Kids learn about the adventures of raising farm animals.
Back in the spring, my husband and I decided to forge ahead with a long-thought-about plan to start raising chickens. Recently, our beloved chickens provided us with yet another life lesson to teach our children, after their coop was attacked by a bear.
We live in a town with lots of bear sightings. People never see our town on the news with a “bear report” because people here are not alarmed when they see a bear. In fact, we live in one of those towns where the environmental police will “relocate” bears found in other communities.
Still, it’s not as if we see bears every day. The children still get excited when we see them. My husband and I haven’t been so excited on the handful of occasions when we forgot to secure the trash can, and we had to pick up trash strewn across the back yard.
We have taught the children, ages 10 and 8, to admire these animals from a distance. We’ve told them they won’t bother you if you don’t bother them. We were, however, able to show them how strong bears are, when a bear bent a heavy-duty metal hook I had used to hang birdseed outside. (Yes, I know birdseed shouldn’t be left out in areas bears frequent.)
The chicks we bought around Easter time have been outside since the late spring, after we converted an old shed on our property into a chicken coop. The entire summer – the time we’re most likely to see bears around our house – passed without incident. We didn’t have any problems until late November, when my husband went outside and saw the chicken coop’s doors wide open, one having been ripped clear off the structure, and chickens all over the yard.
Trying – largely unsuccessfully – to remain calm, I told the kids what was going on and asked them to help in any way they could. They put up the dog gates so the dogs could not get outside while we rounded up the chickens in the dark, unsure whether the bear was 10 feet away because of the pitch black night. I asked them to find the strongest flashlights they could find. And I asked them to hold out hope for the chickens, who we love like our other pets.
When my husband and I decided the chickens needed to stay in the garage temporarily until we could repair their coop, we realized that we were missing one of our nine chickens. When we secured the chickens in the garage with their food, water and a heat lamp, the kids watched from the window while I unsuccessfully scoured our property –woods and all – for that missing chicken. My daughter prayed the missing chicken was not “Skippy” – her chicken, she says. Only the children can tell the chickens apart – they look identical to everyone else.
It turns out, Skippy wasn’t the bear’s victim, but one of the others was. Several days later, we found a trail of feathers far away from the coop. We told the kids that chicken was a hero. She apparently ran away until the bear finally caught up to her, allowing the others to survive. The kids were sad, but soon asked when we can get more chickens.
I don’t know if we’re ready for that. But we’ll be sure to get the whole family involved come springtime when we plan to do a better job of bear-proofing the coop.
Kate Roy can be reached at kate_roy@live.com.