Chickens
are an amazing addition to our family, but they have brought a host of other
learning opportunities for our children aside from learning how chickens live.
The concept of predators is one of those examples, and one that is visually
available for the children quite frequently.
When we
first got chickens, I worried mostly about the neighborhood cats preying on
them. That fear was quickly put to rest when my chickens matured and started
charging at cats when they got near, effectively scaring the cats off. We still
have to watch out for hawks, however, and I have run outside to scare off a
hawk that was on its third swoop down, and just feet off the ground.
This has
been a very real experience for the children. They understand that lions, for
example, eat other animals. Just hearing about it on a show or reading about it
in a book is very different than trying to protect your own animal from
becoming another animal’s dinner. They have started asking questions about all
sorts of animals to see what might be a danger to our hens and what might not.
Living in
the city limits, however, comes with more of these learning opportunities than
anticipated. We had someone come up to our door a few days back to let us know
his dog got loose, chased a cat, saw our chickens and went for one of them
instead. There were feathers everywhere, but I saw no blood. He said the
chicken walked away, so he thinks she might be okay, but I had to explain to
the children what happened.
The hen
only had minor puncture wounds (and quite a few feather-bare spots). It really
could have been so much worse. Thankfully the owner was actively chasing the
dog before the dog got to our chickens. From the looks of it, he probably
grabbed the dog as soon as the dog successfully grabbed our chicken, forcing
the dog to release her. The result was puncture wounds exactly at the teeth,
but no tears along the skin.
At the time of this writing, our hen was back outside with the rest of our flock, and not at all intimidated by her
experience… which she had proven by instantly flying out of her safe area
(fenced in, but not covered) as soon as she was put back outside.
TO BE CONTINUED
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