Chickens are domesticated animals, and they need to be fed, given water, and cleaned up after daily. This is to ensure their health, well-being, and productivity when laying eggs for the family.
Developing a routine is a crucial part of a kid’s development, as it teaches them the value of sticking with a schedule and reorganising tasks to accommodate must-do activities. It also gives them a sense of discipline, which is something that they can carry for the rest of their lives.
A routine can be set up and customised according to your child’s abilities to carry them out. You can start small for younger kids, like refilling water containers and collecting eggs. These tasks are fairly easy and appropriate for children of any age.
Then, once they get the hang of things, you can give them bigger responsibilities like cleaning one of the wide variety of backyard chicken coops or observing any behavioural changes in chickens that may warrant attention. Having them do this on set times a day also helps give them a role around the house, which is an important life skill to develop.
Learning about responsibility
Taking care of chickens teaches kids a key lesson about responsibility and consequences. Before children are given specific tasks around the coop, it’s important to instruct them on what to do and also inform them of the consequences of not doing them.
Children need to be aware of the consequences of their actions (or, in this case, inaction). Missing a feeding schedule or failing to clean the coop adequately can result in a bigger mess on the next go-around. In worst-case scenarios, the flock could get sick, or some chickens could start passing away or adopting harmful behaviours.
By taking ownership of a role, you’re teaching your kid to become independent and capable of handling various chores around the house and yard.
In this specific case, teaching your child about responsible chicken-keeping helps make them capable farmhands. This skill is something they can carry with them throughout the course of their lives, expounding their knowledge and opening the door for opportunities in turn.
Over time, they can solve these problems on their own and become dependable in their specific task. This trait can be carried over in other areas of their lives—like school and, eventually, work.
Developing care and empathy towards animals
Kids can develop empathy and compassion by learning how to care for chickens and respond to their needs. Chickens are living creatures, and they deserve to be treated with respect and dignity.
It’s not easy to teach kids empathy for animals if they’re not constantly exposed to them. They may end up neglecting them or playing roughly with them, which can be stressful for the flock. That is why it’s crucial to teach this value as soon as you possibly can.
For starters, allowing your child to regularly interact with your flock can help them understand each chicken’s behaviours, preferences, and limits. Each bird has their own personality, and your kid can quickly pick them apart once they spend a long enough time with them.
Over time, your kid may be able to bond with these animals and develop a sense of empathy when taking care of them. This helps them become more kind, caring, and gentle individuals toward animals and other people. Naturally, this can make them more pleasant human beings to be around later in life.
Understand food sources
Caring for chickens helps children gain a clearer understanding of where food comes from and how it is produced. Chickens lay eggs fairly regularly, and chickens also have meat that can be used as a food source.
Kids would benefit greatly from seeing the chicken-rearing process firsthand because they can be first-hand witnesses of where the food in their fridge comes from. They can see how chickens lay their eggs, the frequency of it, and the conditions in which they lay them.
They can also see the cycle in which a chicken grows, and the decision of when they’ll be used to nourish the family. This firsthand experience helps them understand and appreciate the fact that food does not simply appear on the table, but is a result of effort and responsibility.
Through this process, children can develop a deeper appreciation for the scarcity of food and the nutritional value it provides. Learning where food comes from helps discourage them from wasting what’s on their plate. This helps your child foster a more grounded relationship with food, as it frames food as a conscious effort from one’s labour.
When kids are accustomed to respecting the food on the table, they’re on track to getting the right nutritional needs to grow healthy and develop well. They’ll also hold an appreciation for the workers who help put food on the plate, backed by the first-hand knowledge of how much work that entails. This can make them more appreciative of things in life, which can be a valuable life lesson.
Figure out structure maintenance
Through chicken rearing, children can learn how animal homes like coops and chicken runs are built, maintained, and kept safe.
It’s important to note that a chicken coop is not just an ordinary shed; it’s a working structure that needs proper care and maintenance to ensure that the chicken-laying operations keep running.
Involving kids with coop activities helps sharpen their handiwork. They can learn how certain mechanisms improve the quality of life of the chicken, like roosting bars and egg baskets. They can also become more observant and find out potential problem areas like mould and bacteria growth, and address them accordingly.
Over time, your kid can become responsible for maintaining the upkeep of these structures, like replacing fences or clearing out used straw. This is also a good opportunity for them to learn how to clean and replace various parts of the structure, like cleaning the retractable droppings pad and wiping down the floors and walls.
In doing so, they can carry valuable hygiene and construction skills and understand how the coop supports the flock, which in turn can make for a better quality of life for the chickens.
Delayed gratification
Another useful concept that kids can learn by caring for chickens is delayed gratification. Raising a chicken is hard work—no question about that. From ensuring that they’re fed every day to watching over their health, there are a lot of things to consider when raising chickens the right way.
Sometimes, it can feel like an endless chore watching over the chickens and ensuring that they’re treated well. This is especially true if your family raised the chickens from when they were inside the egg to maturity.
Caring for chickens teaches kids that meaningful rewards don’t come instantly. Eggs don’t appear overnight. Healthy, productive chickens are the result of consistent care over time. Through this process, your child will learn how to be patient and resilient, even if their efforts don’t bear fruit just yet.
That said, the process can be highly rewarding, and involving your child in it allows them to experience a genuine sense of achievement from contributing to something meaningful.
How to gently handle chickens
Having chickens gives children the opportunity to practise gentle, respectful handling when interacting with animals. Chickens are finicky creatures, and they can easily get stressed or frightened when picked up improperly.
During tense moments, they could end up injuring your kid by scratching with their claws or pecking them with their beak. As such, it’s important to approach the act of teaching your kid about chicken handling with patience and utmost care. You want your kid to be ready to handle chickens on their own, but you also want to exercise safety.
Initially, you can teach them the fundamentals of chicken handling. When lifting a chicken, support its body with both hands, gently holding the wings against its sides to prevent flapping. Avoid grabbing by the wings, legs, or tail, as this can cause discomfort or harm. Keep the chicken close to your body and return it to the ground if it’s showing signs of stress.
By practising these habits, your child can delegate chicken-keeping tasks to your child with confidence. They might even enjoy the activity, all while getting accustomed to this niche but useful practice.
Basic maths
Caring for chickens can also help kids develop basic maths skills. Everyday tasks around the coop naturally involve maths in one way or another. Collecting eggs naturally involves counting them. You may also assign a monetary value per egg or chicken in the land. You may also want to perform a head count to ensure that every chicken is accounted for.
For younger kids, they can tally eggs and count chickens as a basic way of using their math learning in a real-life setting. Furthermore, feeding chicken also involves measuring the amount you’re supposed to add to their feeding area.
There are various applications of arithmetic that kids can find when it comes to raising chickens. Some of these concepts are more complex (and even fun) than others, but in any case, these activities help reinforce your child’s ability to apply various maths concepts in a real-life setting.
Mindful observation
Spending time with chickens also encourages children to observe behaviour patterns and become more attentive to their surroundings.
There’s a difference between being physically present and mentally present. When it comes to caring for chickens, it’s essential to be fully concentrated on the task to ensure that the chickens are truly as healthy as they can be.
Being a good observer entails a few key qualities. One of them is by being receptive to differences in the flock’s baseline behaviours. Another is being attentive to subtle changes, such as shifts in eating habits, movement, or social interaction within the flock.
By learning normal chicken behaviour, kids can more easily recognise when something is off and take action early. This practice encourages patience, focus, and awareness, making them more likely to pay attention to the chickens and their behaviours.
Of course, practising this on chickens also sharpens their observation skills outside the context of chicken keeping. This makes them more attentive in everyday life, helping them become better decision makers in turn.
Life and death
And lastly, one more important concept that kids can take away from raising chickens is the finiteness of life. Chickens have a much shorter lifespan than humans, and your child will likely grow up with chickens and form attachments with some members of the flock, if not all of them.
But eventually, a chicken may pass due to illness, old age, or natural circumstances. It’s important for kids to grow up with these concepts and for parents to gently teach them about how this is a normal cycle of life.
Having an honest talk about life and death with your kid helps them become more reflective and empathic about their lives and others. These discussions encourage your child to become emotionally aware and compassionate, which can translate to them becoming better keepers for the flock. It will also help them learn how to express grief in healthy ways as they grow and encounter more instances of death in their own lives.
Additional tips on chicken keeping in non-rural areas
If you live in an urban area of New Zealand, keeping chickens may be a difficult endeavour if outdoor space is limited. On top of that, you’ll also have to abide by local regulations to ensure public safety and animal welfare.
But we have some good news: keeping chickens is possible within urban settings, but it would definitely need some targeted preparation beforehand. Here are some key considerations you should make before considering caring for chickens at your residence:
- Chicken ownership limitations: Generally, you’re permitted between 6 to 12 hens in residential areas without the need for permission. The number varies from council to council, so check with your local authority. Rooster ownership is usually not permitted due to noise.
- Coop placement requirements: Councils have restrictions on where the coop can be placed, often needing to be at least two meters away from property boundaries, and further from the front boundary. Check with your council. The coop may also need to be soundproofed.
- Space requirements: Local guidelines may recommend at least 1 square meter of chicken coop space for every chicken to prevent overcrowding.
- Health guidelines: The chickens should have access to clean water and food at all times. Floors and walls must also be built with easy-to-clean materials.
- Further regulations: If you plan to own more than the permitted number of chickens, then you’ll have to register them with your local council.
Be sure to check with your local council for the specific regulations that will apply to keeping chickens to ensure that you’re properly abiding by the laws in your community.
We hope that we’ve given you enough insights into what kids can take away from caring for chickens. All the best in teaching your kids valuable life lessons!
Written by Julie Lankow
