3 Kid-Friendly Chicken Breeds
These kid-friendly chicken breeds can offer plenty of fun interaction and learning opportunities for your kids…
Raising your own chickens can be a fun and rewarding homestead activity, and it’s even more rewarding when your kids can participate and learn about animal welfare and how to take responsibility for the care of other living creatures. Older kids can help with changing chicken bedding or cleaning the coop, regular feeding, watering, and other chores. Even small children can help collect eggs, fill water pans, and collect herbs, edible flowers, or kitchen scraps for the chickens to enjoy.
While most chickens can be relatively friendly and sociable when properly cared for, some chicken breeds have calmer temperaments, and may tolerate being held, petted, and picked up better than others. If you have kids and want them to take an active role in caring for your chickens on the homestead, you may want to consider keeping some of the more kid-friendly chicken breeds.
Keep in mind that mature roosters of most breeds can be temperamental and sometimes aggressive, so you may want to limit or avoid having roosters in your flock if your children will be interacting with the chickens regularly.
Regardless of which breed you choose, handling the chickens early and often so they get used to human contact from a young age is the best way to raise chickens that are calm and easy to handle both for children and adults.
However, here are 3 of the most kid-friendly chicken breeds:
Lavender Orpingtons
Buff Orpingtons are always on these kid-friendly lists, so I thought I would suggest a slightly different choice. The cousin to the ever-popular Buff Orpington, Lavender Orpingtons are gorgeous, light lavender birds.
They are on the large side, but not so large as to be intimidating to kids because of their sweet docile nature.
Lavender Orpingtons lay brown eggs. They are good layers and make good moms to baby chicks. They are both cold hardy and heat tolerant.
Australorps
A cousin to both the Buff and Lavender Orpington is the Australorp. The name Australorp comes from blending the words “Australian” and “Orpington”. Australorps were bred in Australia from Black Orpingtons and are the Australian version of the Buff Orpington.
Very similar in size and temperament to Lavender Orpingtons, Australorps are solid black. Their feathers will shine with a purplish green sheen in the sunlight.
Australorps lay pale tan eggs also are great layers and moms. As far as raising chickens as pets goes, Australorps are also a notoriously calm and friendly breed.
Faverolles
French faverolles are one of the most adorable chicken breeds. They come in one of two colors – white or salmon. They have feathered feet and cheek muffs, making them some of the cutest, puffy little chickens you’ll ever see.
They can be talkative, but they are quiet and docile for the most part.
In fact, faverolle chickens are so docile, they will usually be at the bottom of the pecking order. Their gentle nature makes them a perfect fit for a family flock though. Faverolles lay pale cream-colored eggs.
Read more about kid-friendly chicken breeds at FreshEggsDaily.com…
