best breed for very young children

[moduckman]

You might want to start small. Try a couple of bantam hens. I highly recommend either Quail Belgian Bearded d'Anvers or one of the Modern bantam breeds. they are small, friendly and very, very social.

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

YES: silkies, brahmas (either standard or bantam), marans (by repute, not experience)

NO: d'uccle, RIR, plymouth rocks, gamefowl

 

[CANDLE98]

I have a 4 year old and a 1 1/2 year old and we just got RIR's and EE and 2 silkies. So far my EE's LOVE my girls. I don't know if this is just a chick thing, cuz they are only a week and a half old, but they will let both of my girls hold them and they will just sit down in their hands. My silkies are the ones that always want to fly away. We play with the chicks a couple of times a day and they all get some lovin's. We also got 10 barred rock roosters as packing peanuts, so I let my 1 1/2 year old play with them pretty hard. We are going to eat them, but so far no injuries.

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

The BR girls are usually fine, and so is the occasional BR roo, but as a breed the roos have a bad reputation.

 

[NYREDS]

I always recommend Modern Game Bantams for children to start with. They're very small & easy to handle. They're calm & most are natural pets-they just walk into your hand. I've never seen a flighty or mean one.

 

[wjallen05]

one(or 11)

Thank you SO much bargain for posting a picture of your run... that is EXACTLY what I have been wanting but couldn't figure it out in my head! It's perfect, thanks!

Anyway, I have heard Cochins are great with kids but I've never had any. We have 2 grown Silkies now who are super sweet, though the hen is sort of anti-social because we got her at 1 1/2 and she had never been touched. Our rooster though is SOOO sweet and we just love him. My daughter holds him all the time. We also have a Old English Bantam hen who is so sweet, tame, and friendly. She LOVES being held. My Buff Orpington hens are very friendly, but they are big(ger).​

 

[CountryMom]

I only see one posting on the EE's being good. Ours are great with children. I had an older child out here absolutely terrified of the chickens. A couple of our little EE's decided to make her their friend. It took over a week, but she ended up actually carrying around one of the EE hens. And when she put her down that EE would follow her.

I also second the Silkies. My kids basically run our little mini herd of silkies. Welsummers are gentle and Speckled Sussex.

 

[dutchhollow]

I will second the speckled sussex, mine are sweet and gentle. Every morning at feeding time they come up and get petted and eat out of our hands.

 

[fowlafoot]

Quote:
From years of experience:

My 4 year old with his Thai, not all gamefowl will be good with children but our larger oriental gamefowl do extremely well since they are large enough to handle the "hugs", not easy to startle, and are naturally outgoing, friendly and curious...

 

[NEK38583]

I agree silkies and cochins are great for kids. My grandmother started me out with cochins when I was little and I have still got cochins today. I have silkies they are big pets they are great to.