For the last few years, if you were to look upon our list of family dreams, you would see “have chickens in the backyard” right at the number one spot. The thought of beginning each day with fresh eggs right from our very own hens was something we knew we wanted to experience in reality. Slowly we have become more conscious of our choices when it comes to where we source our food as well as which practices are the most natural and sustainable. After doing research, reading many books, and admiring many families via social media, we began to see how simple it could be to make this dream come true for us. After planning for the design in our yard, and best of all, scoring a cheap coop on Facebook Marketplace, we set a date in early March of this year to buy our chicks.
Now, at the time, the coronavirus wasn’t something many in America had heard of yet, and it certainly hadn’t crossed the oceans to reach our shores, but looking back we see how perfect the timing of our new endeavor in urban farming was. (If you want to read a New York Times article about how America stress-bought all the baby chicks during the Coronavirus Quarantine, click here. It was unintentional, but we were sure ahead of the curve on that one!) It’s no secret now how many in our country, and arguably the world, are realizing the benefits of not having to rely on the larger system and its supply chains, because when those things come to a screeching halt, we panic. Once chickens are old enough to lay, having a daily food source right out your very own backdoor is worth its weight in gold, especially now.
Pandemic or not, we recognized the wisdom of beginning to become more self-sustainable, and chickens were going to be our first step. (Our goal is that next year you can check back with us on how our bees and flourishing garden are coming along!) What I did not realize, until it was happening before my eyes, were the many benefits of raising chicks on behalf of my children. We did not buy chicks for the benefit they would have on our boys, since we did not know of that possibility, but we have come to discover that along with self-sustainability, the prosperity opportunities for kids has become one of the top perks of these animals. I’ve compiled a list below, so as to convince you, if you weren’t already a believer in the backyard chicken movement (and have children), you will be after reading this list.
THE BENEFITS (FOR KIDS) OF RAISING CHICKS:
It Teaches Responsibility While Fostering Independence: As my boys are growing older, I am realizing that responsibility cannot come without independence. As much as I want to control the actions and environments of my kids, eventually that desire will fly in the face of my ultimate one, which is for them to grow into responsible humans. If I never give them opportunities to be independent, they will never learn to own a sense of true responsibility. Alas, these baby chicks have provided me with such an amazing opportunity to begin to foster responsibility within my young boys. The chicks need to be taken care of at the start of each day, and checked continually that they are safe and happy. My preschooler has fully embraced his “chicken chores” and even has favorite tasks! Gasp! A child who has a self-proclaimed favorite chore!?!? That right there gave the money back tenfold that it cost to raise these chicks. What an amazing thing that a child can learn to love working at a purposeful task at a young age. My youngest son, who is 18 months, even beams with pride and claps his hands together and exclaims “Yay!” when he grabs a chubby handful of bedding and places in the brooder box. At his tender age, even he recognizes that being able to help the family all on his own brings about feelings of honor and importance. It is evident that both boys are proud to be included in such an important thing as taking care of a living creature, especially since they are usually the ones being taken care of. Now they get to do that too! Pretend play, which is so rich for the development of kids, is happening in a real-life scenario. They feel the satisfaction of acting like “big boys” within the safety of the home. That pride grows even bigger when a task that they weren’t able to do by themselves at the beginning, is now something that can happen completely independently. For example, my oldest son loves that he can go in the garage and fill up the feed jar without anyone accompanying him. (If you have or have ever had a preschooler you know how adamant they can be to do it all by themselves and prove they are big). He now has his sights set on someday being able to not only fill the feed jar, but to also tip it upside down and land it into the dispenser without spilling. The kid has goals!
It Helps An Apprehensive Child Exercise Bravery: My oldest child is very cautious and calculating. He rarely ever readily tries something upon first encouragement. This is true all across the board, whether it’s a new food or a new experience, he needs time to decide for himself that he wants to dive in. This has caused some anxiety and fearfulness in him, which we have to address almost everyday. Gosh have I LOVE LOVE LOVED the growth in this area directly caused by these chicks. It was no surprise to me that, even though he was beyond excited to get the chicks, that when it actually came to having them he would be extremely apprehensive about touching them. Well, my brave boy went from exactly that to not only holding them all on his own, but playing with all of them gathered around him with a big smile on his face (see picture). He even has taken to burying his face into their bodies and giving hugs and loves. This might not seem like a big feat, but to a child that is prone to being apprehensive to the point of fear and anxiety, that is SUCH a big deal! What confidence it grew in him, and what an example it has been to us to be able to remind him how far he came with the chicks when he is facing a new anxiety. They say the definition of bravery is acting in spite of your fear, and my boy has been able to experience what that is like, and to find that there is joy and excitement on the other end of being brave! And oh, how children love to feel brave!
It Aids In Sensory Development: This category can be further subcategorized into sight, smell, hearing, taste, touch, and proprioception. Sight: chicks are great entertainment! They are never short on silly antics. My kids have loved sitting next to the brooder box for long stretches throughout the day watching the chicks eat, peck the floor, play with each other, try to fly, and tight rope walk on the edge of the box. Smell: our boys have encountered many new smells from this experience. The chick starter feed has a yeasty smell, the bedding has a wonderful cut wood smell, and of course the brooder will begin to smell poopy if in need of some tidying up. Hearing: oh this one has been fun! The sound of chicks chirping in your house all day long is just the absolute happiest. It has been especially welcome during this time of quarantine; it feels like the outdoors have a constant place in our home and we have a steady reminder to “sing praises to God” just like our chicks do. Taste: this sense has not been experienced yet, as it takes some months for chicks to develop into laying hens. However, we are very excited for our first taste of a deep-colored homegrown egg right from our own backyard! What a morning that will be! Touch/Proprioception: it’s no secret that baby chicks are some of the fuzziest, softest things you’ll get a chance to hold. When you have chicks, there will be no need for a texture experience baby book to feel the softness of a chick’s down, your kids will be able to cradle the real thing in their tiny hands! Perhaps more importantly, your children will begin to learn what force they need to exert while holding the birds, as they need to make sure they don’t jump out of your hand, but at the same time not holding too hard in a way that hurts. This awareness of the movements of one’s body is called proprioception. What a great lesson and requires the child to really get in touch with knowing what their body is doing and how it’s affecting something else. This skill will continue to change as the birds grow in size and strength; the child will need to also grow and change in order to continue holding the chicken in a sturdy yet safe way. Furthermore, while gradually “hardening off” our chicks outside during warm days, our boys have had to be very aware and careful not to step on the chicks that are moving about freely under their feet- an ultimate proprioception exercise!
It Advances Vocabulary & Sight Word Skill: My preschooler knows words like “perch”, “brooder”, and “wattle”, and uses them frequently and appropriately while talking about the chicks. He would not have known these words otherwise. While naming the chicks, we had to let some time elapse while we got to know their little personalities or identified unique markings. Once we did, my preschooler needed to recall the words that would describe the particular thing we wanted to name. What a great real-life language exercise, and it even crossed cultures! We have been learning Spanish words lately and so we were able to name one of our Plymouth Rocks “blanca” because of her distinct white markings on her face. Lastly, before we bought our chicks, we sat down and made a list of “chicken chores” that we needed to do everyday. A simple list with two words for each task has allowed my preschooler to sight-read words like “check”, “chicks”, “water”, “food”, “bedding”, and “lamp”. Because he is able to read the chore list all by himself, he can stay on task with what needs to happen next (which he loves being able to tell mama what to do, ha!)
It Is A Real-Time, Real-Life Demonstration Of Growth & Change: Wow have these chicks grown fast! It has been so special to be able to wake up and walk to the brooder box and see the differences in the birds’ appearance and behaviors from day to day. My oldest will exclaim things like “Mom, look! Tweet is growing more real feathers!” Or, “Awww mom look, Little Red and Sassafrass are cuddling together.” The development of the chicks have allowed for some great parallel conversations and teaching points to show my boys that some things we aren’t able to do right now, are things we will learn to do as time goes by and we get older and learn more things! The teaching moments with these chicks have not exhausted themselves yet.
Encourages Attention To Detail: This is an extension of point #5 above. As the birds grow and change, each little detail is noticed and admired in the moment. What careful observation it takes for a young child to notice when an ever so tiny real feather begins to peek out of a chick’s fuzzy bum, where there wasn’t any evidence of that the day before. Watching and observing the change in these birds is fostering a scientific mindset. This attention to detail isn’t reserved for sight only. It has been amazing to watch both my boys stop immediately what they are doing and look at the brooder box when noticing a distinct change in the noises that were coming from the chicks. It’s easy to become de-sensitized to what becomes normal noise in our environment, and these chicks have exercised our attention to “noise details” throughout the day.
As you can see, there are many benefits to raising chicks when it comes to your kids. As our chicks grow into adult hens, I can anticipate the rich lessons that will be learned such as, knowing where your food comes from, how to daily take care of something to maintain health and vitality, as well as possibly going through tough experiences like the injury or death of a bird. What rich education right in our own backyard!
With the worldwide Pandemic still in continuance, many have become attuned to the idea of re-incorporating practices into our daily lives that allow us to be more self-sustainable. Many of us living have never experienced before the consequences of what we are dealing with. Raising chicks is a very practical and beginner-friendly way to begin to teach your children self-sustainability and the skills that previous generations knew, but have become lost to many of us today.